Soldering??

[Hectic]

Okay so as i recall i used to be prety decent at soldering, that was back in high school mind you so re edumacate me those who are good at this.
What the heck am i doin wrong, im just makin a horrid mess, big clunky chunks of solder and having a hard time making wires stick to the deans connectors.
using a gas powered bernzomatic soldering iron i had and some baisic solder, even went and got flux as i thought that was my issue but i think that its makin it worse lol.
Any help for a rusty solder..er?

[coach]

Ensure your iron is hot enough
Pre tin your joints
Heat the wire/connector not the solder

[ccyg8774]

Have you been using the same solder before? I once got some solder which is horrible and always make a mess...

[Hectic]

thanks coach, i think maybe the iron is the issue yes it gets hot but bein butane powered its probably not quite hot enough to heat the connector and wire quickly enough to be efficent, guess ugly joints it is lol

nah havent really soldered in ten years or more was just some crap i had layin round, i have some other solder ill try that but im thinkin its the iron makin the difference

[Drunk_Albertan]

I had this very same problem just last night. Solder was just balling up and rolling off the deans connector. Was using a small iron. Changed to a larger 120V iron and got the connector hotter and had no issues getting the solder to adhere to the connector.

[Trev140_0]

There is a fine line with hot and too hot.

1. Make sure the source is clean of any plastic etc.
2. Heat the source well enough. (for the jackasses who troll do not come on here and tell me about printed circuit boards single or double sided-irrelevant)
3. Pull the heat source away and apply the solder with flux in the wire. Note: the flux should float to the surface and see the yellow

If you do not see this, you are either too cold (cold solder) OR you have burned off the flux. (too hot)

Both bad.

An outstanding solder joint should show evidence of the solder being "soaked" into the wire. Meaning you wont see it "pooled" on the join, but rather the solder takes the shape of what you are soldering. You will see it appear to go into the strands of the wire.

Again, leaving a shitty yellow glue look on the very surface. Like dried contact cement.

That's the flux-that's good.

But then again this maybe a guess.


.

[Renegade)]

Butane soldering torch is potentially too hot... thats why all the clumps. Get a decent electric one, use flux, always tin and clean your tip with a wet cloth.

Heat the tip up super hot before touching the wires or joints together, and shorter amount of time its touching the connections, the better.

[Hectic]

lol thanks Trev, i knew i had it correct its just my tools that are lacking, gonna have to buy a good (at least decent) iron and some non dollar store type solder if im gonna be doing this on the regular.
got a MERF 3.2 and decided may as well get all the guns on deans in one shot so i can share batteries and the MERF.
Almost done now but ill be sure to grab a new iron befor my next soldering job lol.
Thanks all for the input, hopefully someone else will find this info usefull in the future as well, i mean i cant be the only one who forgot highschool lol

I dont think its too hot Derek I have to touch the deans "post" for a good 60-90 secconds befor itll melt the solder by that time all the flux is boiled off, and that on highest setting.
It is a "torch" but the flame is contained and it has a soldering tip in front of an element that heats the tip, i think it just looses alot of heat in the transfer process, great to have at games n such tho just in case someone messes up a wire or something just not so great for day to day soldering jobs

[Trev140_0]

Originally Posted by Hectic

lol thanks Trev, i knew i had it correct its just my tools that are lacking, gonna have to buy a good (at least decent) iron and some non dollar store type solder if im gonna be doing this on the regular.
got a MERF 3.2 and decided may as well get all the guns on deans in one shot so i can share batteries and the MERF.
Almost done now but ill be sure to grab a new iron befor my next soldering job lol.
Thanks all for the input, hopefully someone else will find this info usefull in the future as well, i mean i cant be the only one who forgot highschool lol

I dont think its too hot Derek I have to touch the deans "post" for a good 60-90 secconds befor itll melt the solder by that time all the flux is boiled off, and that on highest setting.
It is a "torch" but the flame is contained and it has a soldering tip in front of an element that heats the tip, i think it just looses alot of heat in the transfer process, great to have at games n such tho just in case someone messes up a wire or something just not so great for day to day soldering jobs

Not fair.

My first career was an Industrial Electrician. I used to be able to solder a double sided PC board with a 24 pin IC half cracked from the night before, judging the quality by the smell of the solder.

No biggy brother.

If you want to do a good pactice, just cut open an old speaker wire and go at it. Until the solder is soaking into the form of the wire, its WRONG.

You will get the hang of it and figure out the burning off of the flux to not hot enough (cold joint) quick enough.

I still think we should all meet up one day are a hotel one day and do a technology transfer of this sport one winter.

Have little work shops for gear boxes, shimming, wiring soldering, hop up etc etc.

I think if a few dozen of us got together one sat we would surprise each other what we could pass on.

[Ricochet]

- 60/40 Rosin core solder
- Rosin flux
- For connectors or batteries, I'd suggest a soldering gun. It really makes good use of the flux.
- Pre-solder your wire ends

[Trev140_0]

Sorry, re reading this, the solder should melt nearly right away. (I know people are going to chime in on diameter of wire-fuck off) the wire in NO CASE should take 60 to 90 seconds.

5 seconds MAXXXXXXX. (more like 1-3 seconds)

[Toonz]

Might be late to the party but something I never see alot of people do......

When applying the soldering iron tip to the desired object to be soldered leave a small glob of solder on the tip. Rather than only the tip heating the target the melted solder on the tip creates a larger heated surface area on the target heating it faster and more evenly.

Also as Coach said tin everything.

[mcguyver]

I only use a butane iron. The selection of tips determines how much heat you can transfer to your wire and solder, and how stable it is to temperature fluctuations from the transfer. This means less heat damage to your wire or connection points. Soldering should be nearly instantaneous, or your iron is too cool or too small. I use a 60/40 resin core for wire, and silver for motors.

I have been soldering with them for over 20 years, and with high volume I will have to replace a $150 iron once every 6-7 years or so.

[Trev140_0]

Originally Posted by Toonz

Might be late to the party but something I never see alot of people do......

When applying the soldering iron tip to the desired object to be soldered leave a small glob of solder on the tip. Rather than only the tip heating the target the melted solder on the tip creates a larger heated surface area on the target heating it faster and more evenly.

Also as Coach said tin everything.

I read this too a few time. I only do this on sensitive IC parts like I was referring to in earlier posts. That's to reduce the "heat time" of the primary object that maybe susceptible to heat damage.

Wires ain't.

By the way, here is a linke for more than what you will ever need at Crappy Tire.


25 Watts.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows....jsp?locale=en


My soldering kit has seen dozens of miles of solder. You will see 50 feet in your LIFE-maybe
.

[ThunderCactus]

tin the wire
TIN THE THING YOU WANT TO SOLDER IT TO
And make sure both are still hot when you go to solder them together

The most common mistake I see people make is they immediately try to add solder to a joint without tinning or preheating anything