You don't sound insensitive at all RandyT. I have a few questions though. When dealing with things this small, what exactly is your soldering technique? I read over and over that I'm supposed to touch the iron to the joint, then apply solder on to the joint. The problem with that is everything is so small. Is it ever advisable to place solder directly onto the iron and then quickly dab the joint with the iron? I find it much easier to make small dots of solder this way. I'm highly inexperienced when it comes to soldering, so I bet there is something wrong with doing this.
Note: When I say "fingers" in the following, I'm referring to the strips of copper on your circuit board, NOT THE ONES ON YOUR HAND!
Ok, the first thing I would recommend is that you make sure you have what is known as a "pencil tip" soldering iron. No soldering guns, blowtorches, whathaveyou....
The finer the tip, the better. Also, make sure that you are using some GOOD rosin flux electronics solder. The stuff at Radio Shack is mediocre at best. Try a real electronics store/supply house.
You should also have a way to clean the tip of your iron. A piece of damp cellulose sponge cleans a hot soldering iron tip pretty well. Don't use anything other than cellulose! Plastic or "foam" sponges will melt and make a bigger problem than what you are trying to fix! After cleaning the tip, you should "tin" it with a little bit of solder. When you are done cleaning the tip, it should be clean and shiny. Do this as required.
Now, place the tip of the hot iron onto one of the"fingers" of your circuit board and leave it there for a few seconds. The heat energy from the iron will conduct to the finger and heat it. Don't leave it there too long!
Then take your solder and touch it to the "finger" you just heated, while your iron is still on it. If all goes well, the solder should melt and flow to the finger. Use the iron to spread an even layer across the surface and try to avoid the adjacent fingers while doing this. You should have a nice, shiny "tinned finger" to make your connection to.
Next, do the same to your wire. Again, The radio shack stuff is not the best for some reason. Use a solid strand of 24 gauge wire. The multi stranded wire will make this whole process a lot more difficult. Strip back 1/8" to 1/4" of insulation and "tin" the exposed wire. A pair of solderer's helpers (alligator clips on a stand) will help here, but failing that, tape the wire to the edge of a table with the lead hanging off where you can access it. A SMALL gob of solder at the end of the wire will be good, but a big one will cause problems.
With me so far? Good. Now take the wire you just tinned, place it on the finger you tinned previously and place the tip of your iron on the wire end. The solder you placed on the tip of the wire should start to flow, and then heat the solder on the finger. When everything looks hot and flowing, remove the tip of the iron and hold the wire in place for a few seconds. The solder should cool, and give you a good, clean connection.
Just do the same thing to each of the fingers you want to connect a wire to, one at a time, being careful not to heat up the adjacent connections.
When you are all done, take a magnifying glass and make sure there are no small blobs connecting the fingers together. If there are, use a razor blade or x-acto knife to carefully scrape away anything in-between. If you have a major problem, clean your tip and drag it between the bridged fingers. You might have to do this a couple times and you will probably have to redo the connections, but it won't be the end of the world. Some solder braid will help here as well.
As with anything, instructions can't make up for experience and a solid skill set, but practice makes perfect.
RandyT
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Topic: Solder to what? (Read 3412 times)
