[GUIDE] [UPDATE! Part 2] Soldering School - AKA Don't wreck your new AIO board!

[inches]

Not leaving it on for too long is a good idea. if you have to wait very long before the solder can melt, the temperature is likely too low. You can see in the video it's only about a second or two. You'll get the hang of it and be able to tell just by observing the shape, pop, shiny-ness, etc.

Thinking about moving from protoboard to a practice kit?

[dryja123]

Not leaving it on for too long is a good idea. if you have to wait very long before the solder can melt, the temperature is likely too low. You can see in the video it's only about a second or two. You'll get the hang of it and be able to tell just by observing the shape, pop, shiny-ness, etc.

Thinking about moving from protoboard to a practice kit?

Yeah, I saw your thread where you recommended a few kits to start out on. Good stuff!

I'll pick one up from Micro Center and give it a whirl.

[inches]

The ones at microcenter are surely much more expensive. If you want to wait a little you can get one for a few bucks.

[dryja123]

Holy crap you're right! Dice kit at MC is $20 and the link for the one you attached to your thread is a buck and change.

[snoek09]

Thanks for the great guide abrugsch! I finally replaced my old $10 soldering iron with one from Antex.

I have a question about the soldering bit I bought with it. There's an iron ring on it which I saw moved down on a picture on the soldering iron package. I guess the ring is used to secure it. I can't move this iron ring down though. Does anyone know how to do this or should I just not bother?

[gilbertotron]

I've found that you can just push the retaining ring down once you get it up to temperature the once.
Stick it on the iron, heat it up and then once it's cooled you can just push it down with your hands.
It'll then give you a nice tight fit - I don't know if that's the correct methodology but it's worked for me.

[RarinImp]

Love the guide you made, abrugsch! If I may add something I found before you posted your sweet guide, I found some old industrial training bids someone posted on YouTube as a playlist that show cold joints, etc pretty well. Some of it is kinda boring to watch/listen to, but it's an old training video. Hopefully it'll also help someone out.

Basics of soldering

[abrugsch]

Thanks for the great guide abrugsch! I finally replaced my old $10 soldering iron with one from Antex.

I have a question about the soldering bit I bought with it. There's an iron ring on it which I saw moved down on a picture on the soldering iron package. I guess the ring is used to secure it. I can't move this iron ring down though. Does anyone know how to do this or should I just not bother?

On my first antex iron the ring didn't move until after like a year of use!
an edge of a scrap of wood and a few light taps with a small hammer or mallet should get it moving though. alternatively, don't worry about it too much unless the tips are actually loose. they usually still have some internal grips as well. The antex at my 'space [hacker/maker - take your pick of naming convention] has lost the ring completely from lots of people swapping tips frequently. it still holds well enough to use though.

[abrugsch]

well I was going to make a vid of some surface mount soldering to show that it's really not that dificult, when lo and behold, Dave on EEVBlog goes and does one for his nixie tube clock.
check it out. he even uses a wide chisel tip demonstrating you don't need a fine tipped iron to do it either. (I did some SMD micro USB ports for someone the other day and just used the fat tip that was already on the iron rather than swapping over. I was basically able to just do all 5 pins at once, with plenty of flux it took about 30 seconds to do the whole job)

[dryja123]

Today I finally learned to appreciate a flux pen!

I finally started my dice kit (thanks inches for the recommendation) and was finding that I was leaving huge globs of solder just to get a clean joint; then I finally stopped being stubborn and I used my flux pen. The joint literally drank the solder and the smallest amount made a perfect concave joint.

Seeing how the joint reacted to the flux, heat, and solder really changed things. On previous practice sessions, I was finding that I had to paint around the joint to get it perfect.