Soldering hints

[idrougge]

Some people use a syringe with wide throat to suck out solder

[emufan]

a thin needle of a sewing kit - maybe attached to the iron - or from the reverse side.
but in most cases, alot of flux does help alot.
a little blob of solder onto the hole, to have better contact with the remaining stuff inside.

[Viserion]

You need it to be molten to get it out, and that is my problem.

I will try put the needle trick, and see if that helps.

[idrougge]

I use a gel-based flux called Löthonig. Since it's a gel, it stays put and doesn't quickly evaporate as more fluid flux. Put a blob on the solder point and warm it up. Since the ground plane will absorb a lot of heat, you may need to go above 400°.

[Viserion]

Thanks for tip. Found 1 seller at ebay, so will try with hotter temperatures and if that doesn't work, I'll get the Löthonig.

[Viserion]

Well I managed to get the solder off somehow it was a huge struggle to do so.

So now all my ram can be set securely in place. The only downer is that it refuses to boot with more than 1 of the simms in place(in addition to the soldered one) no matter how many jumpers I try to change.

[dlfrsilver]

i use a flux pen, that i rub on the solder. With my thermo-controled Station, i melt easily the solder, and suck it up with my pump

[Viserion]

I tried something similar, but it didn't work.

I turned up the temperature, and used a needle the get trough the solder.

After quite a bit of hassle I succeeded, and after that soldering on the memory socket was relatively straight forward.

[Acill]

A good brand name iron and the proper tip is key! Do yourself a favor and get a Weller or Hakko station. I prefer the Weller with ET series tips. They are not a lot of money and are available in all types of sizes and configurations for any task you would need.

[Amiga1992]

My life changed when I got a Weller.
I got the cheapest one that has temp regulation, WLC-100.


I also now got used to screwdriver tips, and actually I am always using the really thick one that comes with the iron. I bought finer tips for future adventures into precision/smd

As for desoldering, I got a plastic cheap pump. Got really used to it. Never used wick but it could help sometimes with stubborn solder (and to reduce temp exposure of a PCB)

I cannot recommend highly enough all the advice given in this video blog:
[ Show youtube player ]

[Viserion]

Already have a Weller. It's a WECP-20 so it's an older type, but still functions good.

By the way the EEVblog guy have a review of the ZD-987, and I agree with his conclusion that it may not be the best built device in the world, but
does what it says it will do. For any who de a lot of trough hole desoldering it is a good tool to have considering it isn't too expensive.

I used this to remove 4x 64 pin ram sockets, and only 5-6 was difficult, and of those only 2 was really hard.

It might be I should have used more heat, as all trouble spots was on the end of the ram sockets, or some of the solder had gone bad.

I don't know.
At least got one of them up and running again.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by Viserion

It might be I should have used more heat, as all trouble spots was on the end of the ram sockets, or some of the solder had gone bad.

The solder doesn't go bad, it's just a PCB ground or vcc plane at the corner pin that's sucking all the heat.

[Viserion]

I was just listing a few possible reasons out of the top of my head.

I was thinking of solder cracking, but that may be more of a BGA problem than a trough hole one.

Most likeley as you said ground, or something sucking up the heat.

Hi everyone...i am a new user here. As per my knowledge The hardest part about soldering is learning how to hold 3-4 things with two hands. The Solder, the Soldering Iron and the wire and the thing you are soldering.

The second hardest part is knowing how much solder to use and how long to leave the soldering iron in contact with the thing you are soldering. I always used too little solder and took the soldering iron away too soon as I was frightened of breaking things.Third hardest part, good tools. Cheap crap soldering irons with tips the size of bournmouth are useless. The soldering iron tip should go to a pencil type point, ideally be temperature controlled and be the right weight.

printed circuit board assembly company

[plasmab]

For soldering i strongly recommend watching "Louis Rossmann" on YouTube.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by RockyFath

Hi everyone...i am a new user here. As per my knowledge The hardest part about soldering is learning how to hold 3-4 things with two hands. The Solder, the Soldering Iron and the wire and the thing you are soldering.

That is indeed an important factor usually ignored.
I got one of those "helping hands" things and I really love it. No more burned fingers

Also they look like a funny robot

[plasmab]

My experience of soldering is that if you are trying to hold multiple things you are doing it wrong


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[CoCan]

OK, newb q here.

What does the flux % in different solders mean, is it just like it sounds, the % of flux in the solder?

In the EEVblog tutorial that Akira linked (thankyou) he recommends 63/37 with multicore flux, he used 5 core flux, but couldn't find any of that stuff on ebay or amazon, esp at the thinner diameters EEV guy recommends. So I just went for one with "Rosin Core Flux 1.2%" but saw others at 1.8% and 2%.

[sirlemonhead]

I got this stuff recently - works great. Pretty sure I paid a bit less for it at the time though.. http://ie.farnell.com/multicore-loct...250g/dp/419308

[Kin Hell]

Originally Posted by plasmab

My experience of soldering is that if you are trying to hold multiple things you are doing it wrong


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