Have you already made the circuit on a breadboard? If so, learning KiCAD and building the board from scratch would take around a week of afternoons.
I really recommend it, designing PCBs is very enjoyable (at least to me).
I really recommend it, designing PCBs is very enjoyable (at least to me).
Then you can order your PCB at a local shop, manufacture it yourself (with toner transfer, a CNC at a hackerspace, etc) provided the traces aren't too thin and there are not too many layers (1 is easy, 2 is standard and cheap, more layers are expensive), or order it from china at a relatively low price (jlpcb or seedstudio will average something like $1/apiece).
PS: And yes, while I really suck at soldering, working with physical products feels like a nice counter weight to the software world.
The trick to soldering is really to get a good iron, I underestimated it at the start but you really need something that keeps heat. Get a TS100 and set it to 320, soldering is going to be a breeze afterwards.
Remember, solder should flow easily and stick to the pads/wires, if it doesn't, it means you need to heat the thing up a bit more.
It’s really weird. Maybe I messed up the tip somehow? But I just got it a few days ago!
The iron is a LONOVE 925 m.