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Soldering Problem

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ShinAce:
Here's what I recommend for a smooth job.

1) Heat up the iron as much as possible. Let it sit, set it to 60 watts, do what you gotta do to get it hot.

2) Clean tip. If it's a copper tip, sand it before heating. If the tip is tinned, wipe it on a wet sponge once it's hot.

3) lay the tip of the solder on the wire. Now bring your iron down on the solder as to sandwich it between the wire and iron. It'll melt instantly, to th iron and touching the wire. Now wait 2-3 seconds, and apply solder to the wire.

SirPeale:
At my new job I've been doing a lot of soldering, so I've been getting a lot of practice. 

What ShinAce holds true; get the iron good and hot!  And make sure your tip is clean.  You can use a sponge (what I always used) but now I certainly prefer a cleaning pot.  It looks like brass wool in a pot, and you stick the tip into it and the tip gets nice and clean.

Also, since this is your first attempt at soldering, I can emphasis only one thing: PRACTICE!  Everyone thinks it'll be a very simple thing to do.  It's not!  Solder flows UP, first of all.  It's the same thing as when you have a drop of water on a surface, and you touch it with your finger.  The water sticks to your finger.  Something about the surface tension and the wicking action.

Don't touch the solder to the iron.  Heat the part, not the solder.  Although you may have to get a little solder on the tip to conduct heat.

Minwah:
OK on the subject, I'm gonna jump in with a question.

I have a little gas soldering iron (SolderPro or something).  Anyway, it works very well as a rule.  However, I keep messing up the soldering tips...I believe they keep going 'non-wetting' - the tip goes black and it limits the heat transfer from the tip.

I've been very careful lately not to have the iron too hot (I thought this might cause the problem), and I don't leave it on for long periods.  I've been using a wet sponge supplied with the iron, and silver solder with built in flux.  My last tip lasted about 2 days, before I got pissed off and just scratched the black stuff off (which in turn has taken the outer layer from the tip and caused it to gradually reduce in size!).

I'm reasonably proficient at soldering and I don't recall having such a problem with my old electric soldering iron.  What am I doing wrong!?

vibez:
That sounds like  my iron. I tin & clean it, but it very quickly goes a dark grey

Minwah:

--- Quote from: vibez on July 08, 2005, 07:34:00 am ---That sounds like  my iron. I tin & clean it, but it very quickly goes a dark grey

--- End quote ---

You said the solder jumps onto the tip tho, when mine is like this the solder is very hard to melt with the tip, and when it melts it just falls off the tip.

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