I'm still in awe of that pump, and still trying to figure out a cheap version. What if a vacuum pump were attached in place of the bulb, and a hopper set up to catch the solder? Is that basically what the fancy version does?
My guess is any vacuum source could be used, even a home vac. Post an intractable of what you try. My spring loaded solder sipper works for what I need for board repairs. My board component salvaging methods aren't elegant, so I don't need a pump for that. The fancy irons do indeed have a hopper of sorts to catch the solder, but I'm not sure how it's integrated with the vacuum line, etc.
One problem with those things is that you constantly have to use little cylindrical files to clean out the tips. It'd be neat try hacking up that radio shack thing, attaching a vacuum and screen and trying it out. I suspect the airflow will prevent it from getting how enough. But if you let it heat up for a while without air flow, and then only cut it on when the solder is molten it might work. A lot of people have made cheap hot air pencils out of that by attaching a fish tank pump tube to the bulb and blowing air through the tip.
This did not work for me at all regardless of every permutation on tip shape and "stuffing" that I put in it. The air temp was never hot enough. I know exactly what you need.
It's the radio shack desoldering pump model I highly recommend this if you want a good low cost desoldering pump. As a person who has had hit and miss luck with soldering, I am happy I stumbled upon this video. Your video helped me to realize all the mistakes I have made in the past, I still have a way to go I'm sure but this is an excellent start.
Question, I have a new Weller 40W chisel tip, using Oatey 40tin 60lead rosin core. Cant tin the tip if my life depended on it. By CuriousInventor. More by the author:. Did you make this project? Share it with us! I Made It! Yonatan24 5 years ago. Reply Upvote. TimothyC38 5 years ago. Well done! Great pictures!! I hope you won't mind if I share your link! Justin Lam 12 years ago on Introduction. Justin Lam CuriousInventor.
Lead, often combined with tin, has been the mainstay of electronic soldering since its inception. Lead has a relatively low melting point and readily wets and flows, which makes the process faster, easier, and more fool-proof. Because of environmental and health concerns around, there has been pressure to move to lead-free solder, which is often a combination of tin and silver.
Lead-free solders have a higher melting point and generally require more active or more concentrated fluxes higher solids content to achieve the same soldering performance as leaded solders. For typical manual soldering, if done properly, reliability between lead and lead-free solders should be about the same.
For high-end electronics used in extreme environments e. Wire for plumbing will be much thicker, 2mm in diameter or higher. Electronics solder wire will be thinner, from 1. Match the diameter to the size of the connectors and contacts you are soldering. If the diameter of the wire solder is too small, you will be going through too much solder. Too large and it could be hard to maneuver around a dense PCB, thus increasing the chance of thermally stressing or even soldering other components that are unrelated to your repair.
Flux core or solid wire — Most wire solder comes with a flux core, so the flux will automatically activate and flow over the soldering area when the solder is melted. It is more convenient and efficient to work with. Solid wire can be used, with flux added by a brush, a bottle dispenser, or a pen dispenser. Unless a very specific flux is required that is not available as a wire solder core, flux core wire solder is generally recommended. Type of flux -- No-clean flux is a good choice for soldering where cleaning is to be avoided.
Should I use lead or lead-free solder? What is flux? What type of flux should I use? Do I need to add extra flux when soldering? Make sure the surfaces to be soldered are clean. Turn on the soldering iron and set temperature above the melting point of your solder. The idea is to bring both up to a soldering temperature at the same time. Inspect the solder joint to make sure there is full coverage over the contact area and the lead.
If it is a thru-hole lead, the hole should be filled and the solder joint forms a slight pyramid-like shape. If necessary, trim the lead with a shear lead cutter. Do not trim into the solder joint, which can damage the connection. If using rosin activated flux, aqueous flux, or if the aesthetics of the flux residue is a problem, clean the area with a flux remover.
How do I tell a good solder joint from a bad one? Some things to watch out for: If it is a thru-hole lead, the hole should be filled and the solder joint forms a slight pyramid-like shape. The lead should not be loose or wiggle once it is soldered. If using lead-based solder, the solder joint should be shiny.
Unfortunately, lead-free tends to have a duller finish, so shininess is not a good indicator in that case. How do I select the best soldering tip for my PCB repair job? Soldering tips come in all kinds of shapes to facilitate different PCB geometries: Pointed or conical — The end of the soldering tip comes to either a point or a round the flat area. The size is specified by the diameter of the end, so it can range in size from 0. These tips are generally used when pin-point accuracy is needed, like with very fine leadless surface mount components.
They may be long for greater reach in dense board design, or have a shorter microtip to reduce the amount of tip metal that needs to be heated. This can improve heat recovery. The ends of the tips may also be bent to avoid interfering with other components or contact areas. Blade or knife — A blade tip is usually used for drag soldering when the solder is drawn across multiple contact pads.
This is common when soldering surface mount technology SMT components. The size is measured along the length of the blade and can be 6. Chisel or screwdriver — A chisel allows you to heat a larger contact area, so it is useful for thru-hole solder joints. Lengths may vary and can also be bent, like with a conical tip. The size is mainly specified as the length of the flat area, but the depth or thickness of the tip may also vary.
These can be so small that they almost look like a point, like under 1mm, and as wide as 5 or 6mm. Bevel — A beveled tip has a flat oval end set at an angle. Picture a metal rod that is a cross section at an angle. A bevel can range from 1mm to 4mm, or even larger. Flow tips — A flow tip looks similar in design to a beveled tip, but instead of a flat area, it is a little indention or cup.
Associated products: Plato soldering tips Is it ok to set the heat at maximum temperature to speed up soldering? In soldering, like everything else, speed is king. Operators will turn up the soldering temperature to speed up heat throughput.
This allows them to go from one solder joint to the next faster. The catch — the higher the heat, the shorter the tip life. The extra heat can also unnecessarily stress components, increasing the chances of PCB failure later.
Why is the solder dripping off the soldering tip? How to clean a soldering iron? Con — It is abrasive, even though brass is softer than the iron on the end of the tip. It has more of a tendency to scratch the chrome plating, which keeps the solder from wetting up the tip.
That could allow corrosion to creep in under the plating, reducing the lifespan of the tip. Cellulose Sponge Pro — It is an effective and fast way to clean a tip.
They come with different holes or slits to make it even faster and easier, and to avoid flinging molten solder. Con — Cools down the tip, so requires the tip to heat up again. It also can thermally shock the tip, especially if the sponge is overly saturated. This can shorten the tip life by creating micro-fractures in the iron plating. Make sure you are using a cellulose sponge that is intended for cleaning soldering tips. Using the tip for anything other than soldering, such as melting plastic, will ruin it for soldering.
I really enjoyed reading your instructable! Nice humour. Oh, yes, and informative too. Ever since I got this new 30W soldering iron, I have experienced problems regarding extremely fast oxidation rates.
The last picture is of the tip about 5 seconds after cleaning and tinning. That results in the granular joints in the first picture the imprecision is my own fault I am pretty sure the solder I use is rosin core because of the sweet scent of the smoke and the brownish residue on the joints. I'm guessing the iron may be to hot? Any ideas? Reply 6 years ago. I'm having the same problem with my 40 watt soldering iron. Should have gotten a 25 watt one. And what I did after getting so tired of wiping my tip on the sponge every 5 seconds, I just bought a few more cheap tips and try not to wipe it every 5 seconds to make the tip shine like a jewelry.
And when I'm having hard time transfering heat, I just change my tip :D The tips makes better heat transfer at shinier conditions but it dosent really matter unless you are trying to do very fine work. Reply 6 years ago on Introduction.
That's why you wipe and tin just before soldering. And almost any soldering of modern PC boards is fine work. I will find some new solder of unquestionable provenance, then. It is really a pain to make one bad joint after another I have to agree that this was a great job. This was a great way to put the best practices down. One thing that has plagued me recently is my tip has become literally solder repellent.
I can't get any solder to stick to it when trying to prep it. I have cleaned it with the bronze mesh sponge to no avail.
I have read a number of cleaning tips, man uh of which can have detrimental effects on the tip so wondering if you recommend any techniques above others? Thank you for this. This is a great review of the basics plus a couple of tips that I did not know.
This will server as a great guide for teaching my son basic soldering! Thank you for posting. I've watched and read several of these how-to guides and so far, I really wish I had read this first. I am a welder by trade and was able to relate that to oxy-acetylene brazing with a silicon bronze rod..
My welding instructor described brazing almost verbatim to that quote and that was my come to jesus moment in learning how to braze. I'm still lost in space pun intended on a few things however. Watching and reading other people's different opinions and techniques on soldering have muddied the water and have me second guessing myself the whole way. The only thing I can do about that is keep practicing and trying different techniques and tools until I figure out what works for me.
I know that goes against the grain of your pragmatic approach to soldering but, I have always been of the opinion you can be good at anything but you can't be Great until you know all the ways you can do it wrong. I would describe that as the definition of experience but other people would probably just call that doing things the hard way.
Kind of makes me miss the days of having an instructor around that could glance at a joint I welded and tell me where I messed up, what I was doing when I messed up, and what to do differently on my next attempt. I need to tell myself "I think I think too much" more often.
On my first soldering attempt I had left the iron on for about 20 minutes or so without tinning it, unaware that would cause the tip to oxidize because the how-to I had watched and read failed to mention that I needed to tin my tip right off the bat.
I picked up the iron, not realizing I already had a problem, thought I tinned the tip properly, and tried to solder two speaker wires together for practice but the iron wouldn't get the wire hot enough to melt the solder. At that point I started worrying that I should have gotten the heavy duty Weller Iron instead of the 25w standard. Or maybe it was the. The smallest size my local hardware store had was. I keep trying to solder the wires together, wiping my tip off on the wet sponge as I go when I realized that was making my tip worse, The local hardware store only had one kind of sponge, a big thick sponge for washing cars.
I was actually melting the sponge with to my tip. Where does the experience come from? Bad judgement! Then you practice, a lot. You should always learn to drive a stick shift before an automatic, and learn to use hand tools properly before graduating to power tools. Otherwise, you'll just screw things up faster than you ever could before! I probably should have mentioned that only a cellulose sponge is suitable for wiping soldering irons.
Cellulose burns when it gets hot, but foam rubber sponges melt Not good! You can never tin an iron too often. I tin just before unplugging for the day, that way the tip is coated as it heats up the next time. I've seen some folks wrap a few turns of solder around the iron tip while it's cold, before plugging it in. Whatever works. Rocket science involves soldering! By gizmologist Boldly Build Follow. More by the author:. About: I've been taking things apart since I was My mother wasn't impressed, even though I told her I knew how to put it back together It's just a matter of a handful of basic principles: Choose the right soldering tool.
Use the right solder with rosin flux. Cleanliness is essential, both for the iron and the work. Contact both parts of the work with the iron. Use the work to melt the solder, not the iron. The Soldering Comic Book attached is a good quick reference. Attachments Soldering Comic. This information covers simple hobby soldering. Second Prize in the Burn It! Contest View Contest.
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