Reddit reviews SE Helping Hand with Magnifying Glass - MZ101

use the helping hands, has a magnifying glass on it

http://www.amazon.com/SE-MZ101-Helping-Hands-Magnifier/dp/B0002BBZ2Y

also link to the tea infuser on amazon http://www.amazon.com/Mesh-Tea-Ball-2-Small/dp/B000Y8FRQA/ref=sr_1_20?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1382322168&sr=1-20&keywords=tea+infuser

You really need a set of helping hands or a vise or something. Trying to hold everything in place, control an iron and control the solder is a challenge without it. In a pinch I have used my feet as a quick clamp, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Secondly, properly prepare your wire. You only need to expose about 1/8" or so of bare wire. make sure you have a nice twist on each bare cable, and if necessary, go ahead and apply solder to it so it stays together. I do t usually like to do this personally, because it makes the end too rigid and difficult to maneuver at times, but sometimes it is necessary to keep the wire and connection clean.
Also, with TRS jacks, you want to trim the shield back a little bit so that everything lines up. (If there is a ton of shield, feel free to trim a little off to make the wire a bit more manageable- you don't have to connect the whole rap to have a good connection.) Use a pair of small pliers to open the strain relief on the jack (the part you were trying to thread through) and bend the shield pin down a bit if necessary.

As far a flux, hopefully you have rosin core 65/35 or 60/40 lead solder (I still don't trust the lead-free stuff); if you do then the flux isn't really necessary. The rosin core contains flux, which has a lower melting point than solder, so flux is applied by the iron heating solder on the surface. There are occasions when the solder type or the board you're trying to solder to needs a flux coat to prep the surface, but this isn't one of them.

Thirdly, make sure you have a decent iron that gets hot enough, and is properly tined. You should have a little solder on the tip (that is shiny) so that heat is properly transferred to the surface. Make sure you apply the iron to both the cable and the surface so both get equally hot. Once you flow solder on them, keep the cable still until the joint cools- it should also look shiny when done, (if it looks really dull, you have a cold joint, and need to reheat it.

Clamp the strain relief down on the cable and seal it up (I hope you remembered to put the sleeve and any shrink or cover over the wire before you started soldering..)

I've had to do hundreds of jacks for patchbays and audio cable tielines. You'll get better at it with practice.

i have a helping hands setup http://www.amazon.com/SE-MZ101-Helping-Hands-Magnifier/dp/B0002BBZ2Y .

it works but the glass is poor quality and will be blurry at most angles. i've been looking into something like this for a while now.
http://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Efficient-LED-Magnifier-Lamp-Adjustable/dp/B001064VTE/ref=sr_1_sc_2?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1381847850&sr=1-2-spell&keywords=magnafiying+light

I think this is the video I watched when I was first learning to paint eyes. My first few attempts were trash but eventually I got the hang of it.

One thing that helped immensely was to paint the face color across the whole eye area, then paint the white over that, then paint the pupil in (as a vertical line first), then touch up with white then touch up with the flesh color around it again. I use this so that I don't have to worry about trying to keep it super clean when I'm doing the pupil but also don't have to worry that I haven't painted all the nooks and crannies around the eyeball.

Also, I got a magnifying glass thingy that made detail a whole hell of a lot easier. It's only a couple of dollars but has helped my eyes and has allowed me to do greater detail than I ever imagined.

Try this: http://www.amazon.com/SE-MZ101-Helping-Hands-Magnifier/dp/B0002BBZ2Y

Trust me when I say: variable temperature makes a big difference. I have a knockoff of the Hakko 936. The closest thing on amazon.ca is this Aoyue, which I've heard good things about. You don't need hot air as a beginner (or even for most surface mount work), so don't go to the top of the line. You can get cheap rosin core solder to get started. FYI, every set of helping hands like these I have ever owned have been absolute garbage. The vise suggested by /u/rykki will be dramatically more useful, even though it will cost more. (But it might also have applications outside of soldering.)

Thanks! I'm sitting here with one of these trying to remember my optics to see if there is some sort of test you can do that doesn't require measuring, but rather seeing if your FOV changes or something but I can't seem to come up with anything. I'd just go test the thing myself at my local best buy but they just don't seem to be getting the new gear VR in any time soon, and I was hoping to order one prior to christmas.

If you don’t have one already, now is also a good time to invest in a helping hand. They’re invaluable. I use a little desktop clamp to hold the PCB I’m working on, and then another like this to hold parts / cables / etc. Makes awkward soldering situations like this significantly easier!

I just ordered components to make my first box mod, but have done small electrical work before.

Helping Hands will make your life much easier, may not be necessary if you only intend to make one mod.

a decent digital multimeter is required, as is a Soldering iron.

A Breadboard is very useful to ensure everything works as it should, before you have it all finished and put in the case.

those are all I can think of right now, sure there are others people use regularly though

Back when I used to paint Warhammer 40k stuff, I found one of these or something similar immensely helpful. I still use them for small electronics projects. The great thing about them is, especially if you have unsteady hands, it allows you more freedom to anchor your arm on the edge of a table or whatever, and the magnifying glass is adjustable so you're able to set up in a comfortable posture.

A can of air (usually used for cleaning keyboards) is nice, too. Give the minis a blast to get any small dust and whatnot off without the potential of leaving tiny fibers from a cloth.