7 Useful Tools for Soldering, Wiring and Repairs

Soldering on a wooden desk or a cutting mat ends with burn marks and blobs of solder melted into the surface. A silicone mat takes the heat: rest a hot iron on it by accident and nothing happens, and dropped solder peels right off.

The S-160 is also a parts organizer. The screw slots are laid out in rows, so when you open a phone or a laptop you can lay the screws down in the order they came out, and the magnetic areas keep tiny ones from rolling away.

Pro tip Keep a separate corner of the mat for flux and solder work, and wipe it with isopropyl alcohol now and then. Flux residue makes the surface sticky and picks up dust.

A clean, shiny tip is half of good soldering. A dirty tip doesn’t transfer heat, so joints come out dull and lumpy and you end up holding the iron on the part too long. The classic wet sponge works, but it cools the tip every time you wipe it and dries out halfway through a session.

Brass wool cleans by pushing the tip in and out a couple of times. There’s no water and no temperature drop, and the holder sits next to any soldering station.

Pro tip Clean the tip right before each joint, not after. And before switching the iron off, melt a fresh blob of solder onto the tip: it protects it from oxidizing until next time.

Every soldering session ends with at least one part in the wrong place or upside down. Getting it out is the frustrating part: wick works for small joints, but a through-hole pin full of solder needs suction.

A solder sucker does it in one click. Cock the plunger, melt the joint, put the nozzle on it and press the button. The silicone nozzle on this one can touch the iron, so you can get it right on the joint while the solder is still liquid, which is the trick to clearing a hole in one go.

Pro tip If a joint won’t clear, add a little fresh solder first. It sounds backwards, but new solder with fresh flux melts faster and flows better, and the pump pulls it all out together.

Electrical tape on a splice looks fine for a week, then the adhesive goes gummy and the tape unwinds. Heat shrink tubing is the proper way to insulate a soldered joint: slide a piece over the wire before you solder, push it over the joint afterwards, and shrink it tight with heat.

The catch is always having the right size on hand. This kit has 12 sizes sorted in one box, from thin 1 mm tubing for small signal wires to 13 mm for thick cables and bundles.

Pro tip Slide the tubing onto the wire before you solder, and keep it well away from the joint while it cools. It’s easy to finish a perfect joint and only then notice the tubing still on the table.

A lighter shrinks heat shrink tubing, but unevenly, and it leaves soot and scorched insulation behind. A big paint-stripping heat gun is too much: it melts the wires next to the one you’re working on. A mini heat gun is the right size for wiring.

The low setting is enough for most heat shrink tubing, and the high one is there for thicker tubing or adhesives. The included nozzle wraps the heat around the tube for even shrinking.

Pro tip Start shrinking in the middle of the tube and work out to both ends. Starting at one end can trap air and leave a bubble in the middle.

A crimp made with ordinary pliers looks fine and then pulls apart, or works for months until vibration loosens it. A crimp is only good if the terminal is squeezed with the right shape and force, which is what a ratcheting crimper does: it won’t open until the full stroke is done.

This set puts five different jaws on one ratcheting frame, so the same tool handles insulated ring and spade terminals, bare terminals and flat tabs. For car wiring, speaker cables and battery leads, that covers most jobs.

Pro tip Do a pull test on every crimp: hold the terminal and tug the wire firmly. If it moves at all, cut it off and crimp a new one. It’s much easier to fix on the bench than inside a dashboard.

Twisting wires together and screwing on a wire nut works, until the stranded wire slips out or the solid one breaks from being twisted twice. Lever connectors are much less fiddly: lift the lever, push in the stripped wire, close the lever, done. Each wire has its own clamp, so a solid and a stranded wire join just as well as two of the same kind.

The clear housing is the underrated part: you can see whether the copper reaches all the way in. This kit mixes 2-, 3- and 5-way connectors, which covers light fixtures, junction boxes and bench wiring.

Pro tip Strip exactly the length marked on the side of the connector. Too short and the clamp grabs the insulation; too long and bare copper sticks out of the housing.