Re: [PLUG] Electronics gear

[Steve Litt <slitt@troubleshooters.com>]

On Mon, 20 May 2019 13:00:54 -0400
John Kreno <john.kreno@gmail.com> wrote:

> When it comes to what grade of what to acquire, you need to right
> size. So figure out what your goal is. If it's just to fool around
> with no real goal. Harbor Frieght cheapy meters and whatever hot
> stick you can get will work fine as a soldering iron.

Those cheapy 40 watt and 80 watt unregulated solder pencils, and those
monster unwieldy solder guns, have led countless perfectly
capable people to believe they can't solder, and have resulted in
countless unworking kits and projects.

Unregulated soldering equipment, while plugged in but not being used to
solder, get so hot as to oxidize the tip, resulting in bad joints. And
often such equipment doesn't even have the heat transfer power to make
a good joint even before it gets oxidized.

I'll buy cheep meters,  or speaker wire, or nuts and bolts. But when it
comes to soldering implements, I say "go regulated or go home", even if
you're doing only the most casual of fooling around.

SteveT
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