Soldering - not my thing....

[mvs sarma]

After Pb free ruling has come out, perhaps it may be difficult to get 60/40 resin cored solder unless one has in stock with his hobby kit. We are yet to experience this problem. I am rather interested to know how our members fared with lead free soldering at home front.

 

[dknguyen]

After Pb free ruling has come out, perhaps it may be difficult to get 60/40 resin cored solder unless one has in stock with his hobby kit. We are yet to experience this problem. I am rather interested to know how our members fared with lead free soldering at home front.

I'm uber OCD paranoid about lead. (ie. I wash my tools and my hands, as well as anything they have touched. I also wash the things that those things have touched and the things that those other things have touched, etc.). But I switched back because I destroyed more PCBs with Lead-free solder. It's also way harder to work with and even harder to fix mistakes on. I have much better equipment now, but haven't tried it with lead-free.

If you are on mass production levels where lots of toxic waste is generated, but also have the resources for repeatable, fine tuned process control then sure it's great. But I've found that at home, I make more waste (and waste more time and money) from destroyed boards of Lead-free solder than if I just used leaded solder.

 

[mvs sarma]

Thanks for the info. I was told that it is a difficult task and getting cofirmed by experts with 1st hand experience.
thanks, Dknguyen.

 

[dknguyen]

I still use lead-free though on big things large wires to contacts (just not on tiny PCB things) because there is a lot more exposed solder there, lead-free can take higher temperatures, heat damage does not matter as much, and it's larger so it's much easier to just go overboard on the heat to get it to work.

 

[Wingmax]

Hi All,

After loads of tinkering with my JuneBug and my breadboard I decided to do have a go at soldering a project together.

Let's just say soldering is definitely a skill which I definitely don't have.

This is one aspect of electronics I am NOT enjoying.

Any tips? (not soldering irons!!)

Mark

Usually doesn't take long to gain experience in solding and become good at it, and when you do, you probably find that it's the easiest thing in Electronics work. whether in design or trouble shooting.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

I enjoy soldering too, it's not difficult when you get the hang of it.

 

[Torben]

I enjoy soldering too, it's not difficult when you get the hang of it.

Yep, me too. I enjoy the design phase but I also look forward to building. Although I'm glad I only do one-offs since I'm not a big fan of drilling the holes (although the drill press helps).

Now I'm also learning to weld. Makes soldering seem like cake.


Torben

 

[dknguyen]

Yep, me too. I enjoy the design phase but I also look forward to building. Although I'm glad I only do one-offs since I'm not a big fan of drilling the holes (although the drill press helps).

Now I'm also learning to weld. Makes soldering seem like cake.


Torben

Yeah...I'm sometimes afraid to step into the building phase because that's when you start spending money and the mistakes you make are "hard" mistakes and not "soft" mistakes.

 

[UTMonkey]

Nigel, It's an Antex iron I am using (18w).

No temperature contol on this one. I think I definitely need that one for my next iron as I have already melted the plastic casings of some components.

 

[Hank Fletcher]

Now I'm also learning to weld. Makes soldering seem like cake.


Torben

I saw in the Canadian Tire here they have a Haynes manual on welding. Anyone used it? It looked pretty handy, I'm thinking about picking it up.

I've heard welding aluminum is a pain (low melting point, oxidizes easily). Anyone had any experiences along those lines?

 

[dknguyen]

I saw in the Canadian Tire here they have a Haynes manual on welding. Anyone used it? It looked pretty handy, I'm thinking about picking it up.

I've heard welding aluminum is a pain (low melting point, oxidizes easily). Anyone had any experiences along those lines?

I've heard that if you overheat it a little bit too much it all falls a part (the guy kind of compared it to a sheet of metal suddenly turning to liquid very abruptly).

 

[Krumlink]

I saw in the Canadian Tire here they have a Haynes manual on welding. Anyone used it? It looked pretty handy, I'm thinking about picking it up.

I've heard welding aluminum is a pain (low melting point, oxidizes easily). Anyone had any experiences along those lines?

Aluminum oxidizes instantly when welded with oxygen present. One of the few ways to prevent instant oxidization when welding is to weld in a argon environment

 

[Torben]

I've heard that if you overheat it a little bit too much it all falls a part (the guy kind of compared it to a sheet of metal suddenly turning to liquid very abruptly).

Steel does that too, at least to some degree. Aluminum is supposedly far worse for it though, and where steel glows as it gets hotter, aluminum doesn't--it apparently just develops a kind of sheen that you have to watch for.

I haven't tried aluminum yet, but among things I've read and/or been told are that it has a lower melting point than steel but is a much better conductor of heat so it is harder to get the heat just where you want it without overheating the work piece. If you don't handle this right you'll either cause the rest of the work piece to warp or else just blow through (or both). Also, steel turns straw-coloured, then glows red-orange-white, as you get it hotter; aluminum does not glow this way. It just kind of gets a different look--kind of a "sheen", as I've heard it described. It's not so obvious a change and you need more experience to be able to catch it every time.

I hope to figure it out at some point. I've still got lots to learn on just regular old steel first though.


Torben

 

[Torben]

Aluminum oxidizes instantly when welded with oxygen present. One of the few ways to prevent instant oxidization when welding is to weld in a argon environment

Typically this is handled by the welding machine, if you're using TIG or MIG. If you're welding stick then the flux on the electrode handles it for you.


Torben

 

[Torben]

Yeah...I'm sometimes afraid to step into the building phase because that's when you start spending money and the mistakes you make are "hard" mistakes and not "soft" mistakes.

Me too. Too bad PCBs don't have Undo buttons.


Torben

 

[theinfamousbob]

Me too. Too bad PCBs don't have Undo buttons.


Torben

Depends on the mistake. Sometimes an X-acto blade makes a wonderful undo tool.

 

[dknguyen]

Too bad they can't redo.

 

[deth502]

6) Use something (like a **broken link removed**) to hold your work pieces steady so you have both hands free to hold the iron and solder. Makes a world of difference.

i like to keep a roll of masking tape around for small components (resistors, diodes, ect...) i place them on the top of the board, tape them down, flip and solder.

 

[deth502]

Steel does that too, at least to some degree. Aluminum is supposedly far worse for it though, and where steel glows as it gets hotter, aluminum doesn't--it apparently just develops a kind of sheen that you have to watch for.

I haven't tried aluminum yet, but among things I've read and/or been told are that it has a lower melting point than steel but is a much better conductor of heat so it is harder to get the heat just where you want it without overheating the work piece. If you don't handle this right you'll either cause the rest of the work piece to warp or else just blow through (or both). Also, steel turns straw-coloured, then glows red-orange-white, as you get it hotter; aluminum does not glow this way. It just kind of gets a different look--kind of a "sheen", as I've heard it described. It's not so obvious a change and you need more experience to be able to catch it every time.

I hope to figure it out at some point. I've still got lots to learn on just regular old steel first though.


Torben

what kind of welding are you doing??

imo, oxy acet is prob the best way to start.

i started on stick, then got a mig, then a oxy acet setup. hope to have a tig someday soon.

i beleive ALL my welds got better once i started o-a welding. its a slow process, if you make your joints right you wont need filler. its helpful cuz its so slow that its easy to see the process of the 2 metals melting together, then you get the hang of watching that, and it helps with other processes.

ive had VERY limited experiance with alum, but yes, its MUCH more dificult. as was stated, you dont see the little puddle forming to know when you get the heat right. you just keep heating, then all os a sudden, you see the "sheen" it easy to spot, the problem is controlling it, imo. for me, it sems, once you see the metal change, the heat then just blows out/vaporises it a about 1 sec, and when i try to reduce heat to hold it ther, it frezzes up again. and yes, oxidization is a real pita with it.

 

[quixotron]

Depends on the mistake. Sometimes an X-acto blade makes a wonderful undo tool.

Yeah. I am designing some printed dipole antennas for work. Copper tape and exacto knifes work wonders! Those equations on the designers notes aren't quite as accurate as they appear to be, so I have to trim the antenna a bit to satisfy the VSWR requirement.