soldering irons for noobs

[Mr Egg]

i have gotten into mild hardware mods for atari stuff. things like battery holders and internal illumination but have not been very succesful at my soldering . i have mostly used radio shack 25w pen irons with rosin core solder but my results have been less than spectacular, lots of cold joints and stuff .im not doing delicate work mostly 14 and 16 gauge wire to conector and wire to wire joints any recomendations on soldering irons or some recomendations on iron and solder conbinations.im a looking at affordable solutions geared towards begginers . i have also been looking at that cold heat soldering iron on tv has anyone used those with success ? all input appreciated

[DanBoris]

The equipment you have should be sufficient, so the problem may be with your technique. Here are a few tips to help you out:

 

1. Keep you iron clean. Each time you plug it in to work, once it warms up wipe of the tip on a sponge, and if that doesn't clean it use a little bit of steel wool or emery cloth. While soldering preiodically wipe it off on the sponge.

 

2. Keep your iron "tinned". Each time you clean the tip, melt a little solder onto the tip, this helps conduct the heat.

 

3. Make sure the parts you are soldering are clean. If it's a freshly stripped wire it should be ok, if not clean it off with some emery cloth.

 

4. Make sure the joint is held together "mechanically" before you solder. Once you remove the iron from the joint it needs to stay together until the solder cools. If the joint opens up while the solder is still liquid you will get a bad joint.

 

5. Touch the iron to the joint you are soldering and let it heat up, then touch the solder to the join, NOT to the iron. Doing it this way the solder will be drawn into the joint by the heat of the iron. When you have enough solder applied, remove the solder first, hold the iron on for a few more seconds, then remove the iron.

 

Dan

[NE146]

You know a google search for something like "soldering 101" yields tons of links...

 

Here's one: http://www.circuittechctr.com/guides/7-1-1.shtml

 

Or heck I found these on some sound recording page.. just pasted the html

 

Links to Online How-To Solder Guides

 

Soldering Basics – highly recommended

 

Soldering tips

 

Better Soldering – highly recommended

 

How to Solder Electronics – MPEG Videos!

 

Soldering Tips

 

Soldering tips for y'all – Tape Op BBS

 

Soldering

 

Soldering Basics – recommended

 

Soldering Basics – recommended, extensive

 

How to solder – pics

 

Soldering tips for the novice

[doubledown]

The single most important thing to know about when soldering, is FLUX.

[Mr Egg]

i have read about using flux . whats its purpose

[Mr Egg]

nevermind , ne 146 links really helped . thanks guys

[MaximRecoil]

I worked for 2 years in a SMT PCB factory as a board inspector/repairer. After inspecting the boards and repairing if necessary, I soldered in terminal blocks. We did about 1,200 boards a night. We used Metcal MX500's:

 

 

With tips like this:

 

 

With AlphaMetals Cleanline SMT Core Plus .015" and .025" solder.

 

What a setup that was. I would love to have that setup at home but the Metcal MX500 is about $700 by itself. Those awesome Metcal Micro fine tips are about $20 a piece and that solder is about $20 for a 1 pound spool. That Metcal did 0 - 700°F in about 4 seconds. I feel like I am trying to solder with a baseball bat when I use my $7 Radio Shack Special at home.

[Tickled_Pink]

Bought a temperature controlled iron with a fine tip on eBay a while back. Useful for preventing heat damage to chips but I find it harder to solder with it effectively than my old 15W Antex iron.

 

Think I need to make use of some of the links posted here as well.

[Rob Mitchell]

I found a Weller 25 watt pen at a thrift for $1! Replacement tips are $5 each. And I got a pen station to park the pen for $2.95 at www.bgmicro.com. I use copper wick to remove excess solder.

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[yuppicide]

I find that using the cheap solder is what my problem was. With flux and the right solder it sticks good.. with the cheap solder it just didn't work good.

[MaximRecoil]

I find that using the cheap solder is what my problem was.  With flux and the right solder it sticks good.. with the cheap solder it just didn't work good.

Flux core solder is the easiest. "Cheap solder" without flux works as well as anything as long as you flux properly. The most important things in soldering is enough heat and clean surfaces to solder to. When through-hole soldering, you press the iron tip to both the post and the pad and hold it there for a couple of seconds (with a hot iron and small PCB components it will heat up pretty much instantly) then feed the solder wire from the opposite side of the post and pad that your iron is pressed against. The solder will flow very smoothly right into the hole. Keep feeding solder until it fills the hole and forms a cone shape about halfway up the post. The shape of the cone should have curved-in sides. If the cone has bulging sides, you did it wrong (usually not enough heat or you didn't feed the solder right) although it is still usually adequate. Where I worked we built PCB's for complex fire alarm systems to be used in hospitals and such. This was classified as "life saving equipment" and as such, they were extremely fussy about the soldering.

[Artlover]

I like to use 4% lead free silver solder myself. Of course, it really depends on what kinda soldering work you're doing. It would probably be overkill for things like wire joints and battery compartment terminals and stuff.