How to solder, a picture tutorial :)

[spystyle]

Hello from Maine,

Just in case you don't know how to solder, I'll show you how I do it. It's exceptionally easy

Make sure to work in a very well ventilated area as the fumes are unhealthy.

--------------------------

Lesson 1 : First we'll solder a wire to a keyboard encoder.

Step 1. Using a wire stripper, strip off a portion of the wire's insulation. Then put a paper thin coat of flux on the exposed wire.





Step 2. Stick the exposed wire into the keyboard encoder's connection hole.





Step 3. Touch the hot soldering iron to the solder and it will create a bead of molten solder on the it's tip.



Step 4. Then quickly touch that molten solder bead to the wire in the keyboard encoder's connection hole.



Step 5. Let it cool for a few seconds, then give it a gentle tug to make sure it's securely connected.

--------------------------

Lesson 2 :  Soldering a wire to a micro switch's terminal, and an introduction to "tinning".

Step 1. Give all "NO" and "COM" micro switch terminals a paper thin coat of flux.



... let's work with this micro switch terminal. Notice It has a thin coat of flux.





Step 2. Add solder to it as shown in lesson 1. Now the terminal is "tinned". This will make it easier to solder to.





Step 3. Let's also "tin" the wire we intend to solder to the "tinned" micro switch terminal. Strip a portion of the insulation off.



... Add a small amount of flux.



... And add a small amount of solder. Now the wire is "tinned" and it will easily attach to another tinned surface. 



Step 4. Hold the "tinned" wire to the "tinned" micro switch terminal.





Step 5. With a bead of molten solder on it's tip, quickly touch the soldering iron to the pair. Then let it cool for a few seconds and give it the "tug test".





--------------------------

Lesson 3. How to solder two wires together.

Here is a device I bought from eBay called "helping hand" http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=helping+hand+soldering&rt=nc&LH_BIN=1



Here are two wires I want to connect. I will "tin" them then connect them.



First strip :



Then flux :



Then tin :



Then solder them together. Let it cool for a few seconds then give it the "tug test"



After you can wrap the bare wire in electrical tape or use hot glue to hold it down.



Now you are ready to wire up your control panel



--------------------------

Lesson 4. How to clean a micro switch terminal.

It's unlikely to happen to you - but if solder won't stick, the copper terminals might need cleaning. This happened to me with micro switches that had been stored in a humid basement for a very long time. You can polish it with a Dremel (or die grinder) with "carbon steel brush" or "stainless steel brush"

Here it looks tarnished, the solder won't stick!



Polish it with the wire wheel :



And now it's nice.



--------------------------

OK, I hope this was helpful. Let me know what you think.

Cheers,
Craig

[ABACABB]

Awesome!!   Thanks for putting this together.  I am a complete novice at this and attempted to solder to a gamepad pcb and burnt one of the reminals to a crisp.  I think after seeing this I could give it another go and hopefully have better results.  Thanks again!

[CoryBee]

+1 for tinning

Pretty simple tutorial for those uninitiated 


Edit: I like to use a flux pen for the microswitches (and many other things)

From China

US Store

[PL1]

Pinball Rehab has several soldering/desoldering tutorials from beginner to advanced.

Several other important points to remember when soldering:

The smaller the item, the shorter time you have to apply heat to it.

To increase your working time with wires or protect heat sensitive components, you can use a heat sink clip between the solder connection and the insulation/sensitive part of the component.
   

Watch for cold solder joints.  One way to avoid them is to put the iron on one side of the component being soldered and touch the solder to the other side of the component until the solder melts.

Cold solder joint


Use the correct amount of solder.  Tinned wires should still have strands visible and pins should look like the middle image below.

Proper solder joint - "The bigger the blob, the better the job" is only a  joke.


A cotton swab with isopropyl is great for cleaning flux splatter.

Keep a wet soldering sponge handy to clean the tip if it is getting too oxidized.

Tin the tip before shutting off the iron to protect it from corrosion.


Scott

[spystyle]

Excellent points Scott - you must an EE guy

Thanks all for chiming in

[WindDrake]

Nice beginners guide.

Isopropyl (98% or better) is probably one of the most underrated things in cleaning electronics.

If you've got water-clean fluxes like I do, a mix of 50% Isopropyl (99%) to Distilled Water makes a good crap-solvent as well.

[spystyle]

Rock on, Drake

[bullrees]

I applaud your effort and taking the time to make this tutorial.
My suggestions for someone new to soldering.

1. Clean everything!!
tools, solder , wires, pads, iron
a. Use an abrasive like a pencil eraser to remove oxidation.
b. Use isopropyl alcohol to clean parts after abrasive. (warning this may remove some coatings.)

2. Correct heat and controlling heat
a. Basic rule, heat up quick and get off quick to prevent heat damage.
b. Soldering iron tips. Generally a wider tip will transfer heat more quickly.
c. HEAT BRIDGE-  Place your soldering iron on both pieces of metal to be joined and add a small amount of solder.  This small amount increases the contact area and allows more heat to flow between the iron and the two pieces. When they both heat up add the required amount of solder to finish the joint.
d. Dissipate excess heat with clips as depicted above. 

3. Flux- Use liquid rosin flux on everything to be soldered. Flux helps to clean away oxidation and helps the solder "flow" to the parts you want to join. Any excess should be removed with  isopropyl alcohol.

4. Solder - Use 63/37 eutectic solder intended for electronics. The idea here is that it has no plastic state and transforms instantly from a liquid to a solid (361.4 °F) helping to prevent cold solder joints.

-Guy that's been soldering a long frigging time.

[sharpfork]

Thanks for posting this and for the folks who have supplemented the info.  I have talked with scores of people who are too afraid to solder but the truth is it isn't too hard if you take your time and follow tips like the ones posted.
 

[CheffoJeffo]

1. Clean everything!!
tools, solder , wires, pads, iron
a. Use an abrasive like a pencil eraser to remove oxidation.
b. Use isopropyl alcohol to clean parts after abrasive. (warning this may remove some coatings.)

THIS

c. HEAT BRIDGE-  Place your soldering iron on both pieces of metal to be joined and add a small amount of solder.  This small amount increases the contact area and allows more heat to flow between the iron and the two pieces. When they both heat up add the required amount of solder to finish the joint.

And this.

3. Flux- Use liquid rosin flux on everything to be soldered. Flux helps to clean away oxidation and helps the solder "flow" to the parts you want to join. Any excess should be removed with  isopropyl alcohol.

And also the cleaning part ...

* CheffoJeffo hateses working on icky, sticky boards

(see point 1)

[BadMouth]

Might as well join the peanut gallery......

After tapping absolutely everything on an xbox360 controller hack using a $4 iron resembling a wood burner,
I decided to buy some better equipment and improve my technique.  (this is just a few weeks ago, lol)

Came accross these video tutorials. 
They are long and thorough, around a half hour each, but no reading required.
I learned a lot.

Part 1: Tools
Part 2: Soldering (mostly through-hole)
Part 3: Surface Mount


Sorry for hijacking your tuturial with other tutorials SpyStyle. 

Might as well have them all in one place though. 
Stickyworthy IMO. 
Or maybe a Tutorial sticky with links to these type of threads.

[brad808]

Best advice I can give to new people soldering is practice on old PCBs. You can find them from anything like VCRs, walkmans, whatever. Then if you burn through it doesn't matter.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

[RandyT]

And don't forget to ground everything you can, including yourself!  Ungrounded soldering irons and people have killed more electronics than I care to think about.  And stay far away from "Cold-Heat" type soldering devices.  They are great for connectors and such, but dangerous for sensitive electronic devices, especially where contacts are close in proximity to each other.

[spystyle]

Thanks all for the information, this is becoming a very informative thread

Hopefully no one will be afraid to solder now

If we can save just ONE person from buying an Xarcade panel ... it was worth the effort

[CoryBee]

If we can save just ONE person from buying an Xarcade panel ... it was worth the effort

 

[sharpfork]

Best advice I can give to new people soldering is practice on old PCBs. You can find them from anything like VCRs, walkmans, whatever. Then if you burn through it doesn't matter.

This is spectacular advice.  Getting real experience soldering stuff you are going to throw away is a great wat to learn.

[CoryBee]

Best advice I can give to new people soldering is practice on old PCBs. You can find them from anything like VCRs, walkmans, whatever. Then if you burn through it doesn't matter.

This is spectacular advice.  Getting real experience soldering stuff you are going to throw away is a great wat to learn.

So true, I remember de-soldering LEDs from old electronics with the most shitey of soldering irons. Questioning how the hell did those LCD panels in alarm clocks work 

[spystyle]

I use a cheap de-soldering iron with good success. It has a bulb for suction - you compress the bulb, heat the undesired solder, then let go of the bulb and that creates suction which removes said solder.



I'm just making sure you are aware of these devices

[matt4949]

I prefer to use a wick (a braided flat strip of copper) when desoldering.
Coat wick with rosen.
Place wick on solder to be removed.
Touch solder iron to wick and draw out the solder.
 

[spystyle]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that

[CoryBee]

I prefer to use a wick (a braided flat strip of copper) when desoldering.
Coat wick with rosen.
Place wick on solder to be removed.
Touch solder iron to wick and draw out the solder.

Same here 

[brad808]

Another tip - something that I use quite often is a razor blade when wire strippers simply fall short (wires too big, too small, too fragile). Lots of times to strip multi wire cables. The problem is that you can sometimes go too deep when cuttings cables and cut into the individual wires. An easy way to prevent that from happening is stick the razor blade in a table vice so that the blade is only sticking out the same depth as the thickness of the coating on the cable. Then you can simply push the cable down onto it and roll it to cut all the way around.

Got that one from this book http://www.amazon.ca/Audio-Wiring-Guide-popular-connectors/dp/0240520068/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356196553&sr=8-1 It focusses primarily on audio cables and connectors for studio wiring but all the same tools and techniques can be applied to soldering anything really. Its full of a ton of awesome pictures.

[PL1]

I use a cheap de-soldering iron with good success. It has a bulb for suction - you compress the bulb, heat the undesired solder, then let go of the bulb and that creates suction which removes said solder.



I'm just making sure you are aware of these devices

I like this kind better than any of the bulb varieties.


Even though I prefer a solder-sucker like this, most of the time, I just use wick.
----
Since the subject of wire stripping came up -- when you cut through the insulation, there is sometimes a little bit that's still connected.  One great technique is to slightly loosen the pressure on the handles, turn the stripper 90 degrees around the axis of the wire and pinch down again to sever the last bit of insulation before pulling it off.


Scott

[matt4949]

and i like to use fine grit sandpaper to clean corroded terminals instead of a dremel wire brush. I just prefer to keep fast moving hard to control things away from my sensitive electronic parts.

[mgb]

Hey Merry Christmas everyone,
This is a pretty informative topic for those who may be a bit scared to try soldering.
I especially agree with the tip on practicing on old boards.

The one thing I'd like to correct is the step that says to touch the soldering iron to the solder and then quickly to the pieces being soldered.
Soldering should never be done this way.
the pieces to be attached should be together and the soldering iron should be touching them to heat them up and then the solder should be touched to the other side of the joint so the soldered is melted by the joined materials.

[PL1]

To amplify on Mgb's post, one of the reasons to avoid using the iron to transfer solder is that the flux core found in most types of solder boils away before you can touch the iron to the items being soldered.

A little solder on the tip helps with faster heat transfer by increasing the surface area making contact with the leads/wires.  It also helps protect the tip from corrosion that decreases heat transfer.

By letting the leads/wires melt the solder, you ensure that:
1. They are hot enough to avoid creating a cold solder joint.
2. You don't heat the components for too long -- when the solder melts, stop applying heat.
3. The flux core cleans the leads/wires as it boils away, ensuring a better bond.
------
The one soldering function where you want to use the tip to mostly transfer solder instead of mostly transferring heat is when tinning wires.

The stripped wire strands should be slightly twisted to keep them together and the end either dipped in liquid flux or smeared with paste flux. (toothpicks are great for working with paste flux)

As you wipe the wire on/across the top of the solder-laden tip, the flux boils and wicks up the molten solder.

Wire tinning video from the Starbase74 Solder 101 tutorial .

When done properly, you should still be able to see the individual strands in the tinned wire.


Scott

[CheffoJeffo]

I like this kind better than any of the bulb varieties.


Even though I prefer a solder-sucker like this, most of the time, I just use wick.

This. Although, depending on the board in question, I tend to use my soldapults to remove the gobs of solder and then clean up with a braid.

Hey Merry Christmas everyone,
This is a pretty informative topic for those who may be a bit scared to try soldering.

It seems that soldering (at least for board work ... if you are scared about soldering controls, then I can't help you.) is like discharging a monitor -- everybody is scared until they do it once.

[BadMouth]

I'm not as experienced, but I used the $13 radioshack desoldering iron when removing all the analog controls from an xbox360 pcb and it was worth the the price for the time it saved on that job alone.  It was nice to be able to hold the pcb in one hand and the tool in the other instead of trying to reposition it in the helping hands every few joints.  For the price, I think it's worth having in addition to the other types.  The tip is pretty big, so it isn't for tiny joints or cramped areas.

There are tutorials to convert it to a hot air pencil by running tubing from the bulb to a fish tank aerator pump.
http://hackaday.com/2009/10/23/hot-air-pencil-for-under-20/

[mgb]

I also like using a solder sucker.
I find the wick to be a pain, but from other things I've read about the wick, I believe I just haven't been doing it right. I just find a solder sucker to be the easiest for me.
I also use a 40 watt radio shack bulb type sometimes.