Mugging for the camera.
This past weekend Wesley got to try his hand at soldering. He really liked it. I picked out the Lux Spectralis kit from Makershed.com. The kit was cheap, had relatively few pieces and since it was a flashlight Wesley could actually use it. Plus, what kid doesn’t want a flashlight that does 36 different things (changes color, fades, blinks, flashes, etc).
Blowing away the smoke.
Aside from the microchip (which I did, because they are heat sensitive), Wesley did all of the soldering and trimmed all of the leads. He did get one little burn (he grabbed the wrong part of the iron), but soldiered through. He had a great time. We used lead-free solder, even though it makes the soldering more difficult, so he could actually use the kit when it was finished.
Trimming leads from a resistor.
Soldering solo
Attaching the switch.
Soldering on the switch.
All done and it works!
Testing out some of the functions.
Finished product - front.
Finished product - back.
After Wesley’s was working I went out and made one for Jillian, too. She helped with trimming the leads, but Amber was cooking dinner so we don’t have any photos. Jillian is excited to do some soldering. She’s probably a little young still, but I probably won’t wait until 5 1/2 (like Wes) to get her going on the iron. So much fun!
