Best Way to learn/practice Soldering

[Thunderpup]

Hey Guys/Gals, 

 

I placed it in this part of the forum as it appeared to be the most Apt, but i've been wanting to learn how to solder electrical components for sometime now and i have finally gotten around to doing it.  Ultimately i want to be able to restore and modify retro game consoles beyond the thorough cleaning which is what i currently do.  So soldering/de-soldering capacitors, chips, wires etc...

 

That being said i was wondering if anyone had any suggestions regarding any practice material that may be available.  Given my first ever attempt at soldering was replacing voltage regulators on a genesis i had as a kid, which i botched horribly, i would like something that i can tinker with that doesn't make things a lot worse.  

 

I already have a fair amount of tools typically needed such as the soldering iron, flux, flat snips, multi-meter, and even one of those quad hands.

 

I appreciate any suggestions you may have.  

 

 

[DocSwag]

Just start with basics like soldering wired together and soldering wires to resistors and capacitors and whatnot. That's probably where you should start.

[Silverwolf_7]

1. Get some wire and a piece of perf board.

2. Solder it together.

3. Repeat.

[Thunderpup]

4 hours ago, RandomGuy13 said:

If you want to get into electronics. Check Ben Heck's Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChturLXwYxwTOf_5krs0qvA They do all sorts of gamery and electronic stuff that might give you ideas on projects that you can do. Also there is a right and wrong way to solder and He did a video on how to solder 

 

Thanks

i'll check him out

[You_are_a_cunt]

On 2/27/2017 at 2:15 AM, Thunderpup said:

Thanks

i'll check him out

Also check EEVBlog and BigCliveDotCom. And AvE for some sharts and gargles.

 

The way I learned was by getting dead boards from the scrap bin and desoldering EVERYTHING off of it, cleaning the board and resoldering everything where it was. That also gives you a pretty good idea on how circuits are designed

[mariushm]

Screw that Ben Heck garbage.  (it may be OK but i don't like this style of videos... it's too edited, too tv show like, too "commercial" - I only skimmed through the video linked above and the information in the video is acceptable but it's not 100% correct... see below for what I mean)

If you actually want to learn something, here's some excellent material.

 

Pace Basic Soldering Lessons : 

 

Pace is a company that makes soldering equipment. This series of videos was made a long time ago so it may seem dated to you but believe me, the information is still very valid and applies to modern equipment as well, just the design of soldering tools and the quality of solders and fluxes has improved since then.

 

The explanations and rules about soldering still apply, and he explains things in a very easy to understand, so it's worth watching at least two or three segments.

I recommend Lesson 1 - Solder & Flux which explains the soldering technique and the importance of flux and tip temperature and contact duration (if you get this right, you're half way there, you'll only need practice to be very good at this)

Lesson 6 - "Component Soldering" explains in more detail how to solder leads, teaches you how long the leads should be on the other side (where you solder) and how much solder should you use and how a proper soldered connection should look, and shows examples of bad soldering jobs. You can ignore the part at the beginning about abrasive tool because these days components are no longer made with leads that could rust like in the old days. If you want to be anal about it, usually just wiping them and the circuit trace where you solder them with a paper towel dabbed in isopropyl alcohol to remove the grease from your fingers and other crap is enough.

Lesson 7 and 8 are short and give you additional tips about soldering ICs with more leads, it's worth watching them.

Lesson 3 - Cup Terminals teaches you how to solder to some connectors like VGA or serial / parallel ports .. it's useful information but not critical in learning how to solder.

The other videos explain how to solder to some terminals or how to do some things that are out of fashion these days, they're no longer used. They're worth watching, they won't give you bad advice but not as relevant these days.

 

Once you know the technique from these videos, you need a proper soldering tool, a proper solder wire and the most important... FLUX .  While modern quality solder wires have flux inside (usually about 1.8-3% inside the solder wire core is flux), it often helps to have additional flux applied before bringing solder to the leads and circuit trace.

 

If you're serious about soldering and you think you're going to solder a lot in the future and you have the budget, it's really worth spending at least 50$ on a soldering station with adjustable temperature and temperature sensor in the tip, and removable/replaceable... not the cheap mains powered soldering tools without temperature control.  Even those cheap Hakko 936 clones would do for a beginner (Atten, Yihua).

Stay away from cheaper models that control temperature by adjusting the power going in the tip, but don't have temperature sensor in the tip.

 

These soldering irons with adjustable temperature and sensor at tip are much, much, much better quality compared to those cheap mains soldering irons - believe me, makes a huge difference.

 

If you don't have a lot of money, HobbyKing has one of those Hakko 936 clones for a very cheap price, around 20$ plus shipping : https://hobbyking.com/en_us/soldering-station-with-adjustable-heat-range-us-warehouse.html

They're usually 40-50$ on eBay.. and the description lies a bit, it's not a 60w soldering iron, it's at most 45w but that only means the tip will heat up a bit slower than normal and won't solder easily very big,thick, wires (because the station won't be able to pump heat in the tip fast enough to counteract the very big wires' mass, as they act like heatsinks).

 

Genuine high quality soldering stations can be bought for under 100$ , here's a link for the Hakko FX-888D (careful as there are cheaper models on eBay but they're clones of this model) :

0. Hakko-FX888D-23BY on Amazon : http://amzn.to/2lWPpq7

1. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hakko-FX888D-23BY-Digital-Soldering-Station-FX-888D-/282345241424

2. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hakko-FX888D-23BY-Digital-Soldering-Station-Includes-FX-8801-Iron-T18-D16-Tip-/171623281221

 

 

The clone of the old Hakko 936 is still way better than the soldering irons plugged directly in mains at fixed temperature, or those cheap stations that control temperature of tip without feedback from the tip, just by controling the amount of power pumped in the tip.

 

For soldering components and regular wires people use in projects, it's good enough as a starter soldering station and the spare parts are super cheap and available on eBay, the tips are clones of Hakko 936 (and Hakko 888) so they're compatible and easy to find, even the hand piece can be bought separately.

 

EEVBlog also has a series of videos which show what to look for in a soldering iron, what solder wire should be used, the importance of flux and shows some examples of soldering.  Lots of good explanations and advice, it's worth watching.. bear through his voice if it annoys you, the information is very good :

 

 

 

 

There's also a part 3, but less important (examples of soldering surface mount components) so I'm not embedding the video here.  You can find it on his channel.

 

On the excessive side, really paranoid soldering (avionics standards etc), really overboard, you can see here a couple of videos that are very good, they're great soldering jobs, but really a lot of unnecessary steps for regular soldering. Still very useful tips about cleaning tip before soldering, cutting a tiny bit of  solder wire at the start because that part may lack flux inside which may have melted from previous use, how to properly clean tip without messing that sponge, how to tin wires properly 

 

 

and he solders cups pretty much like in the pace lessons, just more excessive and precise

 

 

 

* ben heck video :

 

For example at around 6:00 when trying to solder a wire on a prototyping board he puts a blob of solder on the iron tip and then brings the solder to the wire... that's bad, as he just burnt up all the flux in the solder and didn't apply liquid flux on the wire or circuit board, it makes for poor quality joints, unreliable.

Also he doesn't go into details about actually cleaning the tip of the iron before using it for first time, or tinning the tip before starting soldering, or the proper technique or placing the tip in contact with the pad or lead and adding a tiny bit of solder between them to create a "bridge" that would help with transferring heat from the tip to the part (shortening the solder time) , before actually adding more solder.