11–20 of 36 posts
Once you get used to doing it right, desoldering braid is awesome. I never did get the hang of those squeeze bulbs, though. The braid was always so much easier to use.
I prefer to cut the leads before I solder them - this way there's no risk of unsettling the contact while you cut the soldered lead, so this gives you nice solid reliable contacts. This requires you to hold the component with one finger while you're soldering it (otherwise it may fall off), which may get tricky as the component becomes pretty hot, but with enough kung-fu you'll be able to do it easily (e.g., hold it…
In other words, make sure you have some way of moving the fumes out of your workspace, preferably having a wide open area, and or a fume extractor (Weller makes a great one).
There's no mention of using desoldering braid (or even the suction bulbs) to fix bad joints? Sorry, but I don't like the "whack the circuit board on the table" method. Once you get used to doing it right, desoldering braid is awesome. I never did get the hang of those squeeze bulbs, though. The braid was always so much easier to use.
I prefer to cut the leads before I solder them - this way there's no risk of unsettling the contact while you cut the soldered lead, so this gives you nice solid reliable contacts. This requires you to hold the component with one finger while you're soldering it (otherwise it may fall off), which may get tricky as the component becomes pretty hot, but with enough kung-fu you'll be able to do it easily (e.g., hold it…
Amen. You need a minimum of four hands to solder easily. "Then blow air over the hot area." I'm no expert, but I've always heard this is a bad idea. (A "cold solder joint")
If failure is absolutely no option, then hold the lead on the other side of the PCB (between the soldered area and the component) really tight with some mini-pliers, to prevent too much heat from reaching the component (some heat is leeched by the mini-pliers). But this is very tricky. Sometimes I also keep a finger on the component, to remove some more heat, but I got burned more than once, since I was daydreaming instead of paying attention. As a teenager, my finger tips were always burned from the rather brash soldering technique I was using. I'm a little more cautious now.
Blowing before you remove the iron is a bad idea - if not for making bad contacts (once the liquid has managed to wet the lead and the pad all around, there's no risk of cold joint anymore), then at least because there's a risk you may blow the liquid alloy away. :)
Cold solder joints can often be recognized if you know how to "read" the shape of the solidified alloy. It's not a foolproof technique, but it does reveal the more egregious mistakes. If the alloy makes a round cone-like shape, uniform, symmetric, without interruptions, if the alloy seems to "merge" into the pad and the lead (or seems to "wet" both surfaces), as opposed to appearing to repeal the metal ("non-wetting" material) then chances are the contact is good.
Neat comic. My opinion differs on soldering irons. I find that cheap electric soldering pens tend to give me poor results. For someone starting out I think this could be discouraging. Radio shack has a cheap butane pen that works much better for me. It does cost slightly more, but I find it is usable on a wider range of projects and can even heat shrink tube in a pinch.
I would recommend buying an Aoyue temperature controlled soldering station ( http://www.amazon.com/Aoyue-936-AOYUE-Soldering-Station/dp/B... $39.99) It doesn't cost much to get a great iron.
[1]: http://www.hakkousa.com/detail.asp?CID=49&PID=4800&P...
Neat comic. My opinion differs on soldering irons. I find that cheap electric soldering pens tend to give me poor results. For someone starting out I think this could be discouraging. Radio shack has a cheap butane pen that works much better for me. It does cost slightly more, but I find it is usable on a wider range of projects and can even heat shrink tube in a pinch.
For electronics, use a soldering station, which is basically an iron that's stabilized and allows you to control the temperature.
Or use a soldering gun, but this is a bit of an acquired skill, and tends to fry sensitive CMOS devices (or anything that doesn't like EM fields and pulses). I still prefer the gun for regular components, but I'm probably old school.
1) The solder should always be convex, not concave. It's not that way in the illustrations. A concave ball, as sometimes shown, may be a good connection to the pad, but a cold joint to the wire. It'll work, for a bit, but may eventually fail.
2) Always, always, always keep the tip tinned (covered with a thin layer of solder). The solder acts as a thermal conductor between the iron and the joint, which lets the joint heat up much more quickly. It also prevents the iron from oxidizing. If you don't do this, the iron will oxidize, and you will no longer be able to tin it.
3) Feed the solder into the joint, not into the iron. That tells you the joint is hot enough.
4) Temperature controlled iron makes a huge difference. Weller WES51 is the minimum you should use ($90 or so). More expensive irons in the Weller line don't make a big difference. Metcals are nicer, but wicked expensive.
Hah. That's great. Soldering is easy. And, a soldering iron is almost as versatile as a Swiss Army knife[1]. You can use it for soldering, wood burning, spot retouching a hot-glue job, boiling water, opening those pesky Costco clamshell packages without slicing an artery, shaping open or closed-cell foam, giving toy soldiers horrific battle wounds, rosin-based aromatherapy, a(u)nt punishment, and general hole-melting…
I believe it should be a sin punishable by death to abuse a soldering iron like that.
I prefer to cut the leads before I solder them - this way there's no risk of unsettling the contact while you cut the soldered lead, so this gives you nice solid reliable contacts. This requires you to hold the component with one finger while you're soldering it (otherwise it may fall off), which may get tricky as the component becomes pretty hot, but with enough kung-fu you'll be able to do it easily (e.g., hold it…
Don't inhale solder and flux fumes ... you end up coughing up a lung or two, and if you do inhale enough of it (i've got some stupid friends) then your poop may turn black for a day or two. In other words, make sure you have some way of moving the fumes out of your workspace, preferably having a wide open area, and or a fume extractor (Weller makes a great one).
With proper technique, rosin is highly effective as flux.
Once I did a trial with aspirin instead, out of curiosity, but that stuff is devil's brainchild. It's very effective, it allows you to solder stuff on oxidized surfaces without problems, but the fumes will burn your nose, throat and windpipe - and maybe lungs too if you breathe deeply, which is pretty hard because you start coughing immediately. It's acid smoke, very corrosive. I tried it, then refused to use it again.
There's no mention of using desoldering braid (or even the suction bulbs) to fix bad joints? Sorry, but I don't like the "whack the circuit board on the table" method. Once you get used to doing it right, desoldering braid is awesome. I never did get the hang of those squeeze bulbs, though. The braid was always so much easier to use.