Dave - This is an excellent overview of the soldering process. One nasty issue of using no-lead solder back when RoHS was first introduced was the appearance of the so-called 'tin whiskers' formations in high-density circuitry. This has been helped with the introduction of other elements (e.g., copper and silver) in the solder alloys. However, in my experience, nothing flows so well or shines and brightly as leaded solder. I have been soldering with lead for over 50 years, and as you know, David, I am completely noorrmal.
Bob, thank you for your comment, as you know, there is no "check and balance" in our society for mental illness, hence they let me walk around! David Riddle
Just want you to know that I had a 31 year career at a large telecommunications company in various roles such as lineman, telephone installation and repair, indoor work as a switchman, software applicator, special service tech, etc and I still learned a lot from watching your presentation on soft soldering and theory.
I know this isn't really about soldering iron selection, but in my opinion, the Pinecil soldering iron is the best bang for your buck these days. For under $30, you get an electronically controlled iron that heats up in seconds. It runs on USB-C, has electronic temp settings and an automatic standby mode for safety. Excellent ergonomics, too-it's quite small! The tips are a bit pricier as they come with an integrated ceramic heating element, but for that functionality you really can't go wrong! Their short tips are the best ones. I have no financial incentive to shill it, but I have one and really love the iron.
Thank you for your comment and you're welcome! David Riddle P.S. I won the Emmy as a producer and audio mixer on an outdoor performance of the opera Faust.
Thank you for your comment and accolades, both Jon and I write the scripted portion of the videos, the rest is extemporaneous. Jon does all of the video editing and we compose all of the shots (establishing, close-up and extreme close-ups), to make the video as explanatory as possible! David Riddle
Thank you for your comment and suggestion, we are working on additional videos and one on heat-shrink tubing would be informative as there are many types and formulations available. David Riddle
Thank you for your comment and accolades, since I've been soldering since I was eight years old, and have surrounded myself with people who were vastly more intelligent and talented, this is where my knowledge base has been accumulated! Please see our other videos, I think you will find them also comprehensive. David Riddle
At about 26:00, the fiberglass bristle brushes are known as "scratch brushes" and they are fantastic for removing the oxide layer from whatever you're about to solder: the terminals of a switch or potentiometer, the foils and pads of a circuit board, a metal chassis where you want to make a ground connection, etc. You can typically buy a cheap set of 3 Asian made scratch brushes for less than $15, usually containing not only the fiberglass brush but also a brass wire brush and a steel wire brush, all enclosed in retractable housings, sort of like a ballpoint pen (twisting the top extends or retracts the bristles). The cheap sets, however, might not have the ability to replace the fiberglass brushes, which do wear out as you use them, and the overall mechanisms aren't built very well. You can buy better quality, German-made scratch brushes which are much higher quality and do allow you to replace worn out fiberglass brushes (buy some spares); the brass or steel brushes are unlikely to wear out, but you may find that you rarely use those and the fiberglass bristle brushes do both the most accurate, fine-grained t cleaning , and yet are least likely to damage anything. Just watch out for bits of thin glass fiber getting stuck in your fingers, From where they can be difficult to locate and extract with tweezers (sometimes a piece of really sticky tape works better). They'll fester in your flesh a bit and bother you for a few days and eventually work their way out, but you might prefer to avoid that by wearing gloves. I used them every day at work for years (audio repair shop) and they're fantastic tools, well worth the occasional hassle of a sore finger while the glass bit works its way out.....
Thank you for your comment and suggestions regarding fiberglass "scratch brushes", I first utilized these brushes wile repairing silver plated battery contacts in cameras, because metal brushes (steel, brass) will contaminate the silver plating, causing an electrolytic reaction. David Riddle
@@HowToHomeLife , I got my scratch brushes from Essingers' watch and jewelery repair supply house: Eurotools and Bergeon brands (the Bergeon is smaller diameter, 3/32" or thereabouts). I do find that the scratch brushes vary in stiffness depending where you buy them and it's nice to have a softer glass brush as well as a stiffer one. If they get beat up and the fibers splay out too much, a drop of super glue will stiffen it back up. I've also adapted battery-powered artist's erasers to hold the short left-over nubs that are left over when a worn brush can no longer be extended out far enough from the pen-like housing to be usable. This works phenomenally well, better than using a scratch brush manually!
Hello. I hope I get a solution for my problem. I make MDF cabinets. Quite a lot of them infact. After they cure, it all looks good. Even after puttying and priming the surface everything seems perfect. While everything seems perfect I paint it with solvent based PU paint coatings. The end product comes out good, but The problem I am facing is that the joints shows up through coatings it looks like a fine piece of glass art has a deep crack right in joints.
Thanks for the comment and question, this seems like a question from one of my CA videos, not about soldering. Since I don't know what glue your utilizing in the construction of these MDF cabinets, joint details and wall thickness, I will not be able to answer your crack issues appearing in the finnish, please let me know some of these details. David Riddle
An important caution for newbie's to soldering: *do not use acetone to clean circuit boards*! Use pure alcohol, which is far less toxic, less flammable, and won't make you dizzy like breathing acetone fumes will. Acetone may damage some plastics (including plastic body transistors, diodes and capacitors) and probably will remove the printed labeling from components (it's a common ingredient in paint removers). Acetone is likely carcinogenic, and the fumes are highly explosive; it's far worse for you than working with leaded solder. Rosin flux dissolves easily in alcohol and use of acetone isn't necessary; don't do it! I've been repairing electronics for 55 years......
Thank you for your comment and suggestions, you are correct, acetone will indeed damage thermoplastics (anything that melts with a soldering iron) and remove markings from components. I only utilize acetone only on the foil side of circuit boards because it dissolves rosin flux more rapidly than alcohol. Using a tooth brush saturated with acetone, and holding the board at angle with the foil side facing downward, I observe the clarity of the acetone as it drips off of the corner until it is clear. If I need to clean both sides of a circuit board (components and foil), I only use alcohol. David Riddle
@@HowToHomeLife , I still have spray cans of alcohol-based fkux remover, which also has a little TCE mixed in. Its not great to breathe in any TC type solvent but its better than acetone!
Thank you for your comment and suggestion, I watched your soldering video (and several others of yours). I have never owned a wireless soldering iron, it might come in handy for my work! David Riddle
@@HowToHomeLife, the Oxford English dictionary says that both "sodder" and "soul-dur" are acceptable pronunciations. Anyway, it was originally a French word, soudure.....
His video is very informative, but perhaps a little too long. You’re gonna lose viewers who are impatient so maybe break down your videos for different categories
This video being overly long and getting off into the weeds at times, here is a synopsis that also contains some of my own decades of experience. To clarify, 60/40 solder changes gradually from a liquid to a solid as it cools and therefore you have to be careful not to disturb the solder joint for several seconds after you take the soldering iron away from it, because if you move the wires or the leads of the part while the solder is still kind of "plastic" you will end up with a so-called "cold" solder joint which appears grainy, rough and dull, and makes for an unreliable electrical and mechanical connection. 63/37 "eutectic" changes almost immediately from liquid to solid as the connection cools and so it's easier to make a reliable connection with less chance of developing a cold solder joint due to movement of the parts while the connection cools. That being said, I have used 6040 solder for decades; these days I mostly use a Kester solder formulation that that also contains 2% silver but this is more expensive and it's not really necessary for most electronics hobbyists. I should caution the hobbyist that when repairing a broken solder joint on an existing piece of equipment one occasionally encounters a scenario where the existing solder works poorly when you attempt to touch up an existing connection with your own solder; you may get what looks to be grainy, cold-soldered connection. This this particularly obvious when the device was made with lead-free solder and you are using leaded solder for the repair work,, in which case you should remove all the old solder from the connection first before resoldering with the solder you are using. It is important to note that lead-free solders require a higher soldering temperature then lead solder does, and the flux contained within lead-free solder are very acidic, corrosive, and electrically conductive, very different from the typically non-conductive, non-corrosive rosin flux used with and contained within 60/40 or similar lead/tin solder. It is important to realize that buying solder blindly off of ebay or Amazon may provide you with an alloy of unknown qualities from Asia that may not work well (and counterfeit labeled garbage products are all too common). Buy only name brand solder from well-known, reputable electronics supply specialists! The same applies to rosin flux. Acid fluxes are necessary for soldering copper water pipe or sheetmetal but are completely wrong for any type of electronics work because they will cause corrosion of the electrical connection eventually and it's almost impossible to remove every last trace of the acid flux. I honestly don't know why a demonstration of soldering sheet metal with a torch was shown here because you will *NEVER* use an open flame for soldering electronics, and you certainly don't want the rosin to catch fire and burn. PS, I learned to "sweat" copper waterpipe over 50 years ago, and never would I attempt to solder copper or brass that is as oxidized and tarnished as the brass strips shown here until.I had cleaned them first with sandpaper and wire brush (or in the case of electronics, with the fiberglass bristle scratch brush). In any and all types of soldering, cleanliness is next to godliness and no matter what flux you use it can never compensate for mechanical cleaning of the parts involved first. This is especially true of soldering electronic components! I do not recommend use of lead-free solder for hobbyists: It wets and flows poorly, is more subject to breaking down under extremes of heat, cold and vibration, and the flux is so active that any traces of it left behind can cause degradation or corrosion of connections and perhaps electrical conductivity across the fiberglass insulating material. The higher temperatures necessary and the corrosive fluxes contained within will shorten the lifetime of soldering iron tips, and you will probably find the fumes highly acrid and irritating to your nostrils. Rosin flux, on the other hand, is made from pine tree resins (similar to the rosin that violinists and cellists put on their bows) and smells kind of like a Christmas tree when it's heated. Some people might find it mildly irritating and a very few people are allergic to it but I've been working with this stuff for many decades and it doesn't bother me in the slightest. Work in a well ventilated room and use a fan to blow the fumes away and you'll probably experience no discomfort, but if it does bother you then you can buy dedicated devices to suck up the soldering fumes and filter them from the air or exhaust them to the outside. By the way, the melting point of lead solder is about 500° below the boiling point of lead and so the fumes don't really contain any toxic metal to be wary of. You may get some lead oxide film on your hands from handling the solder but it isn't absorbed through the skin; simply wash your hands before you eat, or wear thin rubber gloves if you prefer. An important distinction should be made between ordinary Rosin paste flux and what is sometimes referred to as "soldering paste"; there is a special mix of powdered solder and flux that is used for soldering "ball grid" or "VGA" microprocessors to circuit boards; the rosin flux shown in the video does not contain powdered solder. Again, I strongly recommend that you buy rosin flux only from reputable electronics supply catalog houses, not from eBay or Amazon, because I have seen acidic fluxes more suitable for soldering sheet metal being marketed to unsuspecting hobbiists. You can also buy liquid flux that has been diluted with alcohol, which is occasionally helpful but it's unnecessarily expensive to buy it in that form; if you really need Rosin flux to be thinner and more liquid, than you can simoly make your own by dissolving some of your paste flux in alcohol. And a final note about soldering equipment; the best quality tips have a copper core that is plated with steel, because copper is an excellent electrical and thermal conductor, but solder and flux tend to quickly dissolve and oxidize bare copper, and so quality-made tips are plated with steel for longer life. Unfortunately, if you buy your tips on Amazon or ebay they could come from just about anywhere and many are cheap, low-life knockoffs of known name brands. The shape of the tip is also important, and the pointy conical tips supplied with most soldering irons are terrible for most electronics work; watch the soldering of circuit boards in this video, the tip used here is a so-called "chisel" tip, which is a bit of a misnomer because the edge is actually blunted and rounded, but it has 2 flat sides like a chisel does. A chisel tip is good for nearly all circuit board work (except perhaps for working with truly tiny components) and you can solder wires and connectors with it as well. Keep the tip clean and tin it frequently as you work; A damp sponge works okay for tip cleaning,, but I have read that it can create micro fractures and stress cracks in the plating on the tip, and I find that the springy brass wool tip cleaners work even better than the sponge does. Finally, the key rule to sottering is that wherever possible you should endeavor to make a good mechanical connection before you finalize the electronic connection by adding solder! Twist the wires together in a spiral pattern, or wrap the component lead through the eyelid or terminal and bend it around into a hook or question mark shape, sufficient that it would probably make an okay electrical connection even before you add solder to it. The only proviso here is that you don't want to wrap the component lead so tightly or bend it so close down to the circuit board foils that it would make life difficult for you or another technician if/when that component must be removed (teasing the ckmponent lead with a dental pick to stsrt to unwrap it from the terminal while simultaneously heating it with the soldering iron is no fun, and a vacuum operated desoldering station or desoldering braid may not remove all of the solder). I personally prefer to cut all excess component lead away AFTER soldering the connections, and perhaps leaving a little stub of wire there for the desoldering gun to sit on, or that you can grab with needle nose pliers when you remove the part. Don't bend component leads flat down to the circuit board foils because you won't like it when it's time to remove the part!
Thank you for your comment and suggestions, I do hope viewers will read your lengthy comment because it details many additional things that I missed in the video. It is obvious that you have had many years of soldering experience! David Riddle
@@HowToHomeLife , thanks! Being old and having some health problems, I figure I might as well share what I can of my electronics experience with the rest of the world while I am still able to do so.
@@HowToHomeLife , ps, I still have a PTP series blue Weller soldering station somewhat similar to yours, and plenty of tips, but the heating element is bad and I haven't found a source for replacements anywhere.
@@goodun2974 I'm 72 and doing the same thing with these videos. Sharing my knowledge with as many people as possible to encourage them to utilize our only unique human trait we possess: "conjuring within our minds eye and ear, something that heretofore has never existed on this planet, and through the use of our opposable thumb and appropriate tools, bring it into a tangible form". That tangible form can manifest itself in many ways: music, art, literature, engineering, architecture, construction, manufacturing, social remediation, ad-infinitum. And I feel, very pejoratively, that if you are not utilizing this one unique human trait, are you any different than an ameba, eating, defecating, and multiplying! And you're welcome, David Riddle.
@@goodun2974 If you search Ebay with the following: "weller heating element", you will find many models weller heating elements and sellers. Would you please call me @ 818-314-7275, I would very much like to talk to you! David Riddle
@@VEC7ORlt Just to let you know; we will be presenting a video showing the many hundreds of products and tools that I've invented, built and marketed. David Riddle
Dave - This is an excellent overview of the soldering process. One nasty issue of using no-lead solder back when RoHS was first introduced was the appearance of the so-called 'tin whiskers' formations in high-density circuitry. This has been helped with the introduction of other elements (e.g., copper and silver) in the solder alloys. However, in my experience, nothing flows so well or shines and brightly as leaded solder. I have been soldering with lead for over 50 years, and as you know, David, I am completely noorrmal.
Bob, thank you for your comment, as you know, there is no "check and balance" in our society for mental illness, hence they let me walk around! David Riddle
You have a very good channel that helps people do everyday repairs, maintenance.
Thank you for your comment and accolades! David Riddle
Just want you to know that I had a 31 year career at a large telecommunications company in various roles such as lineman, telephone installation and repair, indoor work as a switchman, software applicator, special service tech, etc and I still learned a lot from watching your presentation on soft soldering and theory.
I went ahead and followed your advice on type and use of CA glue; purchased the micro tubing and so on. So useful! Thank you.
Thank you for your comment and you're welcome! I hope this soldering video was also informative. David Riddle
Where did you purchase them.
Do have a link? I'm in Canada I need to source then here.
@@binnsbrian if you are referring to glue supplies, I purchased them from Amazon in the US.
I know this isn't really about soldering iron selection, but in my opinion, the Pinecil soldering iron is the best bang for your buck these days.
For under $30, you get an electronically controlled iron that heats up in seconds. It runs on USB-C, has electronic temp settings and an automatic standby mode for safety. Excellent ergonomics, too-it's quite small!
The tips are a bit pricier as they come with an integrated ceramic heating element, but for that functionality you really can't go wrong! Their short tips are the best ones.
I have no financial incentive to shill it, but I have one and really love the iron.
Thank you for your comment and suggestion, I looked into the Pinecil iron, and it looked quite interesting for It's features and size. David Riddle
I've watched all of your UA-cams so far. I've enjoyed each one and look forward to many more. Thanks from Australia.
Thank you for your comment and you're welcome! Also thank you watching our other videos and more are on the way. David Riddle
Hi sir. Your video has taught me many things I thought I already knew. Thank you for sharing your knowledge
Thank you for your comment and accolades! David Riddle
Thank you, David. Very informative. I'm going to change my solder. Oh, and you pronounce solder correctly here in the US. Nice Emmy!
Thank you for your comment and you're welcome! David Riddle P.S. I won the Emmy as a producer and audio mixer on an outdoor performance of the opera Faust.
Your camera person has such a good eye for where you’re going next
Thank you for your comment and accolades, both Jon and I write the scripted portion of the videos, the rest is extemporaneous. Jon does all of the video editing and we compose all of the shots (establishing, close-up and extreme close-ups), to make the video as explanatory as possible! David Riddle
I’m liking your videos so far. Would love to see a deep dive on heat shrink tubing.
Thank you for your comment and suggestion, we are working on additional videos and one on heat-shrink tubing would be informative as there are many types and formulations available. David Riddle
Wow, Very comprehensive.
Thank you for your comment and accolades, since I've been soldering since I was eight years old, and have surrounded myself with people who were vastly more intelligent and talented, this is where my knowledge base has been accumulated! Please see our other videos, I think you will find them also comprehensive. David Riddle
Thanks David
Thank you for your comment and you're welcome! David Riddle
At about 26:00, the fiberglass bristle brushes are known as "scratch brushes" and they are fantastic for removing the oxide layer from whatever you're about to solder: the terminals of a switch or potentiometer, the foils and pads of a circuit board, a metal chassis where you want to make a ground connection, etc. You can typically buy a cheap set of 3 Asian made scratch brushes for less than $15, usually containing not only the fiberglass brush but also a brass wire brush and a steel wire brush, all enclosed in retractable housings, sort of like a ballpoint pen (twisting the top extends or retracts the bristles). The cheap sets, however, might not have the ability to replace the fiberglass brushes, which do wear out as you use them, and the overall mechanisms aren't built very well. You can buy better quality, German-made scratch brushes which are much higher quality and do allow you to replace worn out fiberglass brushes (buy some spares); the brass or steel brushes are unlikely to wear out, but you may find that you rarely use those and the fiberglass bristle brushes do both the most accurate, fine-grained t cleaning , and yet are least likely to damage anything. Just watch out for bits of thin glass fiber getting stuck in your fingers, From where they can be difficult to locate and extract with tweezers (sometimes a piece of really sticky tape works better). They'll fester in your flesh a bit and bother you for a few days and eventually work their way out, but you might prefer to avoid that by wearing gloves. I used them every day at work for years (audio repair shop) and they're fantastic tools, well worth the occasional hassle of a sore finger while the glass bit works its way out.....
Thank you for your comment and suggestions regarding fiberglass "scratch brushes", I first utilized these brushes wile repairing silver plated battery contacts in cameras, because metal brushes (steel, brass) will contaminate the silver plating, causing an electrolytic reaction. David Riddle
@@HowToHomeLife , I got my scratch brushes from Essingers' watch and jewelery repair supply house: Eurotools and Bergeon brands (the Bergeon is smaller diameter, 3/32" or thereabouts). I do find that the scratch brushes vary in stiffness depending where you buy them and it's nice to have a softer glass brush as well as a stiffer one. If they get beat up and the fibers splay out too much, a drop of super glue will stiffen it back up. I've also adapted battery-powered artist's erasers to hold the short left-over nubs that are left over when a worn brush can no longer be extended out far enough from the pen-like housing to be usable. This works phenomenally well, better than using a scratch brush manually!
Camera man you are getting ahead of yourself😆
I don't understand your comment? David Riddle
fantastic!
Thank you for your comment and accolades! Please view our other videos, I think you will enjoy them. David Riddle
Hello.
I hope I get a solution for my problem. I make MDF cabinets. Quite a lot of them infact. After they cure, it all looks good. Even after puttying and priming the surface everything seems perfect. While everything seems perfect I paint it with solvent based PU paint coatings. The end product comes out good, but The problem I am facing is that the joints shows up through coatings it looks like a fine piece of glass art has a deep crack right in joints.
Thanks for the comment and question, this seems like a question from one of my CA videos, not about soldering. Since I don't know what glue your utilizing in the construction of these MDF cabinets, joint details and wall thickness, I will not be able to answer your crack issues appearing in the finnish, please let me know some of these details. David Riddle
An important caution for newbie's to soldering: *do not use acetone to clean circuit boards*! Use pure alcohol, which is far less toxic, less flammable, and won't make you dizzy like breathing acetone fumes will. Acetone may damage some plastics (including plastic body transistors, diodes and capacitors) and probably will remove the printed labeling from components (it's a common ingredient in paint removers). Acetone is likely carcinogenic, and the fumes are highly explosive; it's far worse for you than working with leaded solder. Rosin flux dissolves easily in alcohol and use of acetone isn't necessary; don't do it! I've been repairing electronics for 55 years......
Thank you for your comment and suggestions, you are correct, acetone will indeed damage thermoplastics (anything that melts with a soldering iron) and remove markings from components. I only utilize acetone only on the foil side of circuit boards because it dissolves rosin flux more rapidly than alcohol. Using a tooth brush saturated with acetone, and holding the board at angle with the foil side facing downward, I observe the clarity of the acetone as it drips off of the corner until it is clear. If I need to clean both sides of a circuit board (components and foil), I only use alcohol. David Riddle
@@HowToHomeLife , I still have spray cans of alcohol-based fkux remover, which also has a little TCE mixed in. Its not great to breathe in any TC type solvent but its better than acetone!
Good video. See mine too for better soldering method
Thank you for your comment and suggestion, I watched your soldering video (and several others of yours). I have never owned a wireless soldering iron, it might come in handy for my work! David Riddle
The "L" is not silent. Please pronounce it correctly or spell it as "sodder". We speak English as American / Canadian are not languages!!!
Thank you for your comment and correction, but in America, we spell it as "solder", but pronounce it as "sodder"! David Riddle
@@HowToHomeLife, the Oxford English dictionary says that both "sodder" and "soul-dur" are acceptable pronunciations. Anyway, it was originally a French word, soudure.....
His video is very informative, but perhaps a little too long. You’re gonna lose viewers who are impatient so maybe break down your videos for different categories
Thank you for your comment and suggestion, we may be making the chapters into separate videos. David Riddle
This video being overly long and getting off into the weeds at times, here is a synopsis that also contains some of my own decades of experience.
To clarify, 60/40 solder changes gradually from a liquid to a solid as it cools and therefore you have to be careful not to disturb the solder joint for several seconds after you take the soldering iron away from it, because if you move the wires or the leads of the part while the solder is still kind of "plastic" you will end up with a so-called "cold" solder joint which appears grainy, rough and dull, and makes for an unreliable electrical and mechanical connection. 63/37 "eutectic" changes almost immediately from liquid to solid as the connection cools and so it's easier to make a reliable connection with less chance of developing a cold solder joint due to movement of the parts while the connection cools. That being said, I have used 6040 solder for decades; these days I mostly use a Kester solder formulation that that also contains 2% silver but this is more expensive and it's not really necessary for most electronics hobbyists. I should caution the hobbyist that when repairing a broken solder joint on an existing piece of equipment one occasionally encounters a scenario where the existing solder works poorly when you attempt to touch up an existing connection with your own solder; you may get what looks to be grainy, cold-soldered connection. This this particularly obvious when the device was made with lead-free solder and you are using leaded solder for the repair work,, in which case you should remove all the old solder from the connection first before resoldering with the solder you are using. It is important to note that lead-free solders require a higher soldering temperature then lead solder does, and the flux contained within lead-free solder are very acidic, corrosive, and electrically conductive, very different from the typically non-conductive, non-corrosive rosin flux used with and contained within 60/40 or similar lead/tin solder. It is important to realize that buying solder blindly off of ebay or Amazon may provide you with an alloy of unknown qualities from Asia that may not work well (and counterfeit labeled garbage products are all too common). Buy only name brand solder from well-known, reputable electronics supply specialists! The same applies to rosin flux. Acid fluxes are necessary for soldering copper water pipe or sheetmetal but are completely wrong for any type of electronics work because they will cause corrosion of the electrical connection eventually and it's almost impossible to remove every last trace of the acid flux. I honestly don't know why a demonstration of soldering sheet metal with a torch was shown here because you will *NEVER* use an open flame for soldering electronics, and you certainly don't want the rosin to catch fire and burn. PS, I learned to "sweat" copper waterpipe over 50 years ago, and never would I attempt to solder copper or brass that is as oxidized and tarnished as the brass strips shown here until.I had cleaned them first with sandpaper and wire brush (or in the case of electronics, with the fiberglass bristle scratch brush). In any and all types of soldering, cleanliness is next to godliness and no matter what flux you use it can never compensate for mechanical cleaning of the parts involved first. This is especially true of soldering electronic components!
I do not recommend use of lead-free solder for hobbyists: It wets and flows poorly, is more subject to breaking down under extremes of heat, cold and vibration, and the flux is so active that any traces of it left behind can cause degradation or corrosion of connections and perhaps electrical conductivity across the fiberglass insulating material. The higher temperatures necessary and the corrosive fluxes contained within will shorten the lifetime of soldering iron tips, and you will probably find the fumes highly acrid and irritating to your nostrils. Rosin flux, on the other hand, is made from pine tree resins (similar to the rosin that violinists and cellists put on their bows) and smells kind of like a Christmas tree when it's heated. Some people might find it mildly irritating and a very few people are allergic to it but I've been working with this stuff for many decades and it doesn't bother me in the slightest. Work in a well ventilated room and use a fan to blow the fumes away and you'll probably experience no discomfort, but if it does bother you then you can buy dedicated devices to suck up the soldering fumes and filter them from the air or exhaust them to the outside. By the way, the melting point of lead solder is about 500° below the boiling point of lead and so the fumes don't really contain any toxic metal to be wary of. You may get some lead oxide film on your hands from handling the solder but it isn't absorbed through the skin; simply wash your hands before you eat, or wear thin rubber gloves if you prefer.
An important distinction should be made between ordinary Rosin paste flux and what is sometimes referred to as "soldering paste"; there is a special mix of powdered solder and flux that is used for soldering "ball grid" or "VGA" microprocessors to circuit boards; the rosin flux shown in the video does not contain powdered solder. Again, I strongly recommend that you buy rosin flux only from reputable electronics supply catalog houses, not from eBay or Amazon, because I have seen acidic fluxes more suitable for soldering sheet metal being marketed to unsuspecting hobbiists. You can also buy liquid flux that has been diluted with alcohol, which is occasionally helpful but it's unnecessarily expensive to buy it in that form; if you really need Rosin flux to be thinner and more liquid, than you can simoly make your own by dissolving some of your paste flux in alcohol.
And a final note about soldering equipment; the best quality tips have a copper core that is plated with steel, because copper is an excellent electrical and thermal conductor, but solder and flux tend to quickly dissolve and oxidize bare copper, and so quality-made tips are plated with steel for longer life. Unfortunately, if you buy your tips on Amazon or ebay they could come from just about anywhere and many are cheap, low-life knockoffs of known name brands. The shape of the tip is also important, and the pointy conical tips supplied with most soldering irons are terrible for most electronics work; watch the soldering of circuit boards in this video, the tip used here is a so-called "chisel" tip, which is a bit of a misnomer because the edge is actually blunted and rounded, but it has 2 flat sides like a chisel does. A chisel tip is good for nearly all circuit board work (except perhaps for working with truly tiny components) and you can solder wires and connectors with it as well. Keep the tip clean and tin it frequently as you work; A damp sponge works okay for tip cleaning,, but I have read that it can create micro fractures and stress cracks in the plating on the tip, and I find that the springy brass wool tip cleaners work even better than the sponge does.
Finally, the key rule to sottering is that wherever possible you should endeavor to make a good mechanical connection before you finalize the electronic connection by adding solder! Twist the wires together in a spiral pattern, or wrap the component lead through the eyelid or terminal and bend it around into a hook or question mark shape, sufficient that it would probably make an okay electrical connection even before you add solder to it. The only proviso here is that you don't want to wrap the component lead so tightly or bend it so close down to the circuit board foils that it would make life difficult for you or another technician if/when that component must be removed (teasing the ckmponent lead with a dental pick to stsrt to unwrap it from the terminal while simultaneously heating it with the soldering iron is no fun, and a vacuum operated desoldering station or desoldering braid may not remove all of the solder). I personally prefer to cut all excess component lead away AFTER soldering the connections, and perhaps leaving a little stub of wire there for the desoldering gun to sit on, or that you can grab with needle nose pliers when you remove the part. Don't bend component leads flat down to the circuit board foils because you won't like it when it's time to remove the part!
Thank you for your comment and suggestions, I do hope viewers will read your lengthy comment because it details many additional things that I missed in the video. It is obvious that you have had many years of soldering experience! David Riddle
@@HowToHomeLife , thanks! Being old and having some health problems, I figure I might as well share what I can of my electronics experience with the rest of the world while I am still able to do so.
@@HowToHomeLife , ps, I still have a PTP series blue Weller soldering station somewhat similar to yours, and plenty of tips, but the heating element is bad and I haven't found a source for replacements anywhere.
@@goodun2974 I'm 72 and doing the same thing with these videos. Sharing my knowledge with as many people as possible to encourage them to utilize our only unique human trait we possess: "conjuring within our minds eye and ear, something that heretofore has never existed on this planet, and through the use of our opposable thumb and appropriate tools, bring it into a tangible form". That tangible form can manifest itself in many ways: music, art, literature, engineering, architecture, construction, manufacturing, social remediation, ad-infinitum. And I feel, very pejoratively, that if you are not utilizing this one unique human trait, are you any different than an ameba, eating, defecating, and multiplying! And you're welcome, David Riddle.
@@goodun2974 If you search Ebay with the following: "weller heating element", you will find many models weller heating elements and sellers. Would you please call me @ 818-314-7275, I would very much like to talk to you! David Riddle
Do you always fluff yourself up in the beginning of the video?
Thank you for your comment that I don't quite understand? David Riddle
@@HowToHomeLife telling everyone how amazingly experienced inventor, engineer and manufacturer you are.
@@VEC7ORlt Just to let you know; we will be presenting a video showing the many hundreds of products and tools that I've invented, built and marketed. David Riddle
All that experience but can’t pronounce solder
That’s correct for the US.
Thank you for your comment, unfortunately, living my entire life in the U.S., I'm monolingual! David Riddle
That 's the same way we say it in the south.
you mean correctly?
you must be fun at parties Brian