How in the Heck do You Solder?

Every time I try to solder a couple of wires together or some such, all I get is beads of solder running off the side of the job. It doesn't blob up and stick and, you know, solder the friggin thing I'm working on. What am I doing wrong? Is it because I have a cheap-ass gun, or am using the wrong solder? Nobody told me you had to be smart to solder stuff.... :blink:

Jb

Heat the material, not the solder. The solder should melt when applied to the material.

Are you using flux? Usually I heat up the area to be soldered, stick the tip of the solder into the jar of flux to grap a drop or two, the watch the flux sizzle on the hot area to be soldered and then apply the solder to the hot joint. 2nd tip - heat the wire from the other opposite side of where you are applying the solder. You want the wire to be hot enough, not just the solder to melt on the tip of the solder gun.

Scab said:

Heat the material, not the solder. The solder should melt when applied to the material.

Click to expand...

+1

I usually put a piece of wood under the wires so the tip will press against them. They heat faster that way. Then just touch the solder to the wires and presto!

Gary

gone

James Burleigh said:

Every time I try to solder a couple of wires together or some such, all I get is beads of solder running off the side of the job. It doesn't blob up and stick and, you know, solder the friggin thing I'm working on. What am I doing wrong? Is it because I have a cheap-ass gun, or am using the wrong solder? Nobody told me you had to be smart to solder stuff.... :blink:
Jb

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As in many things that look easy soldering has a few steps. 1. Slide a piece of heat shrink down the longest wire you are putting together. 2. After bareing the wires twist the wires together. 3. Use rosin core solder preferably 60/40 . 4. Heat the joint to be soldered with a soldering gun or pencil. 5. Wait until you see a little smoke or at least 10 seconds and the apply the solder to the joint area. The solder will flow smoothly and quickly into the wire. 6. Let the joint cool until you don't feel heat coming from it , then slide the heat shrink over the repair and apply heat to the heat shrink until it shrinks around the repair. Have fun, practice makes perfect.

Racer157 has got it exactly right.

Use a rosin core solder, makes life much easier.

GZ

Smitty taught me to use a 230 watt gun from Radio Shack. Made everything a lot easier.

I get the gun tip hot, then melt a small bit of solder onto the tip, and touch that molten blob to the area I want to solder. That gets the individual strands heated up much quicker. Then start close to the heat zone, touching the solder to the wire as it melts and move farther away as the wire heats enough to melt the solder.

I detailed another little trick I use from time to time here.

All of the above, And, make sure the materials you are soldering (in your example wires) are clean and free of any oxidation.

Flux. And not the stuff you use for plumbing, either - that's acid-based. And don't stick the solder in the flux, flux the target you are soldering.

For the simplest good results buy a roll or a length of 'rosin core solder' which is a small tube of solder surrounding flux. It comes in various weights (diameters) so don't get the stuff that's thin as thread, but real thick stuff isn't good either. Radio Shack and most hardware stores will sell a small plastic tube with solder loaded into it or you can buy rolls of the stuff.

Get it quickly because they are phasing out lead based solders in the next couple of years - already gone from electronic manufacturing processes. The alternatives don't work anywhere near as well.

Heat the target, not the solder. Touch the solder to the heated target - if you can't get the wire to 'take', touch a small bit to the tip of the soldering iron or gun (do not use a wood burning tool) where it meets the wire so that the heat will be conducted to the joint a bit better.

Oh and don't breath the fumes, at all, seriously.

Chris

BugR said:

Oh and don't breath the fumes, at all, seriously.Chris

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That's TRUE! Otherwise you end up looking like BugR -see his avatar-! :lol:

Heat the wires

Use flux

Sorted.

Soldering wires works best with a BIG GUN, not a tiny little pencil iron.

One of the frequently overlooked aspects of soldering is that you need enough wattage/heat to QUICKLY heat the material and flow the solder. If you are having to hold a small wattage pencil iron on the joint for more than 10-15 second, then get a soldering gun or a higher wattage iron.

Time is your enemy. The longer you have to stay on the joint, the hotter everything gets downstream and upstream.

The trick to soldering is having a blob of solder on the tip of the iron. The blob needs to make contact with the wires to be soldered. The blob conducts heat very efficiently to the wires.

Tinning the tip as it is called involves heating the tip and melting some solder on it, then letting the tip cool. Then, when you are ready to solder, the blob will stay on the tip.

gone

Great advice here. Thanks all!

Jb

*Edit 4/8* Success! I got some of the solder yesterday with the rosin core and successfully soldered my LED license plate farkle! Yay! Thanks again, all! Jb