As a suggestion Dan try and pick up an old electronic device or two or three at the tip - radios, cassette player, video player etc - their boards have lots of bits on then that you can practice unsoldering and resoldering, and soldering wires etc etc, and it will not matter if you ruin them (which you probably will until you get real good at soldering)
But don't use old monitors or TV sets - these are best left for much later
David
These arent related (taking a part vis-a-vis using chemicals).
But they _do_ miss the parts. I know, I've been there, done that. But there's a trick. You find the guy who's responsible for the parts, and _ask_ him. "How can I check out parts for home projects?" They might just say, "help yourself", they might say, "We can sell them to you at our cost", they might say, "Welcome to the Future" - one doesn't know until one finds out, does one? ;-)
Have Fun! Rich
For what it's worth, I recommend against boards with long strips. Admittedly, it's been a few years since I've used "perfboard" (that's what we call it in Leftpondia, or "vectorbord", yes, that's "bord", it's a trademark. But my favoritest of all is the kind with ground plane on one side, actually a grid, with clearance for each and every hole, and a pad-per-hole on the other side. I just don't trust my skills at chiseling away at a copper band on a prototyping board. And it's remarkably easy to wire it point-to-point with #30 wire-wrap wire, especially if you have a good stripper: I ground down the rivet and took the stripper blade off a WSU-30M once:
Good Luck! Rich
Not "adhere", but it will melt itself into plastic.
What kind of plastic perfboard are you using? Frankly, it's the first time I've ever heard of any - they're either phenolic or fiberglass.
Which metal surface is this?
And, as I've said, see if you can find one with individual pads - you can solder the parts in place (to the pads), and _then_ string your wires.
Good Luck! Rich
I've heard that there _is_ "solder" that will "stick" to aluminum, but I've also heard that it's such a PITA to try to get it to operate properly that it's worth it to just take your aluminum parts to a TIG shop. :-)
Have Fun! Rich
This post has some great soldering advice that I plan on studying in much more detail. My soldering consists of fairly simple hobby-type stuff, but still I'd like to be able to make those perfect little "hershey's kiss" type solder-dots. Now, I can solder small things together without shorting two things close together, but I've *never* figured out the technique to make those perfect-looking little pointy dots. Any specific advice for that? I generally use rosin-core 60/40 RS solder, btw. is that less-than-recommended for the level of 'perfection' i'm desiring, or is it all in the solderer's control? remember, i'm not a pro nor do i play one on tv- just an occasional hobbyist but I *am* a perfectionist, and ugly solder joints just bug me. TIA karinne
Solder joints should have the Hershey Kiss look, only if there is a lead sticking up out of the joint, with the solder wetting up the wire and pad below it. A solder dot on a pad should be smooth a shiny on top, more like an M&M or a small donut. Anything rough or with points indicates either oxidation on the solder (iron too hot so it burns all the flux off or there was not enough flux to cover the solder and keep it from being exposed to oxygen before it solidified) or soldering iron too cold to melt the solder fully. A good alloy like 63% tin,
37% lead or 62% tin, 36% lead, 2% silver also flows a bit better than 60%tin, 40%lead, or (shudder) 50% tin, 50% lead, or (cringe) 40% tin, 60% lead.Don't dab with the iron. This just helps oxygen get mixed with the molten metal, creating dross on it. Apply heat to the pad and wire to be joined, perhaps with a touch of solder between iron and metal, to form a thermally conductive path. Then sweep the end of the solder around the lead to spread the flux to wet everything that needs to be coated with solder. This sounds like a lot of solder, but if you are using something like .02 inch diameter, or .032 inch, it need not be very much.
Finish by sliding the iron up the lead, so the excess follows the iron up. Then, when you trim the lead, you also trim the excess solder off. You should end up with a tiny Hershey's Kiss with the top trimmed off (ideally, with flush cutters for a flat, non snaggy tip).
Never use acid core solder on electronics, because the flux residue is both corrosive and conductive.
Just in hopes of keeping you from going down the wrong track here, a "hershey's kiss" solder blob means you've used at least three times as much solder as you should have. It should be a smooth fillet, that just blends in to both the copper dot on the board (which should have already been tinned) and the component lead. For SMT, a fillet joint with minimal solder is almost de rigeur, IIUC. (I think they call that "sweat-soldering" - the solder wicks up between the pad and the chip by capillary action.) What you want is good wetting.
Practice, practice, practice. :-)
Here ya go:
Have Fun! Rich
NO! NO! NO!!!
There should be no blob. It should make a smooth transition - at the edge of the solder fillet, it should just feather into whatever it's supposed to be bonding.
If you have a lump like a Hershey Kiss, or an M&M, or a "small donut", you're doing everything exactly wrong - iron's too cold, too much solder, didn't heat up the component lead or the pad enough to get good wetting. Solder is _NOT_ hot-melt glue.
I looked up "Good Solder Joints" (with the quotes) on Google images -
lemme go see if I can go pick a really good example...
Here's an example of a very bad solder joint:
This is a very long link - please do mind the wrap:
Have Fun! Rich
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