Ladyada's $100.00 toolkit

[jbarntt]

I'm a beginner, so I bought this and I think it is a good value.

The soldering iron works well for through the hole work. I practiced with cheap resistors, maybe a dozen. The stand is light weight and the power cord is stiff, which tends to make the tip to touch the coiled springs, which acts as a heat sink. I changed to using a box of baking soda to rest the iron so that it would heat up properly. I turned the heat control on the iron to the one o'clock position, and got good results with the supplied 60/40 solder.

The vise is very good, for small boards. It is stable, and the controls are very smooth.

The multi-meter works well, but the instruction booklet is worthless. Ladyada's tutorial will get a beginner going; it did for me.

I expect to move up to a temperature controlled soldering station, perhaps the Hakko or the Aoyue, but for a beginner I think it is good to wrestle with a simple iron. You learn something by doing so.

[Agent24]

I learned with a basic iron and used it for several years, if you're doing simple (through hole) stuff, you should be fine.

I find the large array of different tips more useful on my station than temperature control, which I have set to 370°C (same as my old basic iron) and haven't changed since.

[Enohp]

I'm on this link http://www.ladyada.net/library/equipt/kits.html and I can't find where to order. I know I need to buy them through elexp.com but that site is pretty terrible in terms of navigation. I can't find these "kits" that they offer. I can find each piece individually, but they're more expensive individually than in the kit.

Am I doing something wrong? I want the $100 dollar kit, but this speed bump is turning more into a road block.

[adafruit_support_bill]

Elexp changes their offerings from time to time and may not offer that precise selection. They do have a "kits" page.
Also since that list was put together, Adafruit has added many excellent quality tools to the store here.