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soldering iron help

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Ed_McCarron:


--- Quote from: More Cowbell on October 17, 2007, 05:55:11 pm ---Hold the iron close to the wire and touch the solder to the tip of the iron. It will melt and stick to the iron and you can then touch the glob to the wire. It should come off onto the wire and surrounding hole.

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This may work, but its not the ideal way.

Tin your iron - flow solder onto it like CB suggests.  Wipe it clean.

Hold the iron so that it touches the wire and the PCB at the same time.  Apply solder to the connection - the side away from the iron.

It'll flow towards the heat and wick into the void spaces.

Take away the iron and hold the connection steady for a few seconds.

Theres tons of techniques.  Practice a bit and use what works for you.

shardian:

Put a very small dab of flux on the connection, then heat it up. Now touch the wire with the soldering iron and apply solder where the solder pad of the board and the wire touches. It should spread around the pad quickly and make a real nice and pretty connection.

bigh4th:

You guys have had better luck with those pencil irons than I ever have.  I've only gotten 2-3 uses out of them and they crap out.  They also take forever, IMHO.

My girlfriends grandfather gave me a nice WEN soldering gun (trigger) and heats up fast and solders like a dream.  Its a 25-450 watt gun (depending on tip) with a nifty little light.  He got it back when they (wen) were still made in america.  The copyright on the manual says 1978.

I don't even know how much soldering guns cost nowdays but if you're gonna do a lot of soldering (it is a nice skill to know), then i would suggest a gun instead of the pencil irons.  But thats just me.

-Harry

shardian:


--- Quote from: bigh4th on October 18, 2007, 09:04:15 am ---You guys have had better luck with those pencil irons than I ever have.  I've only gotten 2-3 uses out of them and they crap out.  They also take forever, IMHO.

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Heh, it took me many failed solder connections, and MANY burned fingers before I developed a good technique.
Back in college, I had to use a super crappy pencil iron to put together a 5v power supply kit. I ended up burning my fingers 4 times. And let me tell you, a burn from an 800 degree iron doesn't stop hurting very quickly. ;D

HaRuMaN:

I would definately avoid the guns.  They heat up TOO quickly, and will damage components on your PCB's if you're not extremely careful.  The 30 W pencil iron from Radio Shack heats up quickly and holds a constant steady heat.  I've had the same iron now for 3 years.  I have to replace the tips every now and then, but they're pretty cheap.

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