Hardware Hacking/Upcycling

[Indieda]

Hi!

I recently started tearing apart my old electronics and faced some problems.

1) My soldering iron's power cord has rusty pin heads. How do I derust them safely? Or should I just replace the heads entirely.

2) When trying to build a circuit from a simple diagram, I always get messy wiring and parts which slip, move and drop. Are there any tips on how to keep the building of the circuit organized?

I'm trying to build a touch activated light circuit on top of a palm sized card using a transistor, 2 resistors, wires, 9V batts and a LED.

Cheers,
Neo

 

[Konnichiwa]

1) replace will be better. 3 pin plug is not expensive.
2) Are you using a breadboard?

You have any background in electronics?