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Help with solder

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MaximRecoil:


--- Quote from: MonMotha on August 25, 2006, 03:12:52 am ---Radio Shack solder is actually not bad stuff, and I've had good luck with Alpha Metals as well as of course Kester.

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Alpha Metals Cleanline SMT Core Plus in .025 and .015 diameters is what we used at work. Very good stuff. I still have a couple rolls of it here at home.

danny_galaga:


--- Quote from: NightGod on August 25, 2006, 12:54:52 am ---That's Michelle Trachtenberg. Who obviously needs to star in more movies and TV shows.

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she could be my friend  :)

ChadTower:


--- Quote from: Peale on August 24, 2006, 09:32:52 pm ---One hint: solder flows UP. 

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I keep reading that in all sorts of posts but I find it's not true.  Every time I've soldered, the solder doesn't flow *up*, it flows *towards the heat source*.  I  think it's just coincedental that the heat source is up most of the time when soldering.

That was one of my big difficulties.  Everyone kept telling me it always flows up but I had a bunch of coils I had to solder from the underside of the lug.  I could not get the solder to flow up the way I was told it would.  It just kept flowing down and falling off.  It was because it was flowing towards the heat source, which was down.  Putting the solder above the lug, with the heat source under it, caused it to flow smoothly across the lug, through the hole, towards the iron tip and make a good joint.

Daywayne... I do have a very nice station now.  It's a Weller, noncontrolled but it regulates very well, probably 30 years old.  Got it off Freecycle for free.

The last tip I can offer is to think about heat management.  That is the key.  You're not managing the iron, or the solder, or the joint.  Manage the heat.  Think about where the heat is, where it needs to go, and how you're putting it there.  When you get that you'll be a good solderer.

MaximRecoil:


--- Quote from: ChadTower ---I keep reading that in all sorts of posts but I find it's not true.  Every time I've soldered, the solder doesn't flow *up*, it flows *towards the heat source*.
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Well, not necessarily. It is true that directions such as "up" are irrelevant in soldering, but solder flows not only toward the heat source but evenly to all areas that are hot enough. The heat is key but it is not only the heat source that is hot enough to flow solder. For example, with a typical through-hole solder joint, you would press your iron to the pad and post on one side and press the solder in from the other side. The solder not only flows toward the heat source (the iron) but also flows on the other side where you are pressing the solder in, without having to move the iron. That is because the pad and post conducted enough heat from the iron to the other side that it is hot enough to flow solder. You could have the board oriented in any direction: up, down, sideways; it wouldn't change a thing other than where excess solder would go due to gravity if you used too much.

ChadTower:


I always attributed that to the fact that some stays in the path it took.  You don't see liquids flowing without leaving a trail behind... makes sense, though.

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