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I hate soldering

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Re: I hate soldering

#181

Post by varispeed »

beret4breakfast wrote: post #180
tecleandor wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How well does the pump work? A couple times I've had to desolder a connector or IC with lots of pins from a PCB and it's a painful process. I've always wanted to buy one of those, but I've seen lots of reports about getting clogged easily. I rarely desolder, but I can easily justify a hundred bucks if I can avoid all that hours of work, where I'm also risking damaging an IC, lifting a pad, or something else...

Would also recommend soldering wick - it’s just copper braid that you heat alongside the solder you’re removing and it ‘wicks’ away the solder.

Sometimes you need combination of desoldering gun, wick and also low melt solder and then those "tubes" that repel solder that you can wrap around the leg whilst heating it.

Re: I hate soldering

#182

Post by TacticalCoder »

bityard wrote: post #39
TacticalCoder wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's relaxing and has a skill curve such that there's a trick to it but with a bit of practice, you can be someone who is really good at soldering, too. I don't know. I've got my station, not a bad one: bought it with the help of a buddy who's very good at soldering. He tried to show me. I've got no choice: I own an old vintage arcade cab from the mid 80s and it's located in the middle of nowhere, in a rural area.…

I'm not trying to convince you of anything, but if all of your soldering experience is from parts that came out of a 40 year-old arcade cabinet, don't beat yourself up: that is definitely what I would call soldering in hard mode. Depending on where it lived, everything in it is probably oxidized, corroded and covered in dust, cigarette tar, and possibly cooking oil. Even if you can't see/smell any of it, it's still t…

Ah thanks to all of you for the nice comments. I didn't really realize this: I may not despair yet and still give it some more tries. I'll probably keep a few tiny PCBs (say from broken computer mouses) around and cut cables (so that they're not oxidized) and give it a go again and see if I can get a bit better at it.

Re: I hate soldering

#183

Post by ssl-3 »

bschwindHN wrote: post #137
sandreas wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starting with soldering, I find these 200$+ recommendations (regardless of which tool) hard to justify. # Soldering iron I'd recommend the Pinecil V2 with IronOS. https://github.com/Ralim/IronOS # Solder fume extraction I've built a simple fume extraction with an old plastic case, a 120mm fan and a sheet of carbon filter attached to a 120mm dryer / air conditioning hose. Around 15$ and good enough for soldering from…

> # Desoldering Pump > > Because I needed it (beginners won't) Funny you mention that, because I just instructed someone how to solder for the first time and on probably their 4th joint they needed the desoldering pump because they added too much solder. I think it's easier to teach a beginner how to use a desoldering pump than how to use desoldering braid.

I think it's easier to teach how to do good work when the instruction method prevents getting bogged down by fixing mistakes to begin with.

Too much or too little heat/time/solder/whatever? No worries; just move on to the next joint and try to get it a little bit better than the ones before.

This tends to mean working with practice materials instead of with real boards that actually have some future value, and that's quite OK. The practice has value in and of itself.

---

I can't imagine having to stop all forward progress and learn how to fix a thing after so few tries of something new.

We don't throw kids straight into the batting box and watch them strike out ("Sorry kid, maybe you can try again next weekend!"); we instead provide time and materials for them practice with first, let them make mistakes over and over again, and focus on encouraging the successes.

And then -- after enough practice that a good amount of familiarity is instilled -- they eventually get to go play a game of baseball.

Soldering should not be different in this way.

Re: I hate soldering

#184

Post by TacticalCoder »

ssl-3 wrote: post #78
TacticalCoder wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's relaxing and has a skill curve such that there's a trick to it but with a bit of practice, you can be someone who is really good at soldering, too. I don't know. I've got my station, not a bad one: bought it with the help of a buddy who's very good at soldering. He tried to show me. I've got no choice: I own an old vintage arcade cab from the mid 80s and it's located in the middle of nowhere, in a rural area.…

I also get to fix gear in the middle of nowhere, so I'm sympathetic to that plight. I used to watch people with fancy-looking soldering irons working quickly on stuff in repair shops. Some of that was technique ("it is a poor craftsman who blames his tools"), but some of it was definitely the irons they were using. And yet: My first soldering experiences were not very good. The first soldering irons I had, starting 3…

> (I can provide hands-on help, too, if you're not too far away. No big deal.)

Arcade cab would be located in France, on the french riviera, 45 minutes from the closest highway, in a sea-side but rural (lots of vineyards) area.

But I want to thank you very much for the explanation and offer to help!

Nothing in particular: typically it's the wiring around the joysticks and buttons that gives me the most trouble for the wire harness kinda "weighs" on it, then kid play like maniacs, and eventually a solder fails and has to be redone.

Now on the plus side I did buy a chinese JAMMA harness and did manage to solder everything but the result is fuglier than fugly: that's why I say I'm really bad at it. Basically I can do "gross" soldering, but not nice looking, precise ones.

I'll practice a bit though after the kind words from everybody.

Re: I hate soldering

#186

Post by mrguyorama »

bschwindHN wrote: post #137
sandreas wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starting with soldering, I find these 200$+ recommendations (regardless of which tool) hard to justify. # Soldering iron I'd recommend the Pinecil V2 with IronOS. https://github.com/Ralim/IronOS # Solder fume extraction I've built a simple fume extraction with an old plastic case, a 120mm fan and a sheet of carbon filter attached to a 120mm dryer / air conditioning hose. Around 15$ and good enough for soldering from…

> # Desoldering Pump > > Because I needed it (beginners won't) Funny you mention that, because I just instructed someone how to solder for the first time and on probably their 4th joint they needed the desoldering pump because they added too much solder. I think it's easier to teach a beginner how to use a desoldering pump than how to use desoldering braid.

A hand operated solder sucker is like $5 though, they are talking about the station based ones that can be used to desolder the entire board with little effort.

Re: I hate soldering

#187

Post by arionmiles »

Beijinger wrote: post #172

I hated it too because I had a shitty soldering iron. Could have used a ironing iron instead, so shitty was it. Use this, stop complaining: https://www.cnx-software.com/2022/07/29/pinecil-v2-soldering... Pinecil RISC-V soldering iron with the Pinecil V2 featuring a new Bouffalo Lab BL706 RISC-V microcontroller with Bluetooth LE connectivity, optimizations for higher power levels, as well as tentative support for the…

they put RISC-V in a soldering iron?

Re: I hate soldering

#188

Post by Animats »

tuetuopay wrote: post #81
Aurornis wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everything is lead-free Leaded solder is easier to work with for personal projects. Careful hand washing and handling is required, but it's easy. I also recommend people go to surface mount, but I don't recommend beginners immediately go for expensive microscopes and reflow ovens. Stick to 0806 components or larger to start and you can populate a board without any binocular microscope or magnification as long as yo…

Give a shot to the SAC305 mix. It’s a low temperature lead-free alloy, and it’s the one that made me ditch leaded solder definitively. Use more flux and a bit more iron temperature and you’ll never touch leaded solder again. Oh, and it’s available both as a hand-soldering wire reel and solder paste.

It's the 3% silver that does it. That gets the melting point down. Unfortunately, the price of silver has tripled since 2023. Hobbyists won't use enough solder to notice, but it's an issue in production.

Re: I hate soldering

#189

Post by gosub100 »

sandreas wrote: post #58
peteforde wrote: post #5

I had to click, because it turns out that I love soldering. It's relaxing and has a skill curve such that there's a trick to it but with a bit of practice, you can be someone who is really good at soldering, too. For anyone reading, the key is to invest in a proper stereo microscope and a decent fume extractor. I recommend this one: https://www.strangeparts.com/a-boy-and-his-microscope-a-love... If you're up for a bi…

Starting with soldering, I find these 200$+ recommendations (regardless of which tool) hard to justify. # Soldering iron I'd recommend the Pinecil V2 with IronOS. https://github.com/Ralim/IronOS # Solder fume extraction I've built a simple fume extraction with an old plastic case, a 120mm fan and a sheet of carbon filter attached to a 120mm dryer / air conditioning hose. Around 15$ and good enough for soldering from…

I haven't soldered in a while, but I had really good luck with the metcal models. The tips auto match the proper temp, and don't require as much cleaning.

I can absolutely see how someone would hate soldering without good equipment.

Re: I hate soldering

#190

Post by gosub100 »

jubilanti wrote: post #139
peteforde wrote: post #5

I had to click, because it turns out that I love soldering. It's relaxing and has a skill curve such that there's a trick to it but with a bit of practice, you can be someone who is really good at soldering, too. For anyone reading, the key is to invest in a proper stereo microscope and a decent fume extractor. I recommend this one: https://www.strangeparts.com/a-boy-and-his-microscope-a-love... If you're up for a bi…

It's over $1,000 to buy the products you mentioned. Kind of proves the article/poem right. If the trick is spending 4 figures, that's no trick.

That's about the same amount as any other beginner hobby. Welcome to being an adult and stuff costing money.
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