“This was a good kit to learn with. The instructions were detailed and helpful, and the included items were all I needed to start to learn the soldering craft. I would recommend this to anyone who needs to learn the basics.”
“Bought this for my 10 YO for Christmas. He was really excited to try soldering. The instruction book is good - really helpful for someone who doesn't know how to solder. The solder it came with is pretty hard to use - from reading online, the general consensus is that all lead-free solders are difficult to work with. He also ran out of the solder that came with it before he finished the basic project. It also doesn't explain how to use some of the tools that are included.Overall, he's happy with it and it's been a great learning kit. Plan to buy extra/better solder.”
“Great for the price, but wish there were a link to an online video tutorial. The included documentation is a little heady and hard to work through with a kid.”
“Decent starter kit. I don't think that the solder tips it came with are of the best quality but they are good enough for a beginner. The lead free solder it comes with is pretty hard to work with in my opinion you have to heat the iron up to almost 700 F which is basically the maximum setting just to get it to melt and flow properly. If you get this kit i recommend getting some leaded solder its much easier to work with and melts at a much lower temp. The station itself seems to be ok i personally like the black iron holder it comes with. Before you do anything you want to make sure you tin the tip of the iron really well if you have to pick up a bottle of liquid rosin flux and dip the soldering tip into it then immediately apply solder to the tip. I didn't tin the tip very well on first attempt and what happened was the tip quickly started to oxidase and i had trouble getting solder to stick to even when i tried to clean it. I changed it out for the backup tip and made sure i tinned it really well immediately and had no problems. I have encountered the smoking tip problem that other reviewers have mentioned but it usually stops after a few minutes. It happened with both tips so i have to assume its due to a protective coating the manufacturer put on. Overall i think its a decent starter kit but mainly because of the tools and the practice project it comes with. If you could give a crap less about the tools or project then just spend the extra 10$ and get the Weller WLC100 its a way better quality solder station for the money. Weller WLC100 40-Watt Soldering Station”
