Soldering and solder bridging questions

I am going to make another timing circuit, identical to the one that I assembled on breadboard

but the new one would be assembled on "pre-drilled fiberglass board". The objective here is to mount everything neatly and to reduce "inductive loops" etc.

The question that I have is how to connect the holes. I would love to do it using little lines made of solder.

I also want some super nice soldering thing in general.

Is there something that could be bought for under $50 that would let me do solder bridging and also make a very nice soldering gun (quick to warm up, with settable temp, etc).

I have done that, but it works a lot more reliably if you first lay down a small gauge wire along the route. I like 30 ga. kynar insulated wire wrap wire, because the insulation slides off easily with a pair of sharp cutters and the wire is silver plated, which makes it tin very nicely.

Get a thermostatically controlled iron and a few different size tips, something like:

/| /| _____________________ ||__|| | | / O O\\__ | PLEASE DO NOT | / \\ | FEED THE TROLLS | / \\ \\|_____________________| / _ \\ \\ || / |\\____\\ \\ || / | | | |\\____/ || / \\|_|_|/ | _|| / / \\ |____| || / | | | --| | | | |____ --| * _ | |_|_|_| | \\-/

• / \_ /- | | | * ___ C_c_c_C/ \C_c_c_c____________

wrote: (snip)

What makes you suspect that either is important enough to mention?

who are you and what is your problem with my post?

Actually, you DO want it to. That's how you solder 'em. Lay a bridge across the pins and then clean it up with wick.

Of course, you don't want to let the chip KNOW your intention, or the bridge won't form.

-- jm

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The nicest soldering iron that I have used is a Metcal MX500, but they are fairly expensive and the tips for them are too.

For big stuff like 1206 and 0805 SMD components and also for non-SMD components, the Weller TCP is still a reasonably good choice. That would still be more than $50 though.

You might be able to find a supplier of Antex brand irons in the US, though they are made in the UK. These are the best irons I know of that would be in the $20 price range. Some of their models have a thermostat circuit in the handle.

Avoid anything which has a 'bit' (or tip) that looks a little like a screwdriver and where the bit is held into a hole in the end of the iron by a set-screw in the side of the element (e.g. cheap weller irons in the hardware store, and actually pretty much any iron in a typical hardware store). These might be useful for opening tins of paint or maybe for poking holes in plastic bags but are not suitable for soldering.

By the way, like the other guy said, lay a piece of wire along your connection before you solder. Solder is actually a pretty bad conductor compared to copper, so using solder for long lengths of track is bad. Also the solder does not really like to bridge gaps because of the surface tension, unless there is a wire there for it to stick to. (ok, solder will happily bridge the gap between the pins of a TSSOP, but only because you don't want it to. If you wanted it to it wouldn't.)

Chris

Thanks Chris. I will try to buy a soldering kit from the military surplus sales (directly from the military/govliquidation.com), perhaps I can save some $$ by doing that. I hope that I can get a nice deal.

Absolutely! I bought my second Antex this year (as a backup if the first one dies) via the Web - wish I could remember where. Might have been Minute Man: (watch out for line wrap)

Ed