FYI, Amazon.com (the USA Amazon) sells a number of 63/37 solder wires from Kester and MG Chemicals that they can ship to Europe. I got some lovely Kester .31" (0.8mm) that was just $29 for a 1lb (450g) reel. Together with some MG Chemicals solder wick (#444 Super Wick, which turns out is SUPERB -- much finer weave than Soder-Wick or 3S-Wick/Spirig -- and inexpensive!!!) and other stuff (solder paste, ESD brushes for PCB cleaning, some tools), even the shipping wasn't too bad. Cheaper than buying local, I can tell you that...
Sorry, I don't think of Amazon when pricing out items. Their labor practices appall me (it's global, so the UK & German facilities are affected), so I try to buy elsewhere if possible.
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The only thing I can't seem to find is a good third hand for soldering.
You won't in the mass produced stuff. For an effective third hand solution, you'd want to look at DIY solutions that use modular hose (such as
Loc-Line).
Some examples (not all are for electronics, but could still offer up some ideas).
FWIW, Wiha sells something similar (not sure who makes it, but it's Swiss; thinking this might be the easiest to locate), as does Jeton, SnapFlow, Cedarberg/Snap Loc, and Enco. There's also the super cheap Chinese version you can find on Aliexpress or eBay, but I've no idea on quality.
Even with a decent set of helping hands, they're not an all-in-one solution. An interchangeable head vise system is very handy IME (I use stuff from
Panavise, which can be had in the EU/UK, but it seems it's limited). It's not exactly cheap here, but it's actually worth it (don't abuse the heck out of it, and it will last a lifetime).No idea if you'd be able to import it yourself cheaper, but I've seen some of it listed on Amazon.co.uk.
Bernstein's SpannFix system is even nicer, but it's also more expensive IME (not sure if importing Panavise from the US would be cheaper or not).
As an aside, if you know a source for high-quality alligator clips (like the ones on the ground leads of my Rigol scope probes), I will love you forever.
OK, lets not get carried away with this love thing....
![Laughing :-DD](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/smiley_laughing.gif)
But you might want to take a at
Mueller (particularly good at making alligator clips).
![Wink ;)](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/wink.gif)
Not sure of the best place to get them price wise, but Farnell carries them. US stock of course, so they'd be stupidly expensive (sorry, I don't know where to get them at a reasonable price in the UK/EU market
![Embarrassed :-[](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/embarrassed.gif)
).
But I do have one idea; What about buying from a US source, and using a reshipping service to get them to your door as a means of importing them?
A bit indirect, but I suspect this would be a lot more cost effective than Farnell (~half the price at most I'd think). Or Amazon in a pinch I guess (
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).