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I hate soldering

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Re: I hate soldering

#81

Post by tuetuopay »

Aurornis wrote: post #56
Animats wrote: post #21

He's soldering like it's fifty years ago. Everything is lead-free surface mount now. Solder paste, stencils, reflow ovens. Hand soldering is precision temperature controlled irons, hot air rework stations, magnifiers, cameras, and exhaust fans. The tools are more complicated, more expensive, and better. One of the lessons of surface mount work is that you really can move your fingers a thousandth of an inch. But you…

> 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.

Re: I hate soldering

#83

Post by BoredPositron »

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…

just don't use leaded solder. the absolute obsession of people from NA and lead should be studied.

Re: I hate soldering

#84

Post by thenthenthen »

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…

Havent clicked but I LOVE SOLDERING! It’s relaxing, gives a real sense of creating something. Yes even soldering hundreds of the same units every day feels just so gratifying somehow… the way you get better and faster every unit, having this batch of new shiny things lined up, giving ‘life’ to otherwise inert pieces of a puzzle. Yes.

Re: I hate soldering

#85

Post by sampullman »

peteforde wrote: post #17
erwincoumans wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed on stereo microscope, also suggest flux and a good iron with exchangeable tips and hot tweezers (I enjoy the Hakko).

I can't imagine not using flux! I have a Hakko FX-888D. It's pretty good, although I wish there was some way to switch tips that didn't involve letting it cool down to a safe handling temperature. I am curious what you mean by rework tweezers. Link please! Another link for folks: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B077BQWMTY I go through these for solder flux removal like crazy, in combination with an aerosol can of MG Chemica…

How ofter are you switching tips? It's been a while since I did any real soldering, but I don't remember often needing to switch in the middle of a session.

Re: I hate soldering

#86

Post by torginus »

peteforde wrote: post #18
wrs wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new breed of irons with temperature measurement built into the tip (invented by JBC, cloned by Geeboon and similar) is amazing. The tip heats to exactly the temp you want in 3 seconds, then cools down to avoid damage when you put it back in the stand. As you solder, the power is automatically controlled to keep the tip at the specified temp regardless of the load you put on it. I never thought I'd replace the Wel…

Share a link! Don't be shy.

I have bought the TC22 after going on r/Soldering and can only stand by the recommendation, its an amazing iron for hobbyists and its ability to put tons of power on a tiny area quickly means basically its 100% easier to work with than a ton of cheap irons, and have a much lower chance of killing components than dicking around with less powerful ones and staying on the pin a long time trying to heat it up while it wicks heat away into sensitive electronics. Doubly so when I mess it up or the solder is not fully melted. Another nice thing is with powerful irons you don't have to overshoot the melting temp of solder as much, and tips with less thermal mass in general can be used.

Im a rank amateur so take what I said with a grain of salt. With that said, I have made several cool things in my life that many people've said I could charge money for. I guess you can't really see the mess I made when you can't look inside the housing :)

I've purchased it from the GEEBOON Store on Aliexpress (no affiliate or anything just looked up my order history):

https://geeboontools.aliexpress.com/store/1103439446

All being said you might not be comfortable with supporting the Chinese clone industry, and I can understand that.

Re: I hate soldering

#87

Post by torginus »

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've had bad experiences with USB irons, they generally don't have stellar compatibilty with USB power banks, and when your 60W iron can only draw 20W from your 100W power bank or PSU (but sometimes it works).

They even come with these compatibility wikis of what PSU or bank to buy.

Re: I hate soldering

#88

Post by DANmode »

eviks wrote: post #71
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…

With you overall, but given the toxicity of the fumes some quality / rated fume extraction might be the one area where cheap/self made item isn't worth it

Understatement.

Re: I hate soldering

#89

Post by [deleted] »

BoredPositron wrote: post #83
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…

just don't use leaded solder. the absolute obsession of people from NA and lead should be studied.

[deleted]

Re: I hate soldering

#90

Post by Joel_Mckay »

Pr0ject217 wrote: post #10
sowbug wrote: post #8

Watching skillful SMT soldering on YouTube fascinates me in a way that helps me understand the ASMR videos that the kids watch these days.

Recommendations?

With the exception of a hot air rework tool, a soldering iron should complete a nice fillet within 3 seconds. Adjustable temperature kits tend to hide the skills needed to work with the thermal mass of the iron itself.

Soldering with an iron:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvl_KYif9zA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RXugDd0xik

Drag soldering with a hoof tip iron:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUyetZ5RtPs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyele3CIs-U

Hot air techniques (mid size QFN, soic, and other SMD):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v58m-S35s24

Recommended equipment:

WE1010EDU for fine and medium work (remember the 3 second fillet rule)

https://www.amazon.com/Weller-WE1010EDU-Soldering-Education-...

A set of hoof and screwdriver tips:

https://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Weller-WE1010-Soldering-ETSET...

Flux and solder wick for cleaning pad areas on PCB:

https://www.amazon.com/Lesnow-Desoldering-Electronics-Disass...

CREWORKS 858D cheap hot air tool for basic SMD rework:

https://www.amazon.com/CO-Z-Soldering-Temperature-Desolderin...

1. never use metal wool to clean the iron tip coating

2. Before use, clean by dragging a hot iron across water dampened sponge (or paper) to smear off oxidized material.

3. Never use Bismuth solder, it was invented by fools for fools. Also, indium contamination can make you go bald.

4. Your iron should choose one (and only one) of the following

i. Sn63/Pb37 No-Clean eutectic solder for low temperature industrial machinery

ii. RoHS compliant SAC305 Lead-Free No-Clean Solder

5. No Clean means the flux core in the solder may be left on the work. However, it is recommended to clean it off with 99% IPA.

6. Fume extraction blows crud outdoors, and charcoal filters just makes crud smell nice.

7. Practice PCB kits are cheap, and getting 2 in case you cook something by inserting it backwards may be wise.

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/soldered-electron...

Best of luck =3

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