I take for granted everyone doesn't know this. If you're having trouble soldering with a soldering iron, use a wet sponge or rag to wipe it when hot. It'll remove all the crud and make soldering much easier.
Soldering trick
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Also paste flux is your friend.
And do not use acid core flux! Rosin core only. The acid flux will continue to
corrode after it's taped up unless it's wet down and wiped off.
corrode after it's taped up unless it's wet down and wiped off.
You want MINIMAL flux on electrical connections. Remember, flux is an acid. when the joint has solidified but is still hot, wipe the flux off with alcohol (other solvents work too).
I won't give you the red X, but you should be using a rosin core solder for electrical work, and therefore do not need flux.
451Mopar
Well-Known Member
The real "trick" to soldering, electronics or other materials is to prep the metal so it is not dirty or oxidized. A pencil eraser actually works pretty good on circuit board contacts. Also, that the solder will flow to the heat. Apply heat from one side and apply the solder from the other side so it wicks through the connection. Only apply solder to the soldering tip to tin it, and help conduct heat. After soldering, clean the tip as mentioned because the old solder can get overheated and oxidized.
Flux is good, it really helps clean the metal, just clean up with alcohol after soldering. The same rules usually apply to welding too.
Flux is good, it really helps clean the metal, just clean up with alcohol after soldering. The same rules usually apply to welding too.
When soldering you want the solder to flow into the wires, not lump on and around the wires... Ideally the soldering iron transfers enough heat so the solder just immediately flows, bigger wires rarely work that way... So go ahead and melt a little solder on the tip of the soldering iron, it'll act as a a bridge to conduct more heat from the iron to the wire...
Stab wires together and wrap with a strand of wire to make the physical connection tight. Just learned this one.
Never use it I use silver solder only, old USAF habit I guess and rosin core can also add corrosion to a joint unless cleaned with denature alcohol afterwards.
I/we used to use leadfree solder for RoS compliance, and what a bitch to melt with air, 425 degree C IIRC!! I stayed with lead solder for R&D work, Hot air gun, and surface mount components (0502 on average).
ckessel
Well-Known Member
I found it helps if you use the skinny stuff, melts quicker since its thinner, plus a gun or iron that heats fast. Having a unit that heats the area faster slows the heat from radiating out to the other areas therefore helping to keep you from cooking your work. I use an industrial Weller gun for my stuff.
451Mopar
Well-Known Member
Do you mean Hot Gas? as in heated Nitrogen, or actually a hot air gun?
Used a special machine that used heated Nitrogen and various sized pyrex glass nozzles for SMT and Ball Grid Array component R&R.
No, a hot air soldering station for electronics. The surface mount components were so small, that is the easiest way to do it. Average components I worked with were 0603, 0402, and 0201 which is a designation for the size of the component, (0.063"x0.031", 0.039"x0.020", and 0.024"x0.012" respectively. They used just air I think for the BGA machine when I worked at Nokia. They had a 80% fail rate for connection, and our line reworker could do it better (90+%) and a hell of a lot quicker. They didn't like that and wouldn't authorize the reworker to do it for us so it had to go to BGA to not work when it came back over a week later. If we just DOA'd the phone and replaced it, it was faster.
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451Mopar
Well-Known Member
Nice soldering station.
eleven years of looking thru a bi-opic microscope didn't help my eyes any, and probably why I have problems, not to mention I am just older...
It most definitely was. When I went there (Skycross), they used two Weller pencil tip irons like chopsticks. I said I don't do Chineese, so if you want a pro job, get me this, I had it in about a week...
I was spoiled, they bought me AutoCad 2006LT too, so I could design PC boards and other things, and not have to wait on the mechanical engineer.
Timothy
Active Member
In post #9 above I would use a lineman's splice or a Western Union splice and then solder them to join the two wires together. It is much stronger.
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I made a stand for soldering, out of a pair of alligator clips and a bent coat hangar. Bend the hangar into whatever shape you want (I have two, actually - one has a section I can use as a "base" and put something heavy on it to hold it in place, or I can tape it down; the other is a simple "U" shape that I can clamp into my bench vise), but have the two ends sticking up, parallel to each other, about 3" apart. Slide the ends into the backs of the alligator clips, so the 'mouth' of the clip points up. Screw or solder them to the hangar. Run one wire through one clip, with the solder end somewhere in the middle of the clips; run the other wire in from the other clip. This lets you get a nice, clean, inline solder joint without burning off your fingerprints.
Just remember to put your heat shrink tubing on one of the wires BEFORE you clip them in and solder them together!
Just remember to put your heat shrink tubing on one of the wires BEFORE you clip them in and solder them together!
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