Monday, December 17, 2007

Soldering for fun and fixing things

Several times over the past couple of months my husband and I have spoken about soldering things together that are broken. I can't even remember what it was we dreamed of soldering, but of course we didn't do it because
1 - we don't have a soldering iron
2 - I don't even know what a soldering iron is
and
3 - Why bother

HOWEVER my kitten just bit through the 4th pair of headphone wire, this time the expensive noise-cancelling ones, and I really don't want to buy yet another pair of headphones so that in a couple of weeks she can have something new to bite on. So after some googling and a little research, I went to Radio Shack and bought everything I need in order to solder wore. I bought a soldering iron, solder, flux, wire strippers and electrician's tape. The only thing they didn't have was heat-shrink tube (the rubbery stuff that goes around the wires). Also, I don't know what the flux is for, but the instructions tell me I have to have it. I will follow the instructions blindly, kind of like when you make a recipe for the first time and don't replace any ingredients until you taste test it.

Then tonight I watched some youtube videos on soldering. It looks pretty easy if you have a steady hand, which I don't. I will have to figure out how to jerry-rig a clamp to hold the wires up off the table, but once that is solved I predict that I am going to be able to fix everything in sight (everything with a broken wire, that is). I'm very excited. This might be better than knitting.

1 comment:

Media glut said...

That's an odd coincidence since I bought a Dremel today.
I needed it to drill small holes in golden walnuts (nursery stuff). I always wanted a Dremel anyway.