Solid tinned wire meets circuit board

Bad deduction : the reistor is used to lift the board like a handle !!

So when soldering two things together (say a lead and plated hole on pcb) you want to try and make a four way junction. The two metal bits, the tip of the soldering iron, and the end of the piece of solder. Tin the solder tip first, (Tin-- touch with solder such that a little melts.)

George H. (maybe a video would be good.)

You're not using enough heat, for one thing. The plated holes should be completely filled with solder. Using a sufficiently-hot iron (700F is good), hold the iron on the joint for four or five seconds after you see the solder flow.

And as for that mess on the right side of the first picture, you've got oxidized solder problems, for which you need more active flux (RA vs RMA) and reasonably new solder. As I'll say one last time, you want to use new Kester 44 solder, which you can get for $3 via that eBay link I posted upthread.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Is there a ground pin on that plug?

Could be funny, but when I've been starting some 50 years ago, it was not better. A new soldering iron is like a domestic animal, you must master it.

An advice : don't give up. Failing is the best teacher.

No.

Andy

That is what I have found out. Use a hot iron with as large of a tip that you can. The mass of the larger tip helps keep the temperature up.

Get in with a very hot iron and back out again.

With the older irons without any control the heat was controlled by how much heat would escape to the air and smaller wattages were used. With the temperature controlled irons a 50 to about a 100 watt iron is common.

Yup. As a thought experiment, imagine a soldering iron one degree above the solder's melting point (technically its liquidus point, for non-eutectic alloys). Those parts would get very hot for a very long time before the solder flowed.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Greetings Phil, You are absolutely correct about the higher temp being better. People tend to be cautious when soldering and use too little heat. Soldering needs to be done hot and fast. Eric