HOW TO GET STARTED SOLDERING

Soldering is rapidly becoming the skill of a bygone era. Much like the ability to drive a car with a manual transmission, read a map, or write a check, younger generations are learning less about how to work with their hands-and it's time for that to change.

- Matt Crisara

Soldering looks much harder than it actually is-and it's a surprisingly useful skill. It's a process that's used to bond wires, cables, and electrically conductive materials using a filler metal, which is, well, solder. Commonly used to assemble and fix electronics, soldering establishes a connection between wires and other metal surfaces-among other uses. This process, sometimes confused with welding, heats the adjoining metals but doesn't melt them.

Building first-person view (FPV) drones was my gateway into soldering. My brother first showed me the ropes, as he had more than 10 years of soldering experience amassed through projects of his own; FPV drones were a great common ground for us to work together. After getting the fundamentals dialed in, he showed me that this act of electronics joinery is just the beginning. I'd go on to learn other aspects like wiring diagrams-where to solder things-and troubleshooting the software side of drones. I really hold this hobby near and dear to my heart, as it brought my brother and me closer together.

I've also worked on much smaller projects, like building mechanical keyboards and even fixing basic devices around my apartment. Recently, I broke out my soldering iron to fix a set of cheaply made string lightsthe solder joints connecting the lights to the power source had fizzled out, creating a fire hazard. Along with being a relatively easy skill to learn, soldering is an inexpensive hobby.

THE TOOLS YOU'LL NEED