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soldering problem, suggestions please

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kinarfi

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Factors for My problem; soldering station set for ~ 700°, solder is .031 rosin core 60/40, USB cord has mini b plug and that seems obsolete any more, so, I bought 10 USB micro plugs and as I was trying to make the connection to the terminals, they would disappear down into the plastic. I was usually successful in making the connection, but the insulation on most USB cords seems to melt at soldering temp, as does the plastic around the terminals, so I thought solder paste or liquid solder would be a good idea. Don't think so, the solder pastes I found, Digikey, needed refrigeration and 20 minute to warm up. I'm not that patient! and 6 month shelf life from manufacture date, Glue needs to cure overnight, I hate staying up all night holding the wire in place. maybe I need some low temp solder.
Any one have some good suggestions?
Thanks, Jeff
 
700° seems a little excessive, red hot soldering iron is never a good way to solder. Normally you would use somthing like 280-320°, maybe 340° for large metal objects like heatsinks.
 
60/40 solder is no good for electronics. The parts must be held completely still while it cools. 63/37 solder is used for electronics because it hardens suddenly so movement of the parts does not affect the solder joint as much.
Most solder for electronics has a core of rosin.

Maybe you can put water on a cotton ball and put it on top of the insulation of the wires you are soldering?
 
700° seems a little excessive, red hot soldering iron is never a good way to solder. Normally you would use somthing like 280-320°, maybe 340° for large metal objects like heatsinks.
That is 700 degrees F which is 371 degrees C. America is not metric yet.
 
63/37 solder is used for electronics because it hardens suddenly so movement of the parts does not affect the solder joint as much.

I don't know what century you think it might be AG :D, but leaded solder mostly disappeared a good number of years ago.

However, the OP is certainly better off using leaded rather than un-leaded - so if he's using un-leaded he should try and find some leaded.

As for the plastic melting, such items require soldering VERY quickly, and preferably with the pins held in place (if appropriate) by putting it in a socket whilst soldering.

As for the temperature, I agree that 700 degrees F (370 C) sounds far too hot, I think mine at work is set to 325 C?
 
My roll of 63/37 leaded solder with a flux core was about 40 years old and ran out three weeks ago. I replaced it with the same. It works very well and I do not eat the lead in it. My 60/40 leaded solder with a flux core is hopeless because the solder joints fall apart and look dull instead of shiny.
Many people do not know about tinning the soldering iron tip and the parts to be soldered. Then the solder joint can be a very quickly reflowed before the plastic melts.
 
Correct, USA, HexAcon solder station, 650, 700, or 800 F, didn't know about the 63/37 - 60/40 diff, next time it will be 63/37 tnx
here's a photo of what I'm working on, TO92 is there for size comparison
solder.jpg
 
As for the temperature, I agree that 700 degrees F (370 C) sounds far too hot, I think mine at work is set to 325 C?
Same here... 300~325 ish... I knock it up to 400 for larger parts but always turn it down again... Otherwise the tip doesn't last!!!
 
Tin the connector tab. Tin the wire. Hold the wire in position, touch the soldering iron tip to it just long enough to melt the solder already on the tab and wire. Hold very still....and you're done.

Of course, the question is why are you soldering cables to USB connectors.
 
I don't know what century you think it might be AG :D, but leaded solder mostly disappeared a good number of years ago.
Actually it is still widely available here in the US. Maybe for the maker market. I just bought a roll of leaded solder the other day at Fry's Electronics. :)
 
As for the soldering problem, have you tried a really fine tip?
----------------------edit-------------------------------------
Also might try some finer gauge solder too. Something like 23-24 AWG. I find the finer gauge solder is much easier to work with fine pitch parts. :)
 
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What I do is clamp the plug in a vice, lay the end of the solder spool on the bare metal and touch the solder to melt it, but this last batch of plugs seem to have a real bad type of plastic around the terminal that would melt and cover the terminal, even so, I would tin the conductor and try to get a good connection. I also contacted one of the suppliers in China who said they would look into it and I'm waiting for their reply,
I have a needle point solder tip that I use for this, maybe I'll go inside the solder station and set the temperature even lower on the low setting.
Thanks for reading
Jeff
 
Hi,

700 F still sounds too high, try 400 or 450 F.
 
try 400 or 450 F. will do1
 
I use Kester 63/37 solder with 3.3% rosin and 0.8mm thickness for most SMT work down to 0603 and SOIC parts. Tinning and reflowing is the way to do it if you have hot air available. I use 280°C hot air as well as a 280°C Iron tip. To keep the part in place when reflowing u can use Rosin gel which is tacky until melted, by which time the solder should exert enough cohesion to hold the part in place. Don't use excessive air flow to blow the part off.

With a 280°C Iron tip I don't have to do any cleaning except for the damp wipe sponge. If you get burnt plastic on your soldering tip you may have to flake it off with an exacto blade. I have some thicker 1/16" solder , lead free, which does a great job of re-tinning the scraped iron tip after it gets contaminated with plastic or insulation. Also, wash your tip wipe sponge with detergent when it gets dirty or your iron tip won't clean/tin/solder well. Don't have the sponge wet when working, it must be damp. You'll have to add a few drops of water every so often during a long work session.

Edit: I got some 60/40 solder from Ebay to try out...I gave it away, it's way too plastic and mushy.
If you have not cared for your Irons tip or run it too hot and it can't tin completely, pass some 600 grit sand paper over it lightly and then tin using dilute HCL as an additional reducer. I directly use the paint on 'rust eater' products available from the hardware stores when tinning raw iron, steel, nichrome, stainless, battery contacts etc. Do not breathe in the HCL fumes, all you need is a 1/4 drop as you get by dipping the thick end of a toothpick in the liquid.
 
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success, for the most part, turned the heat down to 650° f, according to label, didn't melt the plastic, got the leads to bond and now all I need to do is get the camera to work with my phone, it's a DBPOWER and runs as a SMI when plugged into my laptop, but I haven't been able to get it to run on my Nexus 6 lately, maybe it's because of the nougat upgrage.
 
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