Honestly, just practice with a thing that does not cost a lot of money. Once you desolder and resolder a full size keyboard multiple times (this is before hot-

Honestly, just practice with a thing that does not cost a lot of money. Once you desolder and resolder a full size keyboard multiple times (this is before hot-swap was available), most normal through hole PCB soldering jobs becomes easy. 300C on my TS100 for 63/37 lead (from a cheap brand) for any solder in the past 10 years. No extra flux, clamps or anything, just a wet sponge and an open window (or soldering outside), it sounds very basic but once you know how to solder you can do it anywhere. For desoldering, a good solder pump will do. If a joint is hard to desolder, add solder and pump it again. You can use solder wick to clean up the hole, or you can just pump it again. Sure, once you have an actual paying job with disposable income you can get all the nice tools, solder, and all that jazz, but it does not make you better, it just makes it easier. Though saying that, a Hakko desoldering gun is well worth it - I am still good at using a pump and solder wick, but what a time saver the Hakko is. I have bought some spare Kester leaded spools in case it gets banned for average the consumer, but nowadays I use lead-free SAC305 solder. It's safer clean-up, the only downside is that it does not look as cool. Also, definitely use an extractor fan for lead-free, the fumes are from lead-free are meant to be way more toxic than leaded - I get a headache from some whiffs compared to many more from leaded soldering (obviously try not to inhale any in the first place!).