Beginner's keyboard build

[Red_Machine]

So I'm thinking about trying my first build soon, and want some advice on some good beginner parts to use. Something cheap I can cut my teeth on, and not get too worried about making a hash of it. I may use the Aristotles from the crap Chicony board I got, so a reasonably priced de-soldering gun would be on my list if I were to go that route. Though I'm more than happy to just buy some cheap switches, so I'm open to suggestions.

[vvp]

Trying to desolder switches from en existing board is a good way to get some experience. You likely can do it with a solder sucker only (that was my way, I did not buy whole desolder gun). Try to desolder parts without lifting the pads on PCB. Try to solder some parts back and desolder again. If you can do it without lifting pads then you will know you can solder without damaging PCB and you are good enough to continue.

It may be a good idea to just build something somebody else already built. Especially if it is well documented. Much less skills are needed that way.

Do not concentrate too much on price. It will be expensive. Much more expensive than just getting some off the shelf board. If price is an issue for you then forget custom builds.

[Muirium]

If you can desolder without stripping the pads, then you're better at it than me! I've soldered a few keyboards and many converters with ease. It's easier than harvesting, I find.

These days there's a lot more switch variety available. I'd actually try a bunch of available, modern switches first and then plan a build based on what I liked. Consider doing something idiosyncratic with switch selection, that you couldn't just find off the shelf. You want to be building something just for you, not just to use up spares!

[vvp]

Muirium is right. Soldering is easier than desoldering. But if you have a board to toss away then you can train on it. The core in not lifting pads is proper temperature. It is important that your soldering tool has selectable temperature. On the other side, you do not really need full desoldering gun. A solder pump like e.g. this will do. It is not like I recommend that particular piece behind the link. I only selected the first one which looked acceptable. There are only 2 important things when selecting solder pump:

• it must be spring loaded so that its tip does not move much when it is activated
• the tip should be from some soft material so that it sits on the desoldered joint better

[Sheepless]

My desoldering improved markedly when I replaced my crappy old solder sucker with an Engineer SS-02:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002MJMXD4

I've never had much luck with desoldering wick, though.

[vvp]

TLDR: Wick is overrated and rarely useful.

Wick is not much useful for desoldering because it will not pull solder from the space between two soldered parts. It is useful for cleaning of pads when you want to pull almost all soder which is on a surface mount pad. That is rather limited use case since most of the time a bit of solder does not matter (or is even desirable) and most solder can be "scooped" with soldering iron only.

My order of usefulness is:

• soldering iron with temperature control
• flux (if something does not go well then check the temperature and add flux)
• solder pump if you want to dismantle especially through hole components (does not help much for surface mount ones)
• hot air if you want to dismantle bigger surface mount parts(*) or quite handy for soldering tiny parts with 2 or 3 pads only or BGA parts; surface mount parts with pads on the sides only are easier soldered using "drag soldering" with iron
• wick

(*) Notice that many surface mount part have heating allowed only when they are dry. It is rare but they can be damaged if wet (from inside) and heated up quickly. Manufacturers specify how to dry them up slowly.

[maxmalkav]

My desoldering improved markedly when I replaced my crappy old solder sucker with an Engineer SS-02:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002MJMXD4

I've never had much luck with desoldering wick, though.

I totally concur with this. It's a really good pump.

[hellothere]

I used the above mentioned pump until it died. Took about a year. I do a lot of soldering and desoldering, though.

You should check out the Soldapullt. They used to make these all metal, but they're now all plastic. They still work great and they're discontinuing their static safe model, so it's now $6 plus shipping, at either from Amazon or directly from them. They're otherwise $25. Do note that these are huuuuuge. 12" (I think that's 36 furlongs, in metric) long. I bought two and I'm going to buy a third.

I have a Anesty ZD-915 desoldering station ($140). If you're not going to do much desoldering, it's pretty good. However, I now do a lot more than I bargained for, and I desire the Hakko FR-301 ($300). Currently, I'm able to use a regular soldering iron and the Soldapullt to desolder as fast or faster than using the Anesty.