I am but a greenhorn. I learned to solder in the 'sixties with a big soldering iron my father had from his apprenticeship after WWII as a "tinner" (sheet metal, HVAC). He came to build a big HVAC company, but died young. Since I was chasing an academic career, living in tiny apartments all around the US (including Kent, with which you are likely familiar), a friend got all the tools. So when I retired, I made my friend show me how to solder with a soldering gun and pencil.
Oh, yes, the relevant part (I told you I was a retired professor
): do you have a resistance solderer? Isn't there one of those jobs that, I think, uses fast vibration? And
thanks for your work on the chair controls: these sorts of things helped many of our students at UW-Whitewater get around campus quite handily.