Wow, the replies so far have been almost a little overwhelming. Thank You for all this help, let me try to reply to some questions I still have:
This https://www.amazon.com/MG-Chemicals-milliliters-Pneumatic-Dispensing/dp/B00425FUW2/ is a good flux. Just don't take "no clean" seriously, and clean it up. It is no clean only if fully activated, which is not possible with manual soldering, and it is slightly conductive when wet.
Oh wow, didn't know flux cost that much. Does flux normally cost more than solder? Most of the solder I saw cost around $10 or so. Also, any specific brands of flux I should avoid? I will use that one for my actual projects, but for just randomly soldering components around just to practice/learn, it feels like it would be a waste to use good/expensive flux like that on stuff I intend to just toss away after I am done practicing on it.
That soldering station is the smallest one as far as size concerned. The smaller size is only those cheap unregulated soldering irons that plug into a wall directly. That's going to be a bad experience all around.
Yeah, I see that now, it is much smaller than I expected once I saw a picture of someone holding it. I thought it was closer to the size of around a shoebox or so from the pictures.
KSGER T12 is $50 on Aliexpress with free shipping to the US.
Hmm, is Banggood also a good place to purchase it from? Or no? I saw a Youtube review of it, and they had links to different revisions of the iron for also around that price there. I have never really purchased from Aliexpress or Banggood before, didn't trust them. I don't have to give them my credit card, do I? Can I just use paypal or something?
I always use MG Chemicals 4894-227G 60/40 solder (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005T8N8B6). Works fine for me. And I don't use it enough to really worry about the cost.
I asked a similar question a couple of years ago, I was advised against buying unknown brands of solder from eBay etc.
Oh, looks like good solder is more expensive than I thought too. Again, would it be ok to just use cheaper stuff for practice kits and random practice soldering? I don't know if having bad solder would effect learning to solder properly. The one I saw come up the most often on Amazon was something called Maiyum:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075WB98FJ/Any experience with that one?
Also, you may have some success with USB-C soldering irons. I recently learned about this one https://pine64.com/product/pinecil-smart-mini-portable-soldering-iron/ I ordered one to see how good it is, but I have not received it yet. They ship from China and shipping is slow at the moment. At $25 it is pretty cheap, but it also requires USB-C cable (silicone version also available from that site) and a USB-PD power supply. But those two things you may already have.
Using USB sounds.... weird to be honest. I know that USB-C can deliver a lot more power than A, but still feels rather unorthadox and like it would be much lower power for something designed to heat up that much and regulate. That link you posted mentions it uses "Ralim’s IronOS", a 108Mhz 32 bit RISC CPU, and has a breakout cable for GPIO pins. That just.... confuses me for a soldering iron. Why would a soldering iron need to be a computer like that? I would rather stick to something that just runs off AC power.
(Also, so that's what happened to Pine64, I remember backing the original Pi-like board on Kickstarter)
“ Please don't buy solder from no-name brands from eBay. Should be safe if they're Multicore/Kester or other well known brands, even if they're old stock like 5-10 years old... ”
Multicore... that sounds very familiar. I think I have seen that heavily recommended in the past. I forgot that it was a brand, I was trying to search for that "type" of solder, not remembering that it was a brand, not a type.
But, wow, that stuff is even more expensive than MG, around $30 for a spool. Didn't know good solder was going to be that much more expensive than the cheaper ones.
Chipquik SMD291 is really good . I don't care for Chipquik RA891 because I find the fumes are really harsh when they're not pulled with the fan. Good old MG rosin solder for most applications works fine and cleans up easy with IPA.
Chipquik, that's a name I am certain I have heard before in the past too in regards to better quality soldering supplies. Will have to look into that one too.
That desoldering tool from Amazon looks like an abomination . You'd be better of with a Solomon Solder Sucker
Looks pretty similar to a cheap desolder pump I already have that came as part of a computer repair toolkit I got years ago, never really used the cheap soldering components of it, just the screwdrivers and other tools. The SS-02 feels like it's a bit better designed than that one.
You'll probably want some Solder-wick. Chemtronics is really good.
Didn't even consider that. Am I doing to need wick on top of also having a de-solder pump? I thought those were just two different ways of removing solder when desoldering?
Buying fancy soldering equipment is great but I might suggest a different approach, get yourself a dirt cheap iron and maybe a couple of other tools that are not meant for electronics per say. I started out with complete crap, literally the cheapest iron Radio Shack had (all I could afford) and my fathers big Weller (probably equal to todays D650) soldering gun.
I mean, I do already have a few of those cheap "wands" that just directly plug into AC and have no options whatsoever, as well as a very very very old solder gun that I think gets way too hot for most applications, but those have rarely worked out well for soldering to boards, most I have been able to do is solder wires with it or some REALLY big/old points on ancient devices. Which is why I was trying to look for something better that is still entry-level.
As for solder I have to agree with many here, buy a brand that people have had good success with. I use Kester however they are not the only game in town. The mistake many make when buying solder is that they buy a heavy wire gage solder that really isn't desirable for "most" electronics work.
For solder, I would suggest Kester. They make many versions of leaded and non-leaded and again you will be able to have confidence that the product is not inhibiting your results or your learning curve.
Hmm... Kester seems to be about par, in price as well, with Multicore. I wonder if any local places have them cheaper, sometimes these things cost far more online.
Solder suckers are great and will not damage a PCB if used properly. It is advisable though to also have some solder wick as a supplement. As others have all ready suggested you need too have flux for most soldering and it can help with desoldering. Well maybe not "most" soldering but flux is important and you should learn to identify when it is needed.
A wick is something I was not even considering, now I am not sure when I am even supposed to use a pump over a wick. I thought you could just use either.
Solder wick: There is a major difference between the expensive stuff and the cheap stuff. The good stuff vacuum cleans all the solder. Trim the solder wick so that there is a tiny bit of tinned/used wick on the end.
Hmm, any specific ones you can recommend?
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