Hi Graham,
I was an electronics technician. Military trained and also trained in high reliability soldering.
I recently have been teaching 12 yr old Grandson how to solder. He has already impressed his father with some repairs to a motorbike.
I am looking at traveling to Tasmania later this year to do some trout fishing.
I don't know if I will yet.
Soldering is not difficult. 60/40 lead/tin solder with resin core is what you use. The iron costs $20 ? maybe. Practice on some scraps of similar materials.
To achieve a good solder joint:
The iron heats the solder The flux inside bubbles somewhat. It has a "cleaning" action (when hot) on the material (copper wire) corrosion stops the solder from "wetting" However the flux cleans that corrosion off and the solder flows nicely over the surface of the copper.
A good joint has a shiny surface and is kind of concave in appearance.
It also appears to have wetted the copper surface.
Buy or borrow a 20-25watt iron, look up soldering on Google. You will wonder what the challenge was after you practice a little.
I have some pretty cool tech gear for soldering. Temperature controlled iron, printed circuit board clamps etc. But that was my trade.
Cheers
