I am a terrible solderer

[ChadTower]

Well, I don't think that the solder I use is a problem, since 90% of the time I am desoldering, not soldering.  Hell, the other day I had trouble just reflowing solder.  I had the iron set for 40w, and the only way I could flow the solder was to actually touch the solder with the tip... that shouldn't be the case.  I wonder if my station is defective.

[shmokes]

Hrm... see, the tinning is part of what I am bad at.  How exactly does one tin?  When I do it, I end up with burned solder on the tip, that eventually just builds up and I have to take an emory board to the tip to get it off... I suspect my biggest problem is that the tips get dirty so fast the way I'm doing it, that they don't conduct heat well anymore.

Go to Radio Shack and get this:  http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog_name=CTLG&category_name=CTLG_011_009_007_002&product_id=64-020

Just clean your tip off real well with a wet sponge and then press it into this stuff (while hot).  It takes all the guesswork out of tinning.  I picked it up when I first started soldering so I could mod my Xbox.  I had been practicing on some an old motherboard and was having a helluva time so I went and bought a few of the things that looked like they might make it easier.  This, combined with a little pen that cleans the dust and oil and residue from oxidization off the circuit board made the whole process much easier.  I couldn't get my solder to stick to the motherboard solder pads for the life of me until I used this  contact-cleaner pen first.  And the solder flowed so nicely off my tip once I started tinning it with the tinning-for-dummies stuff.

Anyway, the stuff is cheap enough that you won't be too put out if I'm full of crap.  On the other hand, I'm not.  Try it immediately.