Ask HN: Can You Solder?

&gt; For those who don&#x27;t, how come?<p>I have never soldered <i>intentionally</i>. I did once manage to weld a motherboard to its chassis through improper grounding... lots of smoke and terrified screams later, I decided to go into software instead...<p>As a child of the 90s, I think I just barely missed that awesome era of RadioShaq catalogs and fun DIY electronics kits that I only read about online, yet was born before things like SnapCircuits were invented to reinvigorate that niche. Caught in that dry spell of the 90s&#x2F;early 2000s, when hardware seemed pretty stagnant while the Web was just getting started.<p>By the time hardware was cool again, I was too old&#x2F;busy to seriously look into it. Arduinos, robots, etc. always seemed kinda cool to me, but it seemed like there was no point in learning that when anything I wanted to make could already be bought from China for $5...<p>If I had more time or money, it would definitely be a cool hobby to pick up. But I don&#x27;t :)

Yes, I&#x27;ve been doing it since I was a young child. Compared to people who are actually expert in it, I&#x27;d say my skill level was &quot;advanced intermediate&quot;. I am equally skilled in both through-hole and surface mount soldering (including BGA and very tiny chips), but the majority of the soldering I&#x27;ve been doing over the last 5 or 10 years has been surface mount.<p>I wouldn&#x27;t be interested in doing it professionally all by itself, but would be fine with a job where soldering is one of the tasks involved. I certainly would be willing to be part of a soldering assembly line for a project as a community service, though, as long as the effort and organization were in line with my personal volunteering guidelines.

I do my own soldering, but the result is usually something only a mother could love (though I must admit, every once in a while I manage to solder some SMD component half-decently, which makes me proud of myself for weeks - until I try soldering pins on an arduino again). That&#x27;s what I get for using a cheap Yihua soldering station, and learning to solder from Youtube.

I know how to solder thru-hole. I have never done SMD, though I&#x27;d like to learn. How do I rate myself? I&#x27;m average to a little better than average, as in I&#x27;d never say to anyone &quot;oh Yeah, I&#x27;m really good at soldering&quot;. More like, &quot;oh, you didn&#x27;t know how to solder? I can either do it for you or try and teach you the basics&quot;.

My hands are a bit shaky now, so I don&#x27;t attempt anything but through hole. I would avoid asking people to do surface mount unless it is reasonably straightforward - it was never meant to done that way.

yes but not quite to SMD levels. on the other hand I&#x27;m able to solder copper pipe for plumbing and stills and have successfully patched radiators and some some stuff that would count as &quot;small welding&quot;<p>&quot;delegate the soldering&quot; ... do you mean sell an electronic product as a kit? there&#x27;s probably useful discussions about that you might look at, many people do kit &#x2F; assembled options for small run manufacture.