Soldering and assembly gear recommendations

[vulpes]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post here, so I hope I'm not breaking any rules, since I really need help.

While being quarantined for the last month, I have had a plenty of time to catch up with a pile of
projects that I have been procrastinating about in the past. One of those was to assemble the soldering
station I had received from China a while back. It is a Ksger T12 + hot air combo with oled interface,
but without the case. The problem were missing headers for the handle connector and a couple of
solder points needed bridging. Thankfuly, I had found mysku.ru thread reviewing the  same product
and showing the necessary modifications and brought it to life.
Now that I have a proper (affordable) temperature controlled iron, I want to purchase various supplies
and tools that I may need for electronics assembly and repair, mainly flashlight drivers, and mechanical
keyboards (so mostly smd stuff). My research led me to believe that most of this stuff from Aliexpress
is either counterfeit or simply of inadequate quality, so I would like to order from arrow.com since
they are the only site of the kind offering free shipping to my country (Bosnia and Herzegovina) for
orders over $50. Another option is export.farnell.com with 15 GBP shipping, but I'd prefer Arrow since
they carry $5/1kg 3D printing filament and I need some (when I mentioned projects on backburner,
Voron 3D is one of them).

I have a list of things I think I need, and I would really appreciate your input and suggestions.

solder - MG Chemicals RA 63/37 0.8mm 225g $17 - 63/37 should be the easiest to work with, and 0.8mm
diameter seems like a solid all-around choice
flux - MG Chemicals RA Liquid flux 835 100ml $9 - I don't mind cleaning up with isopropyl and everybody seems
to agree that RA is the easiest to work with. I will buy some sort of empty refillable marker and fill it with this stuff
since flux pens are hugely overpriced.
solder wick - MG Chemicals Wick 424 1.5mm $3 - soaked with RA, I think 1.5mm width makes it versatile enough
wire - I know I need a bunch of it, all kinds - enameled, silicon, flexible, solid core, but I'm not sure what gauges to get.
wire stripper - these things, as anything made from metal as I learned, can get expensive. So I need something cheap,
but reliable, for small gauges. I'm really tired of stripping wire with swiss knife as I have been doing it until now.
crimping tool - I jusy want to be able to securely crimp the most of the common connectors.
2.54 dupont stuff, jst, xt, you get the idea. Since I'm building a 3d printer, this one I really need - bunch of connectors
everywhere. Crimping computer psu molex connectors could come in handy for custom cables.
cutters - Weller Xcelite products seem to be praised and are not too expensive (~$20), but have no idea what to choose.
tweezers - never thought there is a science behind tweezers, but apparently there is. Everyone seems to love Swiss vendors
such as Ideal-tek, but Arrow doesn't carry them and are quite over my budget. From stuff available there, I know Knipex to be
highly praised and most of their models are available at ~$15-20. But again, which to buy? Most of the recommendations here
are based around Swiss size designations, and Knipex has their own.

As far as stuff that I'd feel comfortable buying on Aliexpress, here are some ideas:
helping hands - I will make something from coolant hoses and aligator clips. They sell them like this, but with huge markup.
silicone mat - to prevent small stuff getting lost forever on the table and the carpet, plus it is temperature resistant.
magnification - I will get a loupe and an usb microscope - I know the quality probably leaves lot to be desired, but for $16
I don't think it can be bad. I most certainly can't afford the real deal and after seeing similar devices in various yt videos,
I'm quite certain it serves its purpose.
T12 tips - I already have IL, KF, B2, BC2, and D24 tips, as seen here,
but maybe some other could be useful. They are Hakko clones, but currently I can't afford anything better.

I'm sure I have missed some stuff, but this is all I have came up with.
If you guys could throw me some suggestions and ideas, I'd be really grateful.

Thanks!

[tooki]

If you google site search the forums you’ll find many recommendations, but overall I think you’re on the right track. I’ve had only excellent experiences with MG Chemicals products. I suggest getting a tube of flux paste, too.

For tweezers, it really depends on what you want. My favorites overall are the AA SA type (thin, sharp, non-serrated, any quality vendor is OK) and specifically Weller-Erem’s version of the OODSA. (Theirs has fine cross-hatched serrations, whereas everyone else just has regular “lined” serrations in the jaws.) I use both of these constantly, the thin ones when I need to get into smaller spaces (e.g. when plucking components out of a bin), and the erem for holding things securely.

Erem used to be an independent Swiss manufacturer, but Weller bought them, which has made them much easier to get. Their diagonal cutters are spectacular, and can be sent in for resharpening, which helps offset their high cost. (Spare parts are also available.)

Knipex diagonal cutters are also very nice. I have some of these, as well as flat (smooth) jaw and round nose pliers that I use constantly. (I actually prefer Knipex for non-cutting pliers. If you don’t know what to get, get a 77 22 115. Also, I’d you don’t have them already, get some cheap diagonal cutters for cutting non-wire stuff, so you NEVER use the Knipex for anything but copper wires.)


As for wire, don’t stock up tooo much. IMHO, get:
24ga stranded wire, regular PVC, for most things. I suggest either having at least 4 colors, or just getting a big roll of white and using colored heat shrink to identify it.
22ga solid wire for breadboarding and protoboard. Strip this if you need a bare jumper.
30ga wire wrap wire for fixing things

Use old Ethernet cables for thin wire. Buy thicker wire as needed.

FWIW, the “striveday” brand wire from Ali is excellent, at least their PVC. (I haven’t tried their silicone yet.) And they sell nice dispenser boxes with 5 colors each.

“Atopelec” brand silicone wire from eBay is excellent quality.

Wire stripper: you’ll eventually need more than one. But I’d suggest getting a Stripax-type automatic stripper. They really work well. Supposedly, even the cheap clones.

Helping hands: just make sure you buy quality alligator clips (I recommend Mueller or Hirschmann), since no-name clips are weak and wobbly. Then put silicone tubing on the jaws so they don’t melt into wires when tinning.

Silicone mat: get a proper ESD mat instead. Silicone mats are not antistatic, and omg does silicone hold onto dust...

Finally, crimping tool: this is a tough one. First of all, just know that for the “DuPont” style, NONE (as in, zero!) of the affordable crimping tools are actually 100% correct for these terminals. (They all use the “m” shape insulator crimp, instead of the circular insulator crimp the terminals are designed for.) Also, 90% of the crimpers sold online as DuPont crimpers are wrong, in that the dies are too thick for DuPont, XT, KH, etc. The only common model that’s correct is the SN-01B, but NOT the SN-28B or SN-48B. (The latter are great for different size spade terminals though!)

I’d look at a company called IWISS: they have decent quality crimpers, including one (the SN-2549) that’s basically the combination of SN-01B and 28B. I’d get that. As someone who uses a lot of DuPont, I’d actually suggest going more for the other ones you mentioned, simply because the DuPont connectors are so tall. JST, etc, are much smaller, even at the same pitch.

[vulpes]

Thank you for the elaborate answer! I really appreciate it, I'm rather clueless about some stuff here.

> I suggest getting a tube of flux paste, too.
Added to the list.

> For tweezers, it really depends on what you want.
I plan on using them for handling smd parts and basically what you described as use cases. I just want one (quality made) twezeers
that are as versatile as possible. Erem cutters are way out of my price range, but tweezers are maybe even cheaper than other
comparable vendors.

> If you don’t know what to get, get a 77 22 115.
Probably will!

> Also, I’d you don’t have them already, get some cheap diagonal cutters for cutting non-wire stuff, so you NEVER use the Knipex
for anything but copper wires.)
I have larger sized tools in dad's toolbox, including these large cutters, so I will be using new fancy ones for (small) wire only.

> As for wire, don’t stock up tooo much...
Just the direction I needed, will get those gauges.

> FWIW, the “striveday” brand wire from Ali is excellent, at least their PVC. (I haven’t tried their silicone yet.) And they sell nice
dispenser boxes with 5 colors each.
Those boxes look great, so I don't need to think about where to store it and have wire easily accessible.

> “Atopelec” brand silicone wire from eBay is excellent quality.
I need this for 3d printer and flashlights, so great!

> Helping hands: just make sure you buy quality alligator clips (I recommend Mueller or Hirschmann).
Will get Mueler clips, they are available on Arrow and rather cheap (3-4pcs/$).

> Silicone mat: get a proper ESD mat instead. Silicone mats are not antistatic, and omg does silicone hold onto dust...
Good to know!

>Finally, crimping tool: this is a tough one.
I have no preference towards DuPont connectors, would you recommend any other comparable connector family? Iwiss is available
on Taobao/Tmall and is really affordable, so I can get their products easily, if shipping rates don't explode after the corona situation
settles down. And if I understood correctly, if I were to buy one all-around crimper, SN-2549 is the best choice?

> Wire stripper: I’d suggest getting a Stripax-type automatic stripper. They really work well. Supposedly, even the cheap clones.
Iwiss also makes Stripax clones, so I will be getting that.

[Old Printer]

[ Specified attachment is not available ]Not sure how this will translate to your country, but for about $12 US it turned out to be a great buy for a hobbyist. I lusted for a set of the Knipex $75 auto strippers but that is just not worth the money at the level I use them.  I believe the set i got goes down to 32 ga wire, so be on the lookout for something that goes down far enough in size. Many are sized for electricians and don't go past 18 ga or so.  Mine are the red handled Southwire from the local home store.