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Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

instructables.com

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Re: Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

#71

Post by sandreas »

lapetitejort wrote: post #29
sandreas wrote: post #20

Oh boy, nice idea, but this looks complicated and time consuming. I recommend to get some good equipment first: - solder fume extractor (see below) - extra thin high quality tin - a desoldering pump AND desoldering wire - high quality flux - a TS 100 soldering Iron with KU tip from ali express for 50 bucks - optional: USB-C Power Adapter for your existing power supply (so you don't have to buy one) - optional: a sold…

> Now flash IronOS[1] on your soldering Iron I got to here and thought this was some elaborate joke, and expected the github page to continue on with the joke. An operating system for a soldering iron?? But no, it seems 100% serious. Somehow soldering iron tech passed me by.

Everthing is better with open firmware :-) Glad you like it.

Re: Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

#72

Post by toast0 »

sickcodebruh wrote: post #65

I just started working with soldering last week to do my own pickup replacements and basic electric guitar maintenance, so this is very timely! In my first two attempts, I managed to swap pickups successfully, where "success" is measured as "it sounds the way I expect, all knobs and switches work, there is no unexpected buzzing." I worry about how much I don't know about it, so I'm curious: is it possible that I need…

> Should I be concerned that a joint that's fine today won't be OK tomorrow? Or is it enough to say that if it sounds right and doesn't look like trash, it is good enough?

It depends on the application. If you're not performing, the cost of a joint that fails later is just a bit of annoyance. If you're on stage and your equipment fails, that's a lot worse.

I wouldn't think guitar solder joints are stressed out too much though, so if it lasts a week, it'll probably last longer. There's a little bit of vibration and motion, but not a lot of power or heat. And most people try to take it easy on their guitars --- it's not like car wiring or anything.

Re: Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

#73

Post by gw99 »

bsder wrote: post #61
Whitespace wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have that many stripped wires to tin, you can use a tub of flux and a solder pot. Dip the wires into the flux, then quickly dip it into the solder pot. Perfectly tinned end with no plastic melting. Really hard to mess up vs a soldering iron, a wire, and solder wire. You can even dip multiple wires into the flux and solder bath at the same time, as well as use the flux tub again before you solder the tinned wir…

Yeah, every time I see a soldering "tutorial" that doesn't use separate flux--I facepalm. Flux is probably more important than the solder for good joints. A syringe of paste flux makes life ridiculously easier.

I did several years in production engineering. We never used flux. Not once. It’s a crutch for people who don’t know how to solder.

What we did was use solder that wasn’t shitty. Big fan of felder 62/36/2 but it ain’t cheap.

We also cleaned stuff properly before soldering it. The reason people tend to flux things to death is that they didn’t clean the oxide layer off before soldering. Or used shitty solder.

Re: Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

#74

Post by akiselev »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #40
akiselev wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the thermostat but the power output that matters and a slightly more expensive soldering iron will generally have a slightly better power supply. For example, the best soldering iron I've ever used is the Metcal fixed temperature inductive soldering station which require changing out the tip alloy to change the temperature (and I've never had to change tips for temp, only shape).

The temperature you need is very dependent on the PCB. I have heard of macbook repair techs using 850-900C irons because of the amount of metal in that PCB and its heat dissipation capabilities. I usually end up around 700-750 for hobby projects with 2-4 layer PCBs because I like to do the joints fast.

Metcal fixed temperature soldering irons use RF induction instead of resistive heating elements so they don't struggle with large copper pours like that. The soldering irons you're thinking of have very poor thermal recovery compared to a proper Metcal.

Re: Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

#75

Post by gw99 »

MithrilTuxedo wrote: post #58

NAVAIR 01-2A-23 NAVSEA SE004-AK-TRS-010/2M MARINE CORPS TM 5895-45/1E USAF T.O. 00-25-259 STANDARD MAINTENANCE PRACTICES MINIATURE/MICROMINIATURE (2M) ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY REPAIR https://www.robins.af.mil/Portals/59/documents/technicalorde... I was a solder tech in the Navy. That was our Bible.

There’s some terrible advice in there which is merely cargo cult thinking. The whole thing needs garbage collecting.

The final straw was when I saw someone using a wire brush on a Metcal tip after reading one of these mil spec guides.

I was production engineer defence sector for a few years.

Re: Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

#76

Post by gw99 »

Ao7bei3s wrote: post #28
exmadscientist wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you shouldn't lap join wires to surface-mount pads. But sometimes you have to. Just don't deliberately design something this way and we'll call it good. (Through holes are fine. Mostly.)

Yes, but if you do have to design a PCB for soldering wires to pads, you can increase the strength of the pad by making the pad much larger in the copper layer. You can still keep it the original smaller size in the solder resist layer; keeping the soldering area away from the pad edge and fragile traces there increases the strength further, and gives it a tidy look and a nice soldering experience. For quick one offs…

You should even really do that. There are loads of nice solder in crimp terminations now that you can use for wires. Or wire to board connectors.

Just stay away from any Molex crap. Tends to charcoal itself.

Re: Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

#77

Post by gw99 »

sandreas wrote: post #20

Oh boy, nice idea, but this looks complicated and time consuming. I recommend to get some good equipment first: - solder fume extractor (see below) - extra thin high quality tin - a desoldering pump AND desoldering wire - high quality flux - a TS 100 soldering Iron with KU tip from ali express for 50 bucks - optional: USB-C Power Adapter for your existing power supply (so you don't have to buy one) - optional: a sold…

Oh please not the flux over everything argument. This is completely wrong.

Buy a decent iron (metcal - get a second hand one off eBay) and some decent solder (felder 62/36/2) and you don’t need it.

Also don’t use a toothbrush with isopropyl. They tend to dissolve and leave crap all over the board.

Re: Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

#78

Post by klyrs »

SkyPuncher wrote: post #56

This is extremely useful to me as a _hobbyist_. Many of the critiques in this thread are valid, but probably not relevant to the hobbyist environment. For me, I struggle to get solder even in the best of circumstances. It's just a skill that I cannot master. I really, really like this technique as it enables me to make passable hobby solders without risking messing up my project.

As a hobbyist, I've had my fair share of cold solder joints*, so I flinched when I saw what the linked article recommends. I once did something similar with cheap perf board, and ended up scrapping it because they can only take so much rework before the traces are destroyed.

The only "good" I see in this is that they author has left a rat-tail of unmelted solder so at least it will have some flux left to wet the wire.

* which show up as intermittent opens at DC with some fun dependence on position / temperature / humidity. At audio frequencies, they're disastrous -- I can only imagine what they'd do at HF.

Re: Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

#79

Post by gw99 »

InitialLastName wrote: post #53
orangepurple wrote: post #49

Soldering is good, BUT... You should avoid soldering when possible because connectors are detachable for module maintenance and solder is prone to cracking in high vibration environments. Typically you will see a connector soldered and otherwise secured mechanically to a PCB where vibrations are unavoidable. Crimping is better whenever feasible

This is probably true for scaled production, BUT... Most people following Instructables for tips on soldering wires to vector boards aren't likely to need to maintain their prototypes, and roughly 0% of those prototypes will be in a high-vibration environment.

Actually this crap will probably be bodged into a rats nest nightmare project if it’s an instructables user.

Anyone who has debugged one of them knows to do things properly or suffer the wrath of intermittent problems.

Re: Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

#80

Post by gw99 »

akiselev wrote: post #74
pclmulqdq wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The temperature you need is very dependent on the PCB. I have heard of macbook repair techs using 850-900C irons because of the amount of metal in that PCB and its heat dissipation capabilities. I usually end up around 700-750 for hobby projects with 2-4 layer PCBs because I like to do the joints fast.

Metcal fixed temperature soldering irons use RF induction instead of resistive heating elements so they don't struggle with large copper pours like that. The soldering irons you're thinking of have very poor thermal recovery compared to a proper Metcal.

Correct. Once you go Metcal you don’t go back. When I got divorced the first thing I put on the “mine” list was my Metcal :)

You can solder on 0805 parts and switch to soldering bolts onto nuts without changing the tip or any settings.

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