Tactics of the Soldering Masters?

[Hopkins]

Always tin your wires and components.
Always have a decent mechanical connection before putting hot solder on it.
Use a solder sucker to clean everything well when you're not satisfied of a connection.
Clean the iron tip on the sponge as often as you can.
Tin the iron tip!

When you say have a decent mechanical connection before putting solder, do you mean wrapping your wires around the lug? If so I disagree, it makes impossible to cleanly desolder the connection if need be.

Or are you talking about soldering two wires together? In that case I do agree.

 

[jumblemind]

Heat the lug until it is hot enough to melt the solder. Dont try and melt the solder on to the lug.

I get that. I get a nice dollop of solder on there by heating the lug and melting the solder that way. I tin the tip of the wire. Then I reheat the lug while holding the wire to the solder dollop. As soon as it heats up enough to remelt the solder, it spreads out over the lug in a pool. The wire is then attached, but barely. Like I said, it's not in a tight little dollop like I see straight from the factory.

 

[Hopkins]

I get that. I get a nice dollop of solder on there by heating the lug and melting the solder that way. I tin the tip of the wire. Then I reheat the lug while holding the wire to the solder dollop. As soon as it heats up enough to remelt the solder, it spreads out over the lug in a pool. The wire is then attached, but barely. Like I said, it's not in a tight little dollop like I see straight from the factory.

So the solder is running down the lug when you reheat it? You may be using to much solder on the lug.

 

[Primakurtz]

Another useful tip: before soldering ground wires to the back of a pot, use a small file to take off the shiny coating & rough up the surface. Makes it so much easier.

 

[gjbassist]

Another useful tip: before soldering ground wires to the back of a pot, use a small file to take off the shiny coating & rough up the surface. Makes it so much easier.

Big +1

 

[mrbell321]

A hot iron is important. Hot iron=spot heating=no overheating connected components. Don't sit there w/ your iron on your work for a minute to heat it up. It should heat to working temp in a very very short time.

 

[Scott in Dallas]

Hemostats >>> alligator clips.

 

[jumblemind]

So the solder is running down the lug when you reheat it? You may be using to much solder on the lug.

Doh, I didn't mean lug. I meant the bottom of the pot casing. Though I have similar problems with lugs. I also feel like when I heat something long enough to melt solder, I'm probably frying the insides of the component. Guess that's a common thing to worry about. I do have a nice soldering iron fwiw.

 

[Rickett Customs]

Hemostats >>> alligator clips.

In my past it was: Roach clip >>> Alligator Clip >>> Hemostats

 

[Hopkins]

Big +1

-1

Those are coated in flux and are designed to be soldered to.

 

[StuartV]

Those are coated in flux and are designed to be soldered to.

Now THAT is a good tip to know!

 

[Lonnybass]

Another option is to purchase a set of "Helping Hands", a little device that has alligator clips attached to a base with bending arms, it can hold two items for you (wire, solder, maybe a pot but I haven't tried that). I use it a lot for building miniature models, but it has helped me a few times with my soldering, too.

+1

 

[wcoffey81]

i think using an iron that is underpowered or right at the edge of being underpowered is a big issue when doing electrical soldering. the idea is to get in and out of there as fast as possible or you risk overheating one component or the other. the iron needs to provide enough CONSISTENT heat to overcome the leaching(sinking) effect of the wire, the solder, the lug and the air around the solder joint. if it takes you more than a second or two to complete a solder joint you need better equipment

if you plan on doing repairs to anything commercially soldered within the past few years this is even more important because the new "lead free" solders take a lot more heat to melt. i think i have to add around 125-150 degrees to my soldering station to melt the new solder without doing damage on either side of the joint.

 

[Scott in Dallas]

In my past it was: Roach clip >>> Alligator Clip >>> Hemostats

Depends on what you're holding.

Hemostats are better for soldering because the solid connection carries heat away from other components.

 

[Scott in Dallas]

i think using an iron that is underpowered or right at the edge of being underpowered is a big issue when doing electrical soldering. the idea is to get in and out of there as fast as possible or you risk overheating one component or the other. the iron needs to provide enough CONSISTENT heat to overcome the leaching(sinking) effect of the wire, the solder, the lug and the air around the solder joint. if it takes you more than a second or two to complete a solder joint you need better equipment.

That's the reason I use a soldering gun to do my grounds onto the back of pots. I can get in, get a good solder joint, get out and don't have to re-do it. It works so well, I might actually continue to do it that way if I ever collect the scratch to get a real soldering station.

 

[StuartV]

i think using an iron that is underpowered or right at the edge of being underpowered is a big issue when doing electrical soldering. the idea is to get in and out of there as fast as possible or you risk overheating one component or the other. the iron needs to provide enough CONSISTENT heat to overcome the leaching(sinking) effect of the wire, the solder, the lug and the air around the solder joint. if it takes you more than a second or two to complete a solder joint you need better equipment

So, is it possible to have an overpowered soldering iron?

Mine is a Radio Shack iron that I think is switchable 15W or 30W or something like that. When I bought it, I did not buy the most high powered one they had for fear I would just burn a lot of stuff up. But, I do use mine on the 30W setting always and it still seems like it often takes way too long to get the solder to melt, even when I'm touching the solder directly to the tip of the iron.

The solder I'm using is the stuff RS sells that comes in the little plastic tube. Looking at their website, I believe it's their standard Rosin-core solder, which does not say it's Lead-Free.

So maybe one of the problems I've had before is my iron is not powerful enough? That soldering station somebody posted a link to earlier, that was only about $30 is starting to sound like a really good idea.

 

[Joe Louvar]

Weller Soldering Station (temp controlled), and standard 60/40 rosin core solder - works like a camp.

 

[Handyman]

Another useful tip: before soldering ground wires to the back of a pot, use a small file to take off the shiny coating & rough up the surface. Makes it so much easier.

Much. Fine grit sandpaper works nicely, too.

 

[StuartV]

Okay, it wasn't here that that the $30 soldering station was posted. So, here's the one I saw:

http://www.circuitspecialists.com/csi-station1a.html It is 40W.

Then they have a 60W one with a digital display for $50.

http://www.circuitspecialists.com/soldering-station-60-watt-3dlf.html

Either one of these a particularly good or bad idea?

 

[UncleFluffy]

When you say have a decent mechanical connection before putting solder, do you mean wrapping your wires around the lug? If so I disagree, it makes impossible to cleanly desolder the connection if need be.

I'm going to disagree with your disagreement

Wrapping the wire around the lug makes it harder to take apart, but not impossible. Suck the excess solder off, grab the free end with some needle-nose pliers, apply heat and untwist.

Yes, it's a PITA, but if it's hard for me to take apart it's going to be hard for time, vibration, and Murphy's Law to take apart too.