Heres a little intro to soldering for those that are solder challenged, I agree its really simple when you know what your doing, but until then, its not the easiest thing to do.
***Your materials and iron will dictate the difficulty of the job almost all the time!!***
i.e. if your using a crappy rat shack $5 iron you will not be able to solder very well after the first few uses, regardless of how good you are. You can still solder w/ it, but it makes it difficult.
Buy a good iron.. I own a hakko 936-12 it was about $80 bux shipped. While this may seem steep to some, I do a lot of soldering, and it was WAAAAY worth it, I dont know how I went through life without it.
#1 always keep your irons tip clean.. you cant solder well w/ a dirty tip
#2 always use flux
#3 always use rosin core solder (unless otherwise needed)
#4 dont use more solder than necessary, its always easier to add then to remove
#5 dont use more heat than necessary (i.e. a 90/140 watt gun is WAAAY too much for general home usage on small electronics.. 40/60 selectable, or complete temp slectable is best)
How to solder:
Strip wire, dip in flux, put solder onto tip of iron and melt a little to the tip of the iron, remove, then touch the iron to the wire w/ the flux on it. You will see the solder magically cover the wire (assuming your using like 16 and up ga) larger wires may require more solder or a second appliation. This is called TINNING the wire. Do this to both wires, or both surfaces to solder to. If soldering to a smooth surface you may want to use some sand paper to rough up the surface for the solder to stick. Once both wires have been tinned, I like to use a little more flux on one of the wires, and depending on what your soldering, sometimes a tiny bit more solder on the tip of the iron, hold the wires together, then touch the iron to the two tipped wires, it should heat it and solder them together, remove the iron and let the solder cool for a second (its almost instantly) you should have a nice shiney solder joint, if its dull that generally means its not a good connection (but not always) give the two wires a tug to make sure its solid, sit back, inhale the fumes and admire your work
This may or may not be the most exact science way to solder, but its how I do it, and I've been soldering for probably 10 years.. started off with big boogers that fell off.. and now can solder SMTs
***If you need to remove solder from a surface I personally like to use braided copper wick, its cheap, I recommend everybody that solders to have some.. you just make sure your solder tip is clean, put a little flux on the wick, place the wick on top of the surface you want to remove solder from, apply heat for a second or so, you should see the solder melt into the wick, then lift it off.***
When you are soldering small components its good to use a heatsink to divert the heat so you dont fry the component, but I'd assume if your soldering stuff that small you already know this.
For a good intro into soldering pickup a few small kits from
www.ramseyelectronics.com they've got tons of neat crap you can build
good luck
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