[Techtalk] Soldering irons (OT?)

[EevaJärvinen]

On Sun, Jan 11, 2004 at 10:54:26PM +1100, Rasjid Wilcox wrote:
> Ever since my early teens I wanted a soldering iron.  But neither my 
> grandmother (who I grew up with) nor my mother and step-father were really 
> into such things, and so I never had one.

Ooh!  Well, my father bought me one; I still have it!

> I've been to Dick Smith's electronics, and my question is:
> Do I get a 25 watt soldering iron, or a 40 watt?  Particularly with things 
> like linking the jumpers required to flash the bios on a Xbox, it is not 
> clear to me that 'bigger is better'.  Or do I get both?

Mine is a 25-watt Weller with changeable tips.  One's very narrow,
one's wider.  IMO, 25 watts is plenty enought to fry ICs.

> And on a similar vein, muti-meters.  There were some cheap ones
> (under AUD$50) and there were quite a few expensive ones (over
> AUD$100).  I'm currently assuming that a cheap one is fine for
> learning with, but is it worth investing in a good one?

Well, the expensive stuff is very nice to look at (and to use), but my
father gave me this lecture about a voltmeter's internal resistance
(and why it's good to be a large number), and in a similar vein, why
an ampmeter should have a very low internal resistance.  I remember
those two numbers are important.


HTH,
Eeva

-- 
Ei elämä ole vaikeaa,
se on mahdotonta.  Ja se tapahtuu.
                                                 Lassi Nummi