Soldering frustrations

This year I turn 50. I was taught how to solder when I was 10, so I know how to do it, but I have some sort of nervous condition where I can't hold my hands still for more than 3 seconds. If you know any thing about golfing, it is like a permanent case of the yips.

All my life, this has been a frustration. Things weren't so bad when everything was mounted on a big piece of metal and all that had to be soldered was wires to lugs or tube mounts (what would be said then was my soldering was sloppy), but when these little tiny boards came along assembled by Japanese women with tiny hands, I was all done.

I can't even assemble a kit any more.

For a few years, I would bring small repair jobs to an old man I knew. The first time he looked at me funny when I told him my problem, and then he *got* funny when I said to him one day, "Could you please solder this part from this to that for me?" He says to me, "You think that will fix it? You know, I'm not going to fiddle with this thing all day if it doesn't work." I asked him again to go ahead and do it and he was very surprised when it began to work again.

So I never had any more trouble out of him. He was nice enough to do what I asked him to do. But then he died. And I moved and now I am back to trying to do it myself again with cold joints galore.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to do this pencil soldering with clamps or something? I have tried to use several different types of alligator clips, but cripes, it takes me 20 minutes to work out how to hold three different things to make a 30 second solder. Solving the clamping problem takes 10 times longer to solve than anything else.

I'm open to ideas.

Reply to
Vey
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the final act of soldering (at least of a small part) should only take 3 seconds.

one second to heat, one second to apply solder, one second to flow. then remove heat.

of course larger jobs like soldering a PL-259 to RG-8 will take longer and require more heat.

i make frequent use of a Panavice for holding work. also 'helping hands' mounted on a heavy oval of wood.

make sure you soldering pencil has some form of temperature control... the heat needs to be about 650 degrees for a good joint (your experience may very).

some pencils have changeable tips marked 6, 7, or 8 for hundreds of degrees. i have long moved to a station with a dial on it for temp control.

you might consider adding a pistol grip the the iron... it may be easier for you to hold steady in a fist.

Reply to
TimPerry

I agree.We've been going through a similar thing in a thread further down. When Tim says 650 deg he means Farenheit. I only say this because there was some confusion in the other thread. Be aware that temp controlled stations that have a readout, are usually in deg C, so if you try turning it up to

650, you won't get there ! Also be aware that manufacturers have been moving over to lead-free solder for the last couple of years to comply with new European legislation that comes in 1st July. Joints with this stuff require a hotter iron, and take about double the time required to make leaded joints. A joint can't be made to look anything other than cold or bad, even by an experienced hand solderer, so I'm sorry to say that things will only get worse for your condition.

Arfa

Reply to
Arfa Daily

You could rig something with a machinist's X-Y table and height transfer stand that would let you position everything as you want, then drop and raise the soldering iron -- all with mechanical assistance. A modified arbor press might be better than the height transfer stand, since you could use a lever to raise and lower the soldering iron.

Check out Enco for ideas. You can f> Does anyone have any ideas on how to do this pencil soldering with

Reply to
Mike Berger

mine is marked in both scales.

on stations i have used with LED readouts you can see the temp fall when you apply the tip to the work

Also be

indeed, i got a tube of solder onr time that i doubt anyone could make a shiney joint with. i will stick with Ersin or Keister

Reply to
TimPerry

WoW! That's a really good idea! When I think of "Drill Press" I don't think miniature, but I guess a lot of other people do. There are tons of them out there. Dremel (Bosch) makes one that the angle can be adjusted in 15 degree increments, so if I had to bring the iron in at an angle, I could.

So let's say I wanted to assemble a board from a kit. First I would stuff the board and put tiny alligator clips on to sink what needed to be sunk. Then I would put either a plastic or rubber, fairly thick foam sheet over the parts, then maybe a piece of cardboard over that. Then I would flip the sandwich and put it on the xy table.

I would need some sort of a depth stopper, so that I didn't jerk the handle too far down and break things or maybe a dial down device rather than pull down handle.

And wouldn't it be nice if I could make a solder feeder? Something like the wire feeders they put on wire welders? Or I could just use the helping hands to hold the solder.

Look, Ma! No hands!

Reply to
Vey

TimPerry wrote: > make sure you soldering pencil has some form of temperature control... the

I really hadn't thought too much about temperature. I've always just tried to tin the tip and if I could, then it was "hot enough." I've seen "stations" for sale with rheostats and gauges , but since I don't do this for a living, the price scared me away.

I've tried pistol grips, but they don't help me much. In fact, when I use my big old Weller, pulling the trigger makes things a little worse since it tightens up the muscles in my arm. But with a soldering gun tip that big, I can't miss anyway, so it is not a big deal.

Reply to
Vey

At 50 myself, I am developing the same problem. Not to mention the eyesight thing. In woodworking there is a saying, if you can't bring the wood to the tool, bring the tool to the wood. In our case, I have had some sucess in clamping the iron in place and bring the parts an solder to it. For me the lighter weight of the solder is easier to handling and depending on the parts,it sure is easier. Also, I have seen at least one foot controled soldering iron. Kinda like an impulse soldering iron. Hope this helps. Bob

Reply to
The Other Funk

Yes -- machining, unlike woodwork, assumes that the workpiece stays in place and the tools move around. So there's lots of off-the-shelf hardware to do just what you want if you replace the mill/drill head with a soldering iron!

You can get someth> Mike Berger wrote:

Reply to
Mike Berger

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