Learn to Solder with the Tactile Metronome class

On Saturday, September 18th, 2010, my friendly local hackerspace, Hack Pittsburgh hosted a “Learn to Solder” class, featuring the Tactile Metronome kit. We had 13 people come out and solder up the kit, with help from Matthew (Layne) and Hack Pittsburgh member Andy Leer. One of the kit builders, HackPGH member Chris, had some great things to say in his recent blog post :

When I signed up for the class I wasn’t sure what to expect. My experience with a soldering iron was limited to ruining my Dad’s iron by repeatedly melting my little green army men and filling the basement with the toxic black smoke of molten plastic.

Luckily, in the able hands of Matt and Andy, I was able to turn my toy soldier torturing abilities into a useful skill. The entire class assembled and soldered the Tactile Metronome kit from Wayne and Layne. I left the class with a functioning “Syncopation machine”. Both Matt and Andy spent enough time circling the class and making sure that everyone one was on the right track and even took the time necessary with each individual if they needed a little one-on-one attention.

I left the hackerspace with a big smile on my face and a new toy in my hand. If you are looking for a good beginner’s soldering kit, I can’t recommend the Tactile Metronome enough. The kit was easy enough for a newb like myself, but also a complete enough project that I felt like I was leaving with a finished product.

Half the soldering class working on their kits. Photo credit: Chris Teodorski