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I am a terrible solderer

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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:

--- Quote from: ChadTower on April 29, 2005, 04:19:41 pm ---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.

--- End quote ---

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.

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