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Ask HN: Resources to get good at soldering?

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Re: Ask HN: Resources to get good at soldering?

#61

Post by kube-system »

Retr0id wrote: post #27
JohnFen wrote: post #2

You don't need any real educational resources to get good at soldering. Any random primer will do. It's genuinely a simple task that doesn't require a lot of explanation or have a lot of tricks. What gets you good at soldering is just practice. Solder a lot. A fun and easy way to do this is to pick up those cheap ($5 or less) electronic solder-it-yourself kits and do a bunch of them. Include ones that contain small s…

I find watching videos of other people soldering is almost as good as practicing myself.

I get frustrated watching soldering videos online because there are a lot of videos online of people who are really bad at soldering.

Re: Ask HN: Resources to get good at soldering?

#62

Post by XorNot »

sandreas wrote: post #11

While soldering is not that hard, different tasks require different tools. Most of them can be from very cheap to very expensive. As a beginner I'd recommend the following: A small USB-C soldering iron supported by IronOS[1], e.g. Pinecil vor TS100 A solid stand with brass wool A KU soldering tip (looks a bit like a knife) for good heat transfer, too small tips are not good Thin ( No clean flux (not a pen) Isopropyl…

Get your self a microscope stand, digital from AliExpress. The 7" screen ones are quite cheap and being able to see up close what you're doing makes all the difference in the world.

Re: Ask HN: Resources to get good at soldering?

#64

Post by skhr0680 »

eternityforest wrote: post #49
SAI_Peregrinus wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will say it's important that the soldering iron be temperature controlled. It's especially nice if it's one with the temperature sensing integrated into the tip in a cartridge (like the ones you suggested). Also, 63/37 tin/lead "eutectic" solder is the easiest to use. Wash your hands after using it, or wear gloves. 60/40 solder is almost as easy, and cheaper. Lead-free is more difficult, especially for learning. Le…

I think there's no real need to learn with leaded anymore now that we have temp controlled irons and better fluxes and such. Wearing gloves and washing your hands five million times is more annoying than just using lead free. And even with perfect precautions, the flux expands and makes it spit tiny little balls, which then contaminates your whole work area with a somewhat fine dust.

> Wearing gloves and washing your hands five million times is more annoying than just using lead free.

RoHS was more about removing lead from electronics as a whole than health risk to an individual from soldering. To put it into perspective, if you lived in a city before the 1990s, you've already inhaled more lead than you ever will from soldering.

Re: Ask HN: Resources to get good at soldering?

#66

Post by sdcfgy »

Find some trash and practice removing parts and soldering them back on first.

Not mentioned here yet but the majority of early soldering attempt failures mostly come from crap irons and crap solder not human issues. You need a decent quality temperature controlled iron and decent quality solder, preferably flux cored if you're doing repairs. Here, I have a second hand Metcal iron which cost less than the much recommended Hakko irons and is orders of magnitude better. Solder, I just use thin 60/40 multicore. Avoid the lead free initially until you have some practice.

Watch soldering videos on youtube. Check the comments to make sure people aren't slating their technique.

Removing some parts, like DIP packages really does need specialist irons with vacuum pumps built in to not mangle them. Desolder braid and solder suckers are absolutely no good for that sort of stuff and tend to lift pads.

Re: Ask HN: Resources to get good at soldering?

#67

Post by foresto »

Avoid the Hakko FX-888D soldering station. This device has one of the most bizarrely obtuse interfaces I have encountered in ages, seemingly designed to make basic adjustments as difficult as possible, and to encourage accidental decalibration of its temperature settings with no indication to the user that it has happened. I wish I had returned mine while I had the chance.

Re: Ask HN: Resources to get good at soldering?

#68

Post by MarcScott »

1. Use a soldering iron that can hit 400, and use a needle tip

2. Use leaded solder - lead-free is a pain. If you're not doing this for hours every day, even without ventilation, you'll be fine.

3. Heat the pads you're soldering to, not the solder. I used to tell kids to hold the iron to the pad for a count of three, then feed the solder in.

4. Two additional tools I find helpful - a solder sucker and copper wick.

Re: Ask HN: Resources to get good at soldering?

#69

Post by nromiun »

butvacuum wrote: post #51
eternityforest wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

C245 clones seem to be the new current standard tip format, they're pretty nice. Not supported by any open third party firmware usually, but that's fine with me. One thing to watch out for is tip grounding, some cheap irons leak a few volts at micro to milliamp level power, relative to ground, which could matter if you solder very sensitive things that are grounded, which you probably don't. DIY fume extractors are h…

and breathing flux is a far larger concern than leaded solder. Physically getting them somewhere (eating while soldering, not washing hands, etc) is still a problem.

Both lead and lead free solder use the same chemical flux in their core. So you have the same problem with leaded flux cored solder. With the additional problem of lead.
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