Wishlist - What do you need for Soldering?

My soldering tip is for folks new to soldering to go with a lower wattage iron - for no other reason than when I switched to a lower wattage iron, my solder joints got better.  My 15W iron was my favorite for a long time and I only pulled my 60W iron out if I was working with a huge connector.
On your next soldering iron upgrade, go for a soldering station that has temperature control. The temperature controlled pencils showed me that a more consistent tip temperature was worth having and I took the plunge on the better station.

I'm still doing through-hole components.  My most successful trick is to use a curved tip on the iron and place the tip in/on the hole alongside the component lead.  The lead leans on the side of the tip and the lead and the pad heat up quickly.  When I remove the tip, I draw it up the lead and usually get a pretty good looking joint.

great tip...

For me soldering is about using good tools and a good process. Many tricks have already been written in the previous comments.

• safety first - use a fume extractor (even the cheapest near an opened windows is thousand times better than nothing) and safety googles - even an SMD capacitor can explode right into your face when overheated (especially by hot air gun)
• use a soldering iron made by a renowned manufacturer, preferably a soldering iron with an integrated heating element. These soldering irons and tips are more expensive, but can quickly heat and maintain the temperature during soldering
• use a flux from a renowned manufacturer, i personally like flux in a syringe more than in a pen. Any time I heat the flux and the solder joint, I consider the flux as no longer working and apply more if I need to solder again
• clean the soldering tip often and leave a solder on it when putting the soldering iron away or turning the soldering iron off
• clean the flux after soldering, even if the flux is labeled as "no clean" - isopropyl alcohol is fine
• always have desoldering tools at hand in case the soldering goes wrong - even cheap manual desoldering pump can do magic. In addition to that, have a desoldering braid of various sizes.
• before soldering or desoldering something sensitive or before doing anything after a longer time period, practice to get in shape. Some of us do not solder every day. There are soldering practice boards available to solder a few passive components and ICs before working with something valuable.

Safety first so, I would suggest using a fume extractor and/or lead-free solder wire. Most of the tools and accessories displayed above, except maybe for the de/soldering stations I would consider them mandatory even for a hobbyist. Plus the helping hands and pcb holder are very useful tools especially if you deal with smd component soldering.

I can now feel that warmth up the lips as you say this. Classical testing method still for me sometimes haha....

Well, my tip is more for desoldering.

Sometimes you might have some older or off-brand desoldering wick that doesn't seem to "suck" the solder very well. If you run your flux pen over the wick first before using it, you will find it works a lot better - sometimes better than fresh out of the packet.

- Gough

For me soldering has been a slightly difficult thing to do(atleast getting it good). I usually used to check if my iron is hot enough by directly applying some solder wire to the iron tip. Then, I learnt a trick from my teacher in school (I had an electronics and robotics club at my school). He used to be able to "smell" if the iron is hot enough! Kind of a neat way to tell without unnecessarily wasting some solder wire.

Recently I have got to solder quite a lot and so would say:
> Knowing the right temperature: Check the melting point for the solder lead you're using and adjust the temperature. This greatly helps in making things right. Else you may see whitish cold or overheated joints, pads, and traces ripping off.

> Using a lot of flux?: This is quite debatable, but only the right amount of flux is needed and good to use. Cover the pads with flux, but the pad should be translucently visible. You get me - just a thin layer of flux by using the right tool where you ca apply and wipe off extra flux paste. I've seen some people dipping the whole component in the liquid flix and the soldering, but...apparently not so good practice. Else it results in the creation of dark stains in the PCB and some may be hardened and charred preventing you from seeing the actual solder contacts.

> Presoldering the contacts: I feel this is a super underrated tip. Whenever I started to solder, I used to right away jump in and place the wire to solder on the pad or the SMD passives only to struggle with the process of the component not biting and holding on the pad. This feels so cringy and so that the pad is repelling the solder lead. But a quick workaround would be to put a little amount of flux in both sides(wire and pad/pad and component) and then a small touchup with the soldering iron tip with a little bit of lead in it. So this makes a thin layer of solder lead to stick in the pad/ wire and then you can make the final soldering with quite more lead, keeping wire/ component on the pad(like attracts like...ah, but not for magnets or something else I suppose ;) ) Presolder helps attract and get the lead stick to pads quickly when you do the process.

> Drag soldering for ICs: This is quite an interesting trick and helps to do the thing quickly with some wastage of course. Just like how glasses are kept in a line and the server pours juice in one go for all in a straight line. Requires some practice to get the right amount of solder stick to the pin and should be too cautious about bending of pins. EEVBlog has a nice video regarding this EEVblog #186 - Soldering Tutorial Part 3 - Surface Mount - YouTube

> Excess solder removal: We all get to this point. More is always better than less - but sometimes the components get a solder bath all over the pins. Braid/Wick is a quick way to do it but not highly recommended for pins of smaller pitch as they may get bent or the braid may get stuck in the pad because of uneven cooling or failure to lift it up at right time. Otherwise, a quick hack would be to clean the solder tip with the bronze/brush and the by applying a little amount of flux over the excess solder lead area, gently touch the cleansed tip which will now absorb in the excess solder. Flux helps in piping the excess flux into the tip and so applying this is necessary. Repeating this couple of times makes all the excess go away.

Nice to see all the other suggestions from community members! I will give try for some of those,...thank you and do share your suggestions if you try any of these

I think that the most important tip in my experience is "learn from more experienced guy but adapt their method for youself". This does not mean ignore whatever suggestion is given to you, but you have to try it and adapt to your soldering stile.
Just an example: depending on the job on hand, I like to solder with the iron set at low temperature, sometimes down to 280°C (using standard lead free solder) but other collegues solder the same pcb up to 360°C. Both way works the same for general purpose stuff and the final result is the same, just different technique. Find what works best for you. Same goes for tip shape, size etc.

As far as equipment goes, I find that a spool holder for solder reels is the most undervaluate piece of equipment for soldering: you think you don't need one but when you start using it makes life so much easier. No more need to pull solder spools all over the work bench .

for desoldering there are also desoldering tweezers (not mentioned in the article) with tips of variable width

https://www.tme.eu/en/details/zd-409/soldering-irons-and-guns/solder-peak/

mine are not very precise but sometimes useful...