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2 comments of this product found across Reddit:
Laharl_Chan /r/soldering
3 points
1970-01-20 12:23:28.198 +0000 UTC

Thanks man! I'm using the cheap stuff right now too! But i really do need a hot air rework station and a more powerful iron. Irons i'm using are 40 and 48 watts. I have no flux or wicks and i'm about halfway through my old 60/40 cheap BK solder wire. I wanted the low melt 63/37 solder wire.

if you live near a micro center. id pop in there as they have a good DIY section, not amazing, but it has all the basic things you need, solder, wick, flux, and soldering iton and tips as well as a selection of components (i dont but those as generally they are WAY overpriced on, but those off a supply house (im partial to digikey) for basic things like resistors and capacitors (excluding electrolytics) go to ebay or aliexpress.

if your looking for SMD practice, i can def recommend this kit https://www.ebay.com/itm/353546922821

if your looking for THT practice is can recommend this kit https://www.amazon.com/fyeTa-temperatiure-Electronic-Soldering-Projects/dp/B08X13KY6S i have this one (from a listing thats nolonger available), and its a fun build, takes a few hours, and results in a clock.

edit: i buy my solder, flux, wick, and tip mesh from micro center,

Forward_Year_2390 /r/soldering
3 points
1970-01-20 04:54:04.707 +0000 UTC

Well it's good value, but low cost kits like this can often teach you the hard way on what not to do as a noobie solderer.

Buying it and working on a keyboard needing repair could just make it a keyboard beyond repair.

I'd be more inclined to suggest you get it but also buy some DIY solder assembly kits after buying this and see if you can solder something together that will work. Pick something under $25. This will at least let you judge you're own work and see if you're up to working on a keyboard.

Keyboard are pretty difficult things to work on even though they look fairly basic, because they have these large thermal ground planes. Touching one connector on this thermal ground plane all the heat gets sucked away and only pro-level soldering irons are intelligent and smart enough to respond to the sudden inability to heat. Manually adjusting to a higher temperature level might compensate but you might cause damage to the next connection. Experience would allow someone to use this iron in this way but inexperience makes the soldering iron a bit of a burning tool of annihilation to your components and traces. If you can practice away from the important stuff you'll improve at using and understanding it's habits.

The temperature adjustment knobs on these are not particularly accurate and ideally need to +-10C accurate when they are more likely +-30C of what they are set at a temp. Don't trust the knob, trust what you see, test your solder wire against the tip at a low temperature and edge it up till a bit past where it melts.

Setting the temp too high when you have issues and or not tinning your tips will end up with tips that are very poor to work with. Learn what tinning is as best you can, before you actually plug in your soldering iron. If it heats too much too soon, and you don't tin it right, you can't fix well other than buy another tip. Very very common noob problem.

What is nice that most low-cost kits don't have is that it has some nice small narrow tips including a chisel tip. Your tips should be about the width of the trace or component you are soldering and should have an area that will allow the most heat to pass into the two parts you're trying to bridge with solder.

You will need external flux (pref tacky flux in syringe) and some IPA(99%+), and a toothbrush as well before proceeding too. It's always smart and polite to clean your soldering work before posting images back to Reddit. It gives us a fighting chance to offer good advice back. ;-)

A macro lens attachment to your smartphone is helpful too. There are some in this list that do greater than 10x magnification that start from about $10.

I'm not a fan of kits by any means, they are built down to price and not up to a standard. If I manually itemised a starter kit it might come to more than $200 and most starters shy away straight away. Most experienced solderers have started with a kit like this. You won't have a great experience but you will learn lots, and that's just as important. Just don't try to repair something important until you know your skill with whatever tools you have at your disposal have grown to enable you to do good clean work.