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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

#111

Post by MivLives »

picture wrote: post #97
squarefoot wrote: post #88

Bad advice. Just use a good solder iron, thin solder (possibly leaded), and good no clean flux, then lots of practice. It's all about timing: too quick = cold solder joint; too slow = burned pad/track, or part. Learn also to understand about thermal mass and how to change the temperature and timings according to what you're soldering and its size. Also, that iron looks like a Hakko "936" cheap clone: they are barely…

The PineCil looks like a TS100 clone, though I'm not too sure which came first. The huge benefit of these microcontroller irons are their monolithic heating element that integrates the temperature sensor. This allows for much better temperature control compared to cheap Hakko-style irons where the tip is a metal piece that sleeves over the heating and sensing elements. It makes a very meaningful improvement in terms…

TS100 was first. I believe the Pinecil also takes TS100 tips.

I've liked the Pinecil except sometimes mine crashes in the middle of me soldering. I need to update the OS but I'm lazy. It does fail cold (Says it's hot but it's not heating) which is probably the better of the two ways it could go.

Re: Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

#112

Post by buescher »

gw99 wrote: post #77
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.

Agreed on the flux, agreed on the metcal. And oh yes, silver bearing solder is really nice. I only use it for repairs of solder joints that have failed mechanically. If you use it for everything, that solves that problem... but a little rich for my blood.

Hobbyists and technicians get obsessed with cleaning off flux. Hobbyists have no business cleaning flux off boards. It's very easy to wind up freeing corrosive salts from the rosin matrix. Then they smear all over the board to corrode and conduct. My rule of thumb is if you can't measure the cleanliness of your board, don't clean it.

Re: Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

#113

Post by gw99 »

bitdivision wrote: post #102
gw99 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

felder 62/36/2 [0] is a flux-cored solder. So you were using flux every time. It's also a leaded solder, which is much easier to get nice joints from than lead-free. Flux is great, adding some before you solder is a good tip, and will likely help you make better joints if as you said, you haven't perfectly cleaned everything. The only downside is perhaps some more cleanup afterwards. There's no reason to disparage it…

Yes it’s additional flux that you don’t need.

Re: Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

#114

Post by thrway3344444 »

gw99 wrote: post #77
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.

> Oh please not the flux over everything argument.

> felder 62/36/2

Other readers please note that felder 62/36/2 has a flux core. Which isn't clear in this comment.

Re: Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

#115

Post by randombits0 »

gw99 wrote: post #113
bitdivision wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

felder 62/36/2 [0] is a flux-cored solder. So you were using flux every time. It's also a leaded solder, which is much easier to get nice joints from than lead-free. Flux is great, adding some before you solder is a good tip, and will likely help you make better joints if as you said, you haven't perfectly cleaned everything. The only downside is perhaps some more cleanup afterwards. There's no reason to disparage it…

Yes it’s additional flux that you don’t need.

Depends. New work versus rework versus what-is-this-piece-of-crap?

Re: Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

#116

Post by randombits0 »

linker3000 wrote: post #101
gw99 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"It’s a crutch for people who don’t know how to solder." This needs shouting from the rooftops. So many people get sucked into the groupthink on this; yes it helps with less-than-perfect beginner's soldering skills, but it should not be normalized. Flooding every joint with extra flux is unnecessary and a waste of money. /Pet peeve (well, one of them!)

We all don’t get to work on nice, new, shiny PCBs. Sometimes other things get in the way. I have three different kinds of flux, two types of solder, copper wick, three solder suckers, two guns, and a scratch pen. I’m not out to practice the art, I just want to be effective.

Re: Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

#117

Post by linker3000 »

gw99 wrote: post #75
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.

Best I saw during my apprenticeship days in the 1980s was when we had some EE degree students on work placement.

We worked in R&D and all (Multibus II) boards were hand-soldered and had to be visually inspected by a supervisor before testing.

One chap presented his board for checking and, after a visual and touch inspection, our supervisor said that some of the joints were a bit 'pointy' and would need fixing.

So off went the student to the fab area of the workshop, the board was put in a vice and I just stopped him as he approached the bench with a sandpaper-wrapped block of wood.

Re: Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

#118

Post by larrywright »

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…

Do you have a recommendation for a home hobbyist fume extractor?

Re: Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

#119

Post by buescher »

GuB-42 wrote: post #91
fifteenforty wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% on the fume extractor. Avoid the cheap little "carbon filter" models though. You need particulate filtration and a bit of organic vapour extraction, so HEPA +/- carbon if you are going to recirculate it within your work environment. Don't take my word for it, it's all explained in the NIOSH and OSHA handbooks.

You don't get the same exposure from working in a shop soldering all day than from the occasional hobby project. And if you have a simple fan, you are already doing more than most hobbyists. Safety is not priceless. Regulators carefully calculate how much impact various safety equipment and practices have relative to their cost. And you too should consider how much you need it. Solder for hours a day, get the best fu…

I have never bothered, personally, even when I built more of my own prototypes myself. Hobbyists should consider their personal risk and go in increments. If you are not in a situation where setting up monitoring for exposure to flux per the NIOSH handbook is appropriate, you probably don't need much mitigation either. Putting solder assemblies at a level where flux smoke won't go up into your face is a good idea and practically free. A fan is a good idea, especially if you have one already.

If you're fixated on getting yourself a fume extractor... well, to each their own.

Re: Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

#120

Post by buescher »

gw99 wrote: post #76
Ao7bei3s wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There are some really cool surface mount IDC things too, and push-in terminators for solid wire.

Solid wire through holes is OK if the wire is never going to flex. Otherwise the stranded wire lapped to surface mount pads, or soldered into through holes, with a big blob of hot glue or epoxy for maybe-sorta "strain relief" is a great pet peeve of mine - it's ugly and it breaks.

Never had a problem with Molex, myself.

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