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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?

#71

Post by simonbarker87 »

MarcScott wrote: post #68

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.

Number three is basically the golden rule.

From memory when I ran a production line with soldering stations ventilation is equally (and possibly more) important for lead free solder.

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

#72

Post by eimrine »

The only way of doing less mistakes with expencive boards is doing more mistakes with crap boards. Soldering literature suggests that a repair man should not do anything except repairing some electronics.

Probably your board has some uncleaned flux which makes some parasitic capacitance which make your board feel dead. Also expencive boards typically have some easy to break signalizers that someone not skilled was here. Visual control is a king.

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

#74

Post by eimrine »

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…

Most of those is not a must. For me one of the most important thing is Rose alloy and some copper braid for desoldering. Also rosin is one of the best flux available because of guaranteed no corrosion. Also it is best to have not only copper soldering tip for good heat transfer but iron soldering tip as well because it will not get bent when agressively digging some crap.

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

#75

Post by jimnotgym »

Like all practical skills, practice!

Soldering new is easier than repair.

Get some dirt cheap ali express electronic kits and solder them up. Or get a load of components and some strip boards. Lead solder is much easier to use.

Basic antex iron. Stand with sponge...dab of solder on the iron, wipe on sponge, push iron against both board and component, feed in solder, admire.

For repair work, you want scrap boards real boards. Desolder all of the components, put them back.

Practice. Buy the fancier stuff once you know why it might be useful.

If you are going to do much soldering you need some kind of extractor. Flux in solder will cause breathing problems fairly quickly.

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

#76

Post by gizajob »

Get a job where you’re soldering all day, or doing audio repair or something like that. Embrace the fumes. Sloppily test live equipment. Remove and replace amplifier chips on amp boards 8 hours a day. Any company near you importing large amounts of audio or dj or stage equipment from China will need someone doing repairs and QC.

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

#77

Post by rzzzt »

boothby wrote: post #43
Retr0id wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A wirecutter Yes, but buy several. Maybe it's only because I buy cheap crap ones in the first place, but I treat them as consumables.

What are you using them for that consumes them?

If the sharp end chips, you can't get close enough to the things you want to clip.

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

#79

Post by hypercube33 »

jimnotgym wrote: post #75

Like all practical skills, practice! Soldering new is easier than repair. Get some dirt cheap ali express electronic kits and solder them up. Or get a load of components and some strip boards. Lead solder is much easier to use. Basic antex iron. Stand with sponge...dab of solder on the iron, wipe on sponge, push iron against both board and component, feed in solder, admire. For repair work, you want scrap boards real…

Ts80p iron is super crazy nice for the price. Heats up really fast and there are a lot of tips out there. I'd say it beats my two soldering stations if you're only doing soldering.

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

#80

Post by nizmow »

The biggest thing for me was just being brave enough to go for it and give it a try, and then learning how to undo your mistakes. Re-do things you’re not happy with with braid, reflow things with flux, etc. I’ve torn vias out of old valuable boards doing restoration, and I learned trace repair and fixed it.
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