Soldering: Need Two More Hands(Part 2)

Hey

Maybe not much help to you, but I commonly solder JAMMA fingerboards.

What I do is locate the pad to solder to, and give it a light rub with some find grit sandpaper, and then clean with isopropyl. Then I stick the soldering iron on it and rub it around a bit, just in case there are any remaining impurities on the surface. Then I 'seed' the pad with a blob of solder, which should flood to the edges of the pad and not sit like a little ball (which would snap off).

Finally I grab the wire (which should has a little solder on it itself) in a pair of needlepoint pliers and stick it on the solder on the pad. Then simply press it down with the iron.

Im a complete amateur, but this works for me.

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1. Get a soldering sponge and get it pretty damp (not soaking wet, damp).

1. Plug your iron in and let it get hot.

2. Tin it. That means touch some solder to the tip until it melts and flows onto the tip. Id you can't do that, your tip is dirty and you'll have to clean it. To do that, I scrape the edge of a common screwdriver along the tip to get the crud off of it, and then hit it with some solder. A little at a time. Scrape until some crud is gone, put a little solder on the tip,then scrape away a little more gunk and repeat until the whole tip is bright. Once you've got it like that, clean it by rubbing on the sponge and put a new layer of solder on it. Your iron is now tinned.

1. Strip and tin the wires. Use a good stripper that won't nick the wires and remove as much insulation as you need to. Then, if you have any strands sticking out, twist them back so they follow the lay of the rest of the strands. Once you've got that done, take your solder and lay it down so it sticks out over the front of your bench, then touch your wire and the soldering iron to the solder at the same time, at the same place, so that when the solder melts it'll flow into the wire. Your wire is now tinned.

2. Tin the finger strips. Touch the iron to where you want to solder the wire and put a little solder where they're touching. The idea is to flow a _little_ solder onto the fingerstrip where the wire will be connected.

1. Solder the wire to the fingerstrip. Lay the wire down on the tinned part of the fingerstrip and press down on it _gently_ with the iron. If you do it right the solder in the wire will melt and cause the solder on the fingerstrip to melt as well. When that happens, hold the iron on the joint for a second or two, and then quickly remove it WITHOUT DISTURBING THE WIRE. Keep the wire from moving with the hand holding it NO MATTER HOW HOT THE INSULATION GETS, and If you did it right, when it cools the joint should be nice and shiny. If it isn't, unsolder it, remove the old solder from the fingerstrips with braid, retin it, heat up the wire and shake the old solder out of it, retin it and try again.

The most important thing is to get the joint hot enough before you remove the iron, and to keep it ABSOLUTELY still while it's cooling. The other most important thing is to keep your iron clean and well-tinned. If you don't have a soldering sponge, get one.

-- John Fields Professional Circuit Designer

Hi, Darren. Google is your friend. The _first_ link shown on the search

"How to solder" video

was

Try it. It works. Download all six parts.

Try this, too:

Even though it's not a video, it's good.

Also, I'll bet you've either got oxidized wire or oxidized fingerboards. Go through Mr. Fields' procedure, and see if one or the other doesn't wet. I'll bet that's your problem.

Good luck Chris

To add to John's excellent advice, you may want to add those two more hands you mention in your header. They sell little stands with arms that hold alligator clips that can grab small boards while you solder. Or you can probably rig something up with a separate alligator clip or two. (They may be already on the endsof an odd cable you have laying about.) Either way, you will have to be careful not to pinch the wire insulation too close to where it is heated, or the clip teeth will push through the softened insulation.

Best regards,

Bob Masta dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom D A Q A R T A Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis

In addition to the advice in the other responses, I would suggest that you may want to obtain some 63/37 solder as it might be a little easier to work with. 60/40 goes through a "plastic" stage when it cools, during which time it is vulnerable to movement which will cause a disturbed joint. Disturbed joints look a lot like cold solder joints in that they are lack luster and have a rippled appearance. 63/37 solder, which is a eutectic goes directly from a solid to a liquid without this plastic stage.

You may also want to see if anyone nearby teaches any IPC soldering certification classes. While you may not be interested in the certification, I took one on SMT soldering and it made all the difference in my ability.

Here is a link to the company I took my training from:

Most of their classes are in Raleigh, NC, but they do have classes in other locations. At the very least, it will give you an idea of what kinds of classes are offered.

Good advice here. Something else that may help keep things clean is bit cleaner. I never used this as far as I can remember with my old weller iron that my Dad bought me as a kid, but with a recent antex iron, I was inexplicably having a lot of trouble with keeping the bit clean on some work I was doing. So I bought a little tin of bit cleaner and it does the job fantastically. You shouldn't need to use it often, but if the bit does get messed up then this will clean it in a couple of seconds and leave it lightly tinned, shiny and good as new. As others mentioned, a damp solder sponge (not a bath one!) is essential too. If tinning wires, depending on the number of cores you may get a rapid build up of excess solder on the bit. Wipe this off to the sponge after tinning each wire or two so that you're applying a fresh bit to one side of the wire and new solder to the other side, rather than any solder left on the bit from previous wires.

This page from Rapid here in the UK shows the bit cleaner item. It's a tiny tin. Multicore are in the UK, but I expect that you get the same or a similar item from your local supplier and it might come in handy.

Good luck with the soldering!

From the sounds of it, you really need to stop being cheap and get decent equipment.

First, make sure you have the right equipment to do the job. There is no substitute for the right equipment. Let me assure the right equipment doesn't include a cheap Radio Shack soldering iron. If you are serious about soldering, get a decent soldering station, a Metcal for instance or at least a Weller.

Second, get decent wire... Teflon coated is much nicer than PVC (not to mention probably safer for a whole host of reasons). The right wire might be stranded or solid depending on what you are doing.

Third, get all the other stuff you need to properly do it. Tweezers, a helping hand, a vise, isopropyl alcohol, water dispenser, solder paste, sponge, solderwick, liquid flux (very useful for the solderwick), boars hair brushes, a magnifying lamp, and proper ventilation is always nice too. In theory (and I know its asking a lot) you should also be operating on an ESD safe properly grounded mat with a ESD bracelet.

Now in terms of technique. The first thing to do is use the right tip for the job, keep the tip clean and then tin it with solder. Now tin the leads of whatever it is you want to solder, then hold the parts together in the appropriate position with tweezers, tin the tip of your iron, and push the two pieces together with the iron and let the solder flow between them. Then remove the iron, while keeping the pieces perfectly still and allow them to cool. If you are soldering an IC, go for the corners first and use it to tack the part in place. Having the right equipment will help more than you can believe.

Excellent advice! I've embellished the subject line a little to make it more searchable on the archive.

I would like to add one thing, however - very many years ago, I got a little tub of something called "TipTinner" at RS - it's a combination of flux and little solder granules that you stick your iron into and it cleans and tins it. They still have something fairly similar, albeit when I got mine it was about a buck:

Look in the yellow pages to try to find an amateur radio club or electronics special interest group, or go to a local repair shop, and watch somebody solder.

And, of course, practice, practice, practice. ;-)

Good Luck! Rich

Dood! Get that! One post, and he's plonked!

Cheers! Rich