Soldering Tiny Wires Query

tight spots and was wondering if anyone else may have tried this. I took t he finest tip I had which is about a 0.5 mm dia on the point end and used a n Xacto knife to score a V slot. This little slot aids in making solid mech anical and thermal contact with the 30 AWG wire. Questions: 1. Anyone else tried this or similar? 2. Anyone know of commercially available "V tips" fo r soldering. Thanks in advance. EdV

I would think this would damage the plating of the tip and once it corrodes it will no longer "wett" well at that spot.

Mark

I only use kynar and teflon in that wire gauge and they wouldn't fare well with heat!

I've seen tips that look like a "forked tongue" (not sure if this is where you imagined making the notch vs. along the "length" of the tip)

I did this with a Dremel:

It's for desoldering surface-mount resistors and caps.

My low-end Metcal doesn't have fork tips available.

Better use a good iron with a relatively big tip at the proper temperature (330 deg C). The secret to soldering is to use a bigger tip than seemingly possible. Small tips lack the thermal mass and conductivity to heat up a joint fast enough so the flux burns up without doing anything.

Every now and then I solder wires as thin as a hair. The thinner the better because surface tension pulls the wire right into the soldering joint. Things can't get easier.

Nice! Mine worked but the metal is more bent out of the way than actually removed.

It's the space constraints of the already crowded PWB in this instance that led to the modified tip. I often solder a 40 AWG wire strand then add insulation and strain relieve it and solder to another strain relieved wire bit there wasn't room this time.

I make lots of patches and prototype test boards with wire wrap wire, and solder them with standard soldering tips with no trouble.

Jon

I use enamel wire, no messing around getting the insulation off, just dip the cut end in a blob of solder on a hot iron

-Lasse

Do you have a tweezer type? Really fast and little possibility of damaging the board.

The German Weller type is nice, but I've also noticed some knock-off designs for a fraction of the price.

--sp

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Your contact does NOT need to be that intimate. That is why you do NOT see it anywhere else in the industry.

I'll bet you plowed up a lot of pads and tracks in the thru-hole days.

At 30Ga., all you need is a tiny drop of solder on the end of the tip. The flux is already at the solder joint location (or should be). A mere touch of the tip to the entire connection node, and a reflow occurs, no need to dig, plow, or gain weldement level conduction of the elements involved.

The old Heathkit training is no longer valid.

Sheesh. Oh, and 30Ga wire is for point to point, and SURFACE attach. Putting on into a through hole or via is asking for it to get broken. For that, you want strands.

Yes, without the protective iron-plating, the copper core of the tip will dissolve in the solder, and won't last long.

A small drop of fresh solder and perhaps a slightly bigger tip will fill any gaps and ensure excellent thermal contact and this avoids the need for desperate measures.

Chris

I have tips which are long & thin for my Ersa iron to work in small spaces. The end of the tip is still reasonably big (1mm or so).