You have reached the end of the course, which means you know more about soldering than most people who do it.
But knowing is not the same as being able to, and the gap closes in exactly one way: make a few hundred joints. Not carefully studied ones. Ordinary ones, on real things, where you stop thinking about the four beats because your hands have stopped needing you to.
So this last lesson is about what to point that practice at. What makes a good first project, what makes a bad one, where to find them, and how to know whether what you built actually works.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to choose a project that will teach you something rather than defeat you, and have a plan for the next few months rather than a finished course and no next step.
13.1 What makes a good first project
The aim of this section is a set of criteria you can apply to anything, so you are not dependent on someone else's recommendation.
Not all beginner projects are beginner projects. Some are sold as such and will simply defeat you. Five things to look for:
It should be through-hole. Everything in this course applies directly. Lesson 12 explained why surface mount is a later thing.
It should have between twenty and a hundred joints. Fewer than twenty and you finish before your hands learn anything. More than a hundred and a first build becomes a slog, and a slog is where care goes.
It should do something when it is finished. This matters more than it sounds. A board that lights up, makes a noise, moves or responds gives you a reason to have been careful, and a genuinely good moment at the end. A board that just sits there teaches your hands but not your enthusiasm.
It should be documented. A parts list, a clear order of assembly, a diagram of which way round things go. Lesson 7 is much easier to apply when the board's designer has helped you. ⚠️ A bag of parts with a photocopied sheet is not documentation, and it is where most cheap kits fail.
It should be recoverable. Standard components, ideally spares included, and nothing so exotic that one mistake ends the project. You will make a mistake. Lesson 10 exists because everybody does.
What to avoid at first
- ⛔ Anything mains powered. A completely different discipline with genuine danger. Not a beginner project, and not covered by this course.
- ⛔ Anything with fine surface-mount parts you are expected to place yourself.
- ⛔ "Mystery bag" kits with no instructions and no schematic.
- ⛔ Something you care about too much. Your first build should not be a repair on the only copy of something irreplaceable.
Figure 13.1: The five things that make a project a good one to learn on, and the four to avoid at first.
13.2 Practice before you build
The aim of this section is to make the case for twenty deliberately boring minutes.
Lesson 8 said it and it is worth repeating as its own step: make your first twenty joints on something that does not matter.
A practice board is the cheapest way. A few dollars buys a board covered in through-hole footprints and a bag of parts, designed to be soldered, inspected, desoldered and soldered again. Some also carry surface-mount footprints in descending sizes, which makes them useful again after Lesson 12.
A dead appliance board is free and better in one respect: it is a real board, with real ground planes, so you will meet the pad that refuses to heat up from Section 7.5 in a situation where it does not matter. Old routers, printers and remote controls are ideal, and thrift stores are full of them.
What to practice, in order:
- Ten joints watching only for beat three. Learn to see the moment it wets out.
- Ten more for consistency, three seconds each, not speed.
- Deliberately make three bad ones. A cold joint, a bridge, a joint with far too much solder. Then look at them properly against Lesson 9's gallery. Making a fault on purpose is the fastest way to learn to recognize one by accident.
- Then take them all off again, with braid and a pump, per Lesson 10. Removal is a skill, and practicing it on something disposable is much more comfortable than learning it on a board you care about.
That is under an hour, and it is the highest-value hour in this entire course.
13.3 Where to find projects
The aim of this section is a genuinely useful list, most of which has nothing to do with us.
Kits from established makers. The good ones are documented, have spares, and are designed so the order of assembly makes sense. This is the easiest route and the most reliable.
Repairs. Once you can solder, a surprising number of dead things are fixable: a broken headphone lead, a battery contact, a cracked joint on a cheap appliance. Lesson 9's wiggle-the-cable diagnostic finds a lot of them. Repairing something that was headed for the trash is one of the more satisfying uses of this skill.
Open-source hardware. Many designs are published freely with board files you can have made cheaply, or which are sold as kits by hobbyists.
Your own circuits, on stripboard or perfboard. The step from assembling someone else's design to building your own is a big one, and stripboard is where most people take it.
Clubs, makerspaces and repair cafés. Frequently free to visit, full of people who will happily watch you solder and tell you what you are doing wrong, which is worth more than any article including this one.
13.4 How to know it worked
The aim of this section is to close the loop, because the least enjoyable moment in this hobby is finishing a board and not knowing.
You have already got most of the way. Section 9.3 gave you the inspection routine: look along the board at a low angle with light behind, count the joints, check the polarized parts, look for bridges, wiggle gently, then check continuity if you have a meter.
Do all of that before you power anything.
Then there is the moment of truth, and this is where a well-designed kit earns its keep. A project that can tell you what is wrong is worth substantially more than one that simply does or does not work, because "it does not work" is not a diagnosis and is where most people give up.
That is a thing worth looking for when you choose a kit: does it have any way of reporting its own state, or is the only feedback binary?
What we built for this
Since this is our course, we will tell you what we did about that specific problem, and you can take it or leave it.
amomii Link is a free browser tool at amomii.com/pages/link. Plug a built amomii board into a computer with a USB cable, open the page, and it talks to the board directly. No software to install, no account, no purchase needed to look at it. It runs the board through its functions and tells you what is responding and what is not, so instead of "it does not work" you get something closer to "this section works, that one does not".
We built it because watching people finish their first board and then sit there uncertain was the worst part of the whole experience, and it seemed fixable.
It only talks to our boards, which is a real limitation and we are not going to pretend otherwise. But the underlying point is general and worth taking with you: before you power something up, have a plan for how you will find out what is wrong, not just whether something is wrong.
13.5 What we make
The aim of this section is to say plainly what we sell and why it might suit you, having spent twelve lessons mostly not doing that.
We are amomii. We make electronics kits that people learn to solder on, and we have written this course partly because it is genuinely useful and partly because we would like you to think of us when you buy a kit. We would rather say that than have you work it out.
Judged against our own criteria in Section 13.1, here is what we have.
amomii Testudo, USD 69.99
A board plus three separate shields you solder: an audio one, an infrared and keypad one, and one built around a shift register driving 32 LEDs. Plus a 180-page book covering the electronics and the code.
Why it fits the criteria: three separate builds rather than one long one, so you finish something three times and get three goes at improving. Each shield does something on completion: plays notes, works as a remote control, plays a two-player game. All through-hole. Documented, with photographed steps for every joint.
Where it might not suit you: it is an Arduino-compatible learning platform, so a good chunk of the value is in the coding side. If you only want to solder and have no interest in the programming, you would be paying for half a thing.
amomii Quill, USD 100.00
The iron from Lesson 2, plus everything to build a three-key macropad you can actually use on your desk afterwards.
Why it fits: the factory pre-solders the fine surface-mount parts and leaves the through-hole for you, which is exactly the pattern Section 12.5 described as a sign of a thoughtfully designed kit. And the finished object is a real thing you use daily rather than a demo that goes in a drawer.
Where it might not suit you: you are buying an iron as part of it. If you already have a good iron, you are paying for a second one, and Lesson 2's checklist would serve you better.
amomii Quill is not on sale yet. It is finished and it is coming, but it is not available to buy at the time of writing. If you want a kit today, Testudo is the one you can order now.
And the honest version
If neither suits you, the criteria in Section 13.1 are the useful part of this section, and they will serve you perfectly well in front of anyone else's kit. We would rather you bought a well-documented kit from someone else and stuck with the hobby than bought ours and gave up.
13.6 Where to go from here
The aim of this section is to end the course pointing outward rather than stopping.
Soldering is a gateway skill. On its own it is a way of joining metal. Attached to almost anything else, it becomes a way of making things.
Electronics. Understanding why the circuit is arranged as it is, rather than just assembling it. This is the natural next direction and it never really ends.
Repair. Genuinely valuable, increasingly rare, and immediately satisfying. Fixing something headed for landfill is a good afternoon.
Making your own designs. Breadboard, then stripboard, then your own printed boards, which are now startlingly cheap to have made.
Surface mount. When you are ready. Lesson 12.
Teaching someone else. The fastest way to find out what you actually understand.
The one thing to take with you
If you remember one sentence from thirteen lessons, make it this one:
You are not applying solder. You are heating metal until the solder wants to go there by itself.
Everything else in this course, the tinned tip, the temperature, the flux, the four beats, the shape of the joint, is in service of that single idea. Get that right and the solder does the rest, quickly and rather beautifully.
Figure 13.3: The whole course in one sentence.
Go and make something.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good first soldering project? Something through-hole, with twenty to a hundred joints, that does something when it is finished, that is properly documented, and that uses standard parts so a mistake is recoverable. Avoid anything mains powered, anything with fine surface-mount parts, and anything you care about too much.
How do I practice soldering? A cheap practice board, or a dead appliance board from a thrift store. Make ten joints watching for the moment the solder wets out, ten more for consistency, then deliberately make a few bad ones and compare them to a fault gallery. Then desolder the lot.
How many joints does it take to get good? A few hundred, spread over a handful of projects. The point at which you stop consciously thinking about the sequence usually comes somewhere in the first hundred.
What should I build after learning to solder? Repairs are the fastest route to something useful, and a broken cable or a battery contact is a genuine win. Beyond that, documented kits, open-source hardware, or your own circuits on stripboard.
Is soldering a useful skill? It is the entry point to electronics, to repairing things instead of replacing them, and to building your own hardware. It also takes about an hour to become competent at and a weekend to become confident, which is a very good return.
How do I know if my board works? Inspect before you power up: look along the board at a low angle with light behind, check every leg has a joint, check polarized parts, look for bridges, and test continuity if you have a meter. Then have a plan for how you will find out what is wrong, not just whether something is.
That is the course
Thirteen lessons, free, no sign-up, nothing held back. If it was useful, the most valuable thing you can do is show someone else how to do it.
Soldering Fundamentals is free and always will be.
