Wow, so many good things to say about this video. First, it's very well written and extremely clear an concise. The presentation and visuals are excellent. Even the "cinematography" elevates this video, making it more engaging. Then there's Collin, whose stellar delivery is a cross between Agent Smith and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. He's also dressed for success! Kudos for another great video.
Collin is easily my favorite electronics guy. I've learned so much from him and he is just an awesome, unique personality that needs to make more videos! XD
I have tried to avoid the discipline of soldering, because it seemed so tedious and boring. After watching this video I am online ordering soldering gear. It is incredible how highly motivating Collin' s enthusiasm is on me! More of this please :)
Thanks Collin you taught me how to solder and I just repaired 500$ worth of Camry speedometers soldering in a 3 prong ceramic resistor on them both and it was easy and fun. I had a cold solder joint and I hit it with the iron real fast and it fixed it. My setup was not as nice as yours I used 5$ iron, crap wash solder and some copper wick for desolder. Thank you!!
I am so happy Collin's Lab has returned! The original videos were extremely helpful when I first started out in the world of electronics. He has returned with increased production quality and more nerdly awesomeness! Keep it up Collin! You are the host of my all time favorite how to series!
I think this is the one of the best "how to solder" videos I've seen, and includes a good basic tip choice guide, which I really needed. I never understand why most soldering irons sold by Adafrui and Sparkfun come with a round tip that isn't best suited for their likely use, soldering to perfboard.
woah dude where have you been this whole time, youtube recommends me booties all the time but videos they don't even appear in my search. youtube's a simp
Bravo! It's amazing how Collin combines excellent teaching skills and clear and concise information within such a stylish and well produced video. Thanks!
This is my first time watching Collin nice work on the video. Thank you for helping us learn. THIS is the true power of the internet. Thank you please keep making videos we love you're personality.
This is a great video. The colors are vibrant, close-ups amazingly detailed and focused, and his intensity made it seem like he was repairing control systems on a nuclear sub. The detail spoken about can be clearly seen in the examples shown.. I can't wait to show people this video - quite possibly the best made soldering video I've seen yet. Thank you for taking the time to make it!
My #1 soldering tip, Use eutectic (63/37) blend solder. It costs no more then regular (60/40) and makes producing a cold solder joint almost technically impossible.
An absolutely *excellent* video--clear, concise and brilliantly presented. I was especially pleased to see that no emphasis was given to using external flux. This is a practise I have come to believe is actually counter productive and when using even moderate quality solder is completely unnecessary. The only issue I would raise is that as an example of an appropriate quality tool you highlight a Hakko 888 station. No doubt this is indeed of high quality but it is also *extremely* expensive and likely out of reach to beginners or even long-term hobbyists such as myself. Again--nothing wrong with showing the Hakko iron, but also give an example of a more sanely priced tool as well for those of us who can't afford £120 or even £60 for that matter! For instance the entry-level example given in the description is pretty good and could well have done with an appearance in the video itself, as could one of the reasonably priced but still decent quality Chinese stations. I know professionals in electronics who never used anything but a directly mains-powered, thermally balanced iron through their entire life. Otherwise a great presentation. I just wish Colin had his own channel!
I'd argue that for anyone who is looking to do electronics at today's scale, including surface mount components, Hakko's FX888 is about as cheap as you'd want to go, and an excellent choice no one will regret. It's about $100-$110, which I would not call extremely expensive. The cost is comparable to that of any decent power tool, like say a Makita 18V drill. Hakko has $2500 soldering irons for people who do this for a living. The soldering iron is your main tool as an electronics hobbyist, cheaping out on it will affect absolutely everything you build or repair. Trying to do everything with a single 25W mains-plug iron is, IMO, a mistake of false economy; you'll lose the difference in cost over your first couple of weeks, as ruined boards and components, wasted solder, and by spending 5 times as much time fixing and debugging your bodge jobs than if you had a good tool. When I was a kid, I could get by with one 25W Radio Shack pencil iron too, but those were the days of discrete, through-hole components only. I can't say that I'd want to use that today on something like a microcontroller or TSOP IC. And on that note, a lot of people are going to find out pretty quickly that they need a hot air station too; soldering is not just for irons any more!
Collin, I'm new to all of this, so please bear with me: What I am confused about on this video, is that you sounded like you stated that: "I first touch the solder to the iron, and then bring it down and around the contact lead. This causes..." (Time Mark - 2:31). However, you "did not" touch the solder to the iron before soldering. Please clarify, if you would. Grateful appreciation (in advance) for your response, Collin.
Sounds somewhat like something you can generate in Musinum, a fractal, free, MIDI program that runs on random numbers and plays out thru the MIDI card already on your comp. Now Collin's music may be something he has composed, but it sounds enough like a Musinum generated work that there isn't much difference.
☝🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👌🏽 The most concise and useful video I’ve seen in regards to soldering.. Am I the only person that thought this video had some discreet humor which I found to be hilarious 🤔🤣 Stay classy my friend, I appreciate the educational video
Any of the pros watching have a guess at the width of that screwdriver tip or a recommendation for a tip for a newbie to do some through-hole projects? My new hakko station came with a conical tip.
Hello. Does anyone know where to find schematics for that cool LED light gadget generating the fluorescent track??? at the end of the video. Any tips please? Thanks for replying.
Yeah about that whole 2 seconds thing...it usually takes me way longer than that to melt the solder and make a join. Why? I have a Weber 25w iron. Is it just too weak, for even the most small thin wire
I wonder if a lot of disasterous soldering we see on project forums might be from people assuming what is said at 3:32 is true for all solder, i.e. that it has a flux core. If people are buying non-rosin-core solder, and trying to solder as shown in this video--without supplying their own flux--they are going to be in for a bad time that no amount of adjusting iron temperature is going to fix.
legendary device first, clean the tip with a slight abrasive like scotch brite just to remove the carbon. DO NOT use sand paper. Just us scotch brite. Once shiny again, heat your soldering iron up and TIN THE TIP! Apply solder to the tip. You should notice that it turns shiny again. Do that every before soldering with your iron. Also, when storing your iron, leave some solder on it to protect it from oxidation.
It should be noted that lead-free solders don't generally have the same shiny finish even on good joints. Those using lead-free solders should not be alarmed if your end joints look a little dull. The technique here isn't really great, either. It's fine for an introduction video, so I'm not going to criticize, but this technique (wetting the iron and then wicking to the joint) relies a lot on the flux in the core. Old solder (it has an expiration date!) may have some wetting issues. It's ok to pre-tin the tip and then contact both points of the circuit, and then apply the solder to the opposite side of the iron. There are also standalone flux applicators (dry/paste or liquid/pens/syringes). This will make your life easier, and it should be considered an essential tool.
And yep - extra flux is definitely recommended, but probably not necessary for a lot of basic through-hole soldering, as long as you use a decent solder with multi-core flux to begin with. But, added flux is pretty much a MUST for a lot of surface-mount stuff, especially when doing drag-soldering on chips with many fine pins. I use often use extra flux for making things like the solder joints on small 0603 / 0402 sized components a lot neater. Many of the cheaper "stripboard" or "matrix boards" with bare copper tend to oxidise too easily as well. You can buy the nice pre-tinned proto boards really cheaply now, so luckily the bare copper boards are a thing of the past for newer prototypes. hehe I find lead-free solder to be OK to work with, as it's used in practically everything these days. It does tend to look slightly dull in comparsion to lead solder, but it doesn't take long to get used to using it. You do need a fairly decent soldering station with a good thermal capacity for lead-free really (due to the higher temps required). Thermal capacity of a soldering iron / station is NOT the same thing as it's rated wattage though. The cheapo irons you often see (usually with the giant screw that holds the tip in. lol) can get way too hot when just sitting "idle", and can have that charred / oxidised look in a very short time. They might claim to be "60 Watts" or "100 Watts", but that doesn't mean they have any kind of temperature control, nor have decent thermal capacity when soldering larger components / PCB planes / heatsinks.
My best tip for soldering is to make sure the iron has a high enough wattage for the job at hand.. else you can end up frying components waiting for the joint to get hot enough. It is worth spending a little more for a good iron that has a high watt rating.. preferably with a temperature control so it can also be used for small jobs too.
you make exceptional videos and complete to the tiniest ...finest detail....the most interesting thing though is that you are.....''seriously'' funny something very difficult and very rare.....cr7 bless you...!!!
I agree with some of the comments on so-der. I sod my car to a friend last week. As it is convertible, he gets very cod when driving. I also took the license paper and fo-ded it in ha-f. and tod him to keep it safe. Getting o-der by the day. Don't shrug your shoder, just smile and keep on soddering!
***** This only applies to LEAD based solder. I don't think anyone uses a respirator soldering, even for lead based. Don't keep your face over the smoke, hold your breath if a wisp comes to you. In all the videos of soldering on UA-cam, even by professionals, I've yet to see a SINGLE video showing a respirator. You can build a cheap smoke evacuator for under $10 dollars, I believe MAKE has a video about it (and possibly a kit). I weld for a living, and the only time a respirator comes out is if I'm releasing Hexavalent Chromium, or doing large quantities of zinc coated parts. Small quantities of the latter - I'll take the MFF and immunity for a week. Don't breathe it in, but you do not need a respirator. Only you can decide what levels of precaution to take, but professionals who solder every day for hours either use nothing at all, a small fan to blow the smoke, or possibly a nice Smoke Evacuator like the HAKKO shown here.
If you noticed I said those that solder for hours a day use a smoke extractor instead of a full face respirator. You have to balance what you want. Someone soldering for 30 minutes a week isn't going to need a respirator to solder.
***** If you're afraid of soldering fumes, then don't solder. Nobody is holding a gun to your head. If I was soldering for an hour every day, yes I would wear a respirator, but I solder for maybe 3 or 4 hours a month, so I'm not going to be chicken shit about it.
Wow, you're such a big person for recommending I solder in a non-ventilated room for 3 or 4 hours a day. I'm amazed by how much you actually care about other people, and how you aren't at all just being facetious to get attention on the internet. I'm sure YOU will win the Nobel prize and contribute vastly to society. I'm an electrical and computer engineering major myself. If you're afraid of soldering fumes, you might consider changing majors. Carcinogens are everywhere. Sugar is a carcinogen, so I guess you should stop eating anything with sugar in it. Aspartame and sucralose are carcinogens also, so I guess you should throw all sweets out the window. Vaccines contain thimerosal, which is an organic mercury compound, so I hope you've never gotten a flu shot before. I will continue to solder without a respirator, and I would bet it never kills me. You can either live life or avoid it, either way you're going to die eventually.
That's ridiculous. And of course one gram of lead is more harmful than ten grams of sugar, but the average American eats 69 kilograms of sugar a year, that's why heart disease is more likely to kill you than soldering fumes when you use a ventilator our fan rather than a respirator. Nobody said you don't need a fan or ventilator, or a respirator for high volume soldering jobs, but to break out the respirator each time you solder a joint is over reactionary. I wasn't addressing the original poster, I was addressing you. You said everyone should use a half or full respirator when soldering, but that's really not necessary most small jobs. A fan is plenty. And don't put Yolo in quotes as if I said it. You don't know when quotation marks are appropriate, much less respirator masks. And if you want to talk about irony, you aren't anybody's doctor either, so by disqualifying my opinion on those grounds, you equally disqualify your own.
Huh. Ive been taking it literally when they say dont put solder on the iron first. Looks like its okay as long as the iron has been used to heat both parts. i always touched the junction of the iron and the two surfaces but not always with good results. Interesting
Sometimes its difficult to adequately heat all elements without first creating a solder "heat bridge." There's nothing wrong with putting solder on the iron first as long as you aren't just trying to drop a blob of solder and be done. I usually make a "heat bridge" to allow a good contact area (and thus good heat flow) and then apply additional solder to the actual parts of the joints (to ensure that there is fresh flux to allow a clean bond).
I was taught this falsely too. It's usually misleading because you don't do just one or the other, you need to do both. Tinning the tip is for the heat bridge(if there isn't any already), but it also boils the flux, so you have to add the solder too. Both are necessary. You also have to tin the tip to prevent oxidization of the tip.
I wish this video had a little more emphasis on soldering surface mount parts. Through hole is rarely done anymore. At least for the stuff I work with.
Wow, so many good things to say about this video. First, it's very well written and extremely clear an concise. The presentation and visuals are excellent. Even the "cinematography" elevates this video, making it more engaging. Then there's Collin, whose stellar delivery is a cross between Agent Smith and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. He's also dressed for success! Kudos for another great video.
Christopher Kiefer well said
Yes!
good call on the cinematography. Wouldn't have thought of that but yeah, Colin's the Speilberg of geek vids
I get the vibe of Alton Brown’s Good Eats show.
@@michaelcoxjr Me too, plus a little bit of Thomas Dolby! :-)
Just realized this was 8 years ago and is really keeping up to modern editing and instructors
Collin is easily my favorite electronics guy. I've learned so much from him and he is just an awesome, unique personality that needs to make more videos! XD
I have tried to avoid the discipline of soldering, because it seemed so tedious and boring. After watching this video I am online ordering soldering gear. It is incredible how highly motivating Collin' s enthusiasm is on me! More of this please :)
*Learn the basics of soldering from Collin Cunningham!*
Entry level soldering iron: adafruit.com/products/180
Hakko FX-888 soldering iron: www.adafruit.com/products/1204
More Collin's Lab:
Breadboards: Collin's Lab: Breadboards & Perfboards
Multimeters: Collin's Lab: Multimeters
Collin's Lab: Soldering
Collin Cunningham #soldering #solder
Ben Shamsian
Thanks Collin you taught me how to solder and I just repaired 500$ worth of Camry speedometers soldering in a 3 prong ceramic resistor on them both and it was easy and fun. I had a cold solder joint and I hit it with the iron real fast and it fixed it. My setup was not as nice as yours I used 5$ iron, crap wash solder and some copper wick for desolder. Thank you!!
the man wears a suit and a tie in a workshop while recording videos. respect.
I have never seen a better "how-to" about anything than this one. Clear, great presentation and photography.
I am so happy Collin's Lab has returned! The original videos were extremely helpful when I first started out in the world of electronics. He has returned with increased production quality and more nerdly awesomeness! Keep it up Collin! You are the host of my all time favorite how to series!
I think this is the one of the best "how to solder" videos I've seen, and includes a good basic tip choice guide, which I really needed. I never understand why most soldering irons sold by Adafrui and Sparkfun come with a round tip that isn't best suited for their likely use, soldering to perfboard.
That guy cracks me up
Instructive too.
Yeah, he's amusing!
Well, they come with that tip from the manufacturer, it's not the distributor's fault.
I had no idea there was more Collin's Lab, I'm so glad I've found these!
Finally a video that shows the applying solder part and how to do it. I have been trying to hear the pad and apply the solder to the other side.
woah dude where have you been this whole time, youtube recommends me booties all the time but videos they don't even appear in my search. youtube's a simp
Possibly the best and most useful Collin's Lab to date.
i was a Labor-Tutor at a University and i can say: This video ist super and very correct.
Thanks adafruit for bring back collins lab your the best!!!
Thanks a lot! About to do some soldering on my PS5 controller to fix stick drift. I feel more confident after watching this ❤️
Agent Smith how much wattage iron is best to buy ?
Regards
This is by far the best soldering tutorial I have ever seen.
Bravo! It's amazing how Collin combines excellent teaching skills and clear and concise information within such a stylish and well produced video. Thanks!
4:10 For metric people - 650°F is just under 350°C and 750°F is just under 400°C
This is my first time watching Collin nice work on the video. Thank you for helping us learn. THIS is the true power of the internet. Thank you please keep making videos we love you're personality.
I love this show! I hope Mr. Cunningham continues to make them.
Hi Collin, I watched this video 5-times and i still love it. Your videos are relaxing, funny and informative. You are the best. :)
This is a great video. The colors are vibrant, close-ups amazingly detailed and focused, and his intensity made it seem like he was repairing control systems on a nuclear sub. The detail spoken about can be clearly seen in the examples shown.. I can't wait to show people this video - quite possibly the best made soldering video I've seen yet.
Thank you for taking the time to make it!
Thrilled to see more Collin's Lab!
My #1 soldering tip, Use eutectic (63/37) blend solder. It costs no more then regular (60/40) and makes producing a cold solder joint almost technically impossible.
I never knew a soldering video could be so badass.
One of the best soldering tutorials I've seen
An absolutely *excellent* video--clear, concise and brilliantly presented. I was especially pleased to see that no emphasis was given to using external flux. This is a practise I have come to believe is actually counter productive and when using even moderate quality solder is completely unnecessary.
The only issue I would raise is that as an example of an appropriate quality tool you highlight a Hakko 888 station. No doubt this is indeed of high quality but it is also *extremely* expensive and likely out of reach to beginners or even long-term hobbyists such as myself. Again--nothing wrong with showing the Hakko iron, but also give an example of a more sanely priced tool as well for those of us who can't afford £120 or even £60 for that matter! For instance the entry-level example given in the description is pretty good and could well have done with an appearance in the video itself, as could one of the reasonably priced but still decent quality Chinese stations. I know professionals in electronics who never used anything but a directly mains-powered, thermally balanced iron through their entire life.
Otherwise a great presentation. I just wish Colin had his own channel!
I'd argue that for anyone who is looking to do electronics at today's scale, including surface mount components, Hakko's FX888 is about as cheap as you'd want to go, and an excellent choice no one will regret. It's about $100-$110, which I would not call extremely expensive. The cost is comparable to that of any decent power tool, like say a Makita 18V drill. Hakko has $2500 soldering irons for people who do this for a living. The soldering iron is your main tool as an electronics hobbyist, cheaping out on it will affect absolutely everything you build or repair. Trying to do everything with a single 25W mains-plug iron is, IMO, a mistake of false economy; you'll lose the difference in cost over your first couple of weeks, as ruined boards and components, wasted solder, and by spending 5 times as much time fixing and debugging your bodge jobs than if you had a good tool. When I was a kid, I could get by with one 25W Radio Shack pencil iron too, but those were the days of discrete, through-hole components only. I can't say that I'd want to use that today on something like a microcontroller or TSOP IC. And on that note, a lot of people are going to find out pretty quickly that they need a hot air station too; soldering is not just for irons any more!
Great demo. Detail, Yes! Well paced. Close-ups Yes! Thank you.
Collin's Lab is the Best!
What a great tutorial! Alton Brown meets MIB. Thanks for the video.
Collin, I'm new to all of this, so please bear with me:
What I am confused about on this video, is that you sounded like you stated that:
"I first touch the solder to the iron, and then bring it down and around the contact lead. This causes..." (Time Mark - 2:31).
However, you "did not" touch the solder to the iron before soldering.
Please clarify, if you would.
Grateful appreciation (in advance) for your response, Collin.
The solder does touch the iron first. He is talking about during soldering and not before. The "solder touches the iron first" at 2:34.
+Mr Cliff Thank You. :-)
I like this video, it shows me so much and now I can start soldering. Also can I get song name? Its really......intriguing. It starts at 2:29.
Sounds somewhat like something you can generate in Musinum, a fractal, free, MIDI program that runs on random numbers and plays out thru the MIDI card already on your comp. Now Collin's music may be something he has composed, but it sounds enough like a Musinum generated work that there isn't much difference.
☝🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👌🏽
The most concise and useful video I’ve seen in regards to soldering..
Am I the only person that thought this video had some discreet humor which I found to be hilarious 🤔🤣
Stay classy my friend, I appreciate the educational video
We used this at #shemakes Melbourne yesterday and it was great. No one needed a real human to show them. Great video, saved a lot of time.
great detailed and thorough video collin
Excellent work sir. You have made so many useful and one of the best videos. Keep the good work going.
this is really helpful because I'm doing electronics in high school
Great job, Colin!
I always enjoy your workshops, even if I think I know how to do it. Keep up the good work.
Any of the pros watching have a guess at the width of that screwdriver tip or a recommendation for a tip for a newbie to do some through-hole projects? My new hakko station came with a conical tip.
I love everything Adafruit.!!!
How steady do your hands need to be in order to do this well? I'm a bit shaky. Should I give up or do you have any suggestions that might help?
Yes! Collin is awesome! I love these very basic concept summaries.
The MiniPOV4 looks cool, when is it going to be available???
Alton Brown's Brother? :)
oh my god....
No, its the doctors son from Star Trek Voyager
Great minds... 😂😂😭😭
What is he using to hold the pcb board?
What lead solder do you use? Any other good lead solder?
Collin, is that a cyberoptics Tie?
Did this guy work on the show Severance?
You have no idea how many time i watch soldering video just to prepare my first time soldering my broken mechanical keyboard
That was a really useful tutorial. Time to move my soldering to the next level!
what is the joint is smooth, convex but matte....not shiny. is that a bad solder?
your vids are great...helpful!
Hello. Does anyone know where to find schematics for that cool LED light gadget generating the fluorescent track??? at the end of the video. Any tips please? Thanks for replying.
+Mark S I would also like to know this.
+Mark S The name of the kit is in the light track so you can google it and find it quite easily.
+Suneil Patel is it Mini POV ? there's some text I can't read...
can someone tell me what kit he is using at the very end for the long exposure?
I think its this one www.adafruit.com/products/20
Yeah about that whole 2 seconds thing...it usually takes me way longer than that to melt the solder and make a join. Why? I have a Weber 25w iron. Is it just too weak, for even the most small thin wire
What kind of iron do you have 15 watt or higher but a link would be great
I wonder if a lot of disasterous soldering we see on project forums might be from people assuming what is said at 3:32 is true for all solder, i.e. that it has a flux core. If people are buying non-rosin-core solder, and trying to solder as shown in this video--without supplying their own flux--they are going to be in for a bad time that no amount of adjusting iron temperature is going to fix.
what was the thing at the end
Waw, this was just perfect. In addition, the Matrix.
i saw this vid 2 years ago and it stil intreags me today i just wish they stil did collins lab vids hees awsome
This as a great video with perfect pace and presentation. Nice work! Cool tunes as well, I bet they're from someone in house at Adafruit, are they?
Collin is back! Yay!
I swear!...hes in "The Matrix"!
Pfft he IS the Matrix.
He sounds more like the narrator from Twilight Zone.
Me sorder
Best video on soldering ever!
+1 for Collin Cunningham
after using my soldering iron the solder tip turns black and doesn't work how to fix and prevent it??
legendary device first, clean the tip with a slight abrasive like scotch brite just to remove the carbon. DO NOT use sand paper. Just us scotch brite. Once shiny again, heat your soldering iron up and TIN THE TIP! Apply solder to the tip. You should notice that it turns shiny again. Do that every before soldering with your iron. Also, when storing your iron, leave some solder on it to protect it from oxidation.
It should be noted that lead-free solders don't generally have the same shiny finish even on good joints. Those using lead-free solders should not be alarmed if your end joints look a little dull.
The technique here isn't really great, either. It's fine for an introduction video, so I'm not going to criticize, but this technique (wetting the iron and then wicking to the joint) relies a lot on the flux in the core. Old solder (it has an expiration date!) may have some wetting issues. It's ok to pre-tin the tip and then contact both points of the circuit, and then apply the solder to the opposite side of the iron.
There are also standalone flux applicators (dry/paste or liquid/pens/syringes). This will make your life easier, and it should be considered an essential tool.
And yep - extra flux is definitely recommended, but probably not necessary for a lot of basic through-hole soldering, as long as you use a decent solder with multi-core flux to begin with.
But, added flux is pretty much a MUST for a lot of surface-mount stuff, especially when doing drag-soldering on chips with many fine pins.
I use often use extra flux for making things like the solder joints on small 0603 / 0402 sized components a lot neater.
Many of the cheaper "stripboard" or "matrix boards" with bare copper tend to oxidise too easily as well.
You can buy the nice pre-tinned proto boards really cheaply now, so luckily the bare copper boards are a thing of the past for newer prototypes. hehe
I find lead-free solder to be OK to work with, as it's used in practically everything these days. It does tend to look slightly dull in comparsion to lead solder, but it doesn't take long to get used to using it.
You do need a fairly decent soldering station with a good thermal capacity for lead-free really (due to the higher temps required).
Thermal capacity of a soldering iron / station is NOT the same thing as it's rated wattage though.
The cheapo irons you often see (usually with the giant screw that holds the tip in. lol) can get way too hot when just sitting "idle", and can have that charred / oxidised look in a very short time.
They might claim to be "60 Watts" or "100 Watts", but that doesn't mean they have any kind of temperature control, nor have decent thermal capacity when soldering larger components / PCB planes / heatsinks.
When i put solder on tip it doesnt stick, it makes small tiny balls and rolls/drops off
Too cold
That was great, Collin. 👏🏼
Thank you so much.
Vid's still excellent, many thanks!
omg im sobose to make the sponge wet ive been using it dry
My best tip for soldering is to make sure the iron has a high enough wattage for the job at hand.. else you can end up frying components waiting for the joint to get hot enough.
It is worth spending a little more for a good iron that has a high watt rating.. preferably with a temperature control so it can also be used for small jobs too.
you make exceptional videos and complete to the tiniest ...finest detail....the most interesting thing though is that you are.....''seriously'' funny something very difficult and very rare.....cr7 bless you...!!!
So what's the best type of solder to use (Lead based 60/40) or Lead-Free? Can you supply a link to the preferred solder? Thanks
Michael Turrell Lead free is not meant for soldering. 60/40 tin and lead is perfect
This guys the reason I got a soldering iron
👍Nice deeply info abt soldering technique
2:51 I think this guy might be related to Alton brown
Collin, what was the name of your laser game console? It had inter changeable color wheels, and was implemented on some arcade games. Thanks.
Again, wonderfully done!
Best so far
What was that device he used at the end? I'm thinking of buying it.
It was a hakko something or other.
You'll find it on Amazon. Guaranteed.
I agree with some of the comments on so-der. I sod my car to a friend last week. As it is convertible, he gets very cod when driving. I also took the license paper and fo-ded it in ha-f. and tod him to keep it safe. Getting o-der by the day. Don't shrug your shoder, just smile and keep on soddering!
Interesting video!! Great info labeled clearly,
Love Collins lab!!!! More Please!
Awesome video Collin! Keep 'em comin'!
Any chance you can make a playlist of just Collin's Lab videos? Would love to subscribe just to that rather than all adafruit videos.
Here you go! :-) ua-cam.com/play/PLjF7R1fz_OOU08_hRcayfVZSmTpBCGJbL.html
Thanks!
how do I make my own board
is a smoke of flux are bad for health?
***** This only applies to LEAD based solder. I don't think anyone uses a respirator soldering, even for lead based. Don't keep your face over the smoke, hold your breath if a wisp comes to you. In all the videos of soldering on UA-cam, even by professionals, I've yet to see a SINGLE video showing a respirator. You can build a cheap smoke evacuator for under $10 dollars, I believe MAKE has a video about it (and possibly a kit).
I weld for a living, and the only time a respirator comes out is if I'm releasing Hexavalent Chromium, or doing large quantities of zinc coated parts. Small quantities of the latter - I'll take the MFF and immunity for a week.
Don't breathe it in, but you do not need a respirator.
Only you can decide what levels of precaution to take, but professionals who solder every day for hours either use nothing at all, a small fan to blow the smoke, or possibly a nice Smoke Evacuator like the HAKKO shown here.
If you noticed I said those that solder for hours a day use a smoke extractor instead of a full face respirator. You have to balance what you want. Someone soldering for 30 minutes a week isn't going to need a respirator to solder.
***** If you're afraid of soldering fumes, then don't solder. Nobody is holding a gun to your head. If I was soldering for an hour every day, yes I would wear a respirator, but I solder for maybe 3 or 4 hours a month, so I'm not going to be chicken shit about it.
Wow, you're such a big person for recommending I solder in a non-ventilated room for 3 or 4 hours a day. I'm amazed by how much you actually care about other people, and how you aren't at all just being facetious to get attention on the internet.
I'm sure YOU will win the Nobel prize and contribute vastly to society.
I'm an electrical and computer engineering major myself. If you're afraid of soldering fumes, you might consider changing majors.
Carcinogens are everywhere. Sugar is a carcinogen, so I guess you should stop eating anything with sugar in it. Aspartame and sucralose are carcinogens also, so I guess you should throw all sweets out the window. Vaccines contain thimerosal, which is an organic mercury compound, so I hope you've never gotten a flu shot before.
I will continue to solder without a respirator, and I would bet it never kills me. You can either live life or avoid it, either way you're going to die eventually.
That's ridiculous. And of course one gram of lead is more harmful than ten grams of sugar, but the average American eats 69 kilograms of sugar a year, that's why heart disease is more likely to kill you than soldering fumes when you use a ventilator our fan rather than a respirator.
Nobody said you don't need a fan or ventilator, or a respirator for high volume soldering jobs, but to break out the respirator each time you solder a joint is over reactionary.
I wasn't addressing the original poster, I was addressing you. You said everyone should use a half or full respirator when soldering, but that's really not necessary most small jobs. A fan is plenty. And don't put Yolo in quotes as if I said it. You don't know when quotation marks are appropriate, much less respirator masks.
And if you want to talk about irony, you aren't anybody's doctor either, so by disqualifying my opinion on those grounds, you equally disqualify your own.
Thankyou I learn a lot
MAKES SOLDERING SIMPLE AND FUN !
So much info. So easily said. Awesome video!
Awesome tutorial! Got yourself a new sub! Very much appreciated
Thank you! awesome presentation!
Huh. Ive been taking it literally when they say dont put solder on the iron first. Looks like its okay as long as the iron has been used to heat both parts. i always touched the junction of the iron and the two surfaces but not always with good results. Interesting
Me too! Very clear soldering instructions.
Sometimes its difficult to adequately heat all elements without first creating a solder "heat bridge." There's nothing wrong with putting solder on the iron first as long as you aren't just trying to drop a blob of solder and be done. I usually make a "heat bridge" to allow a good contact area (and thus good heat flow) and then apply additional solder to the actual parts of the joints (to ensure that there is fresh flux to allow a clean bond).
I was taught this falsely too.
It's usually misleading because you don't do just one or the other, you need to do both.
Tinning the tip is for the heat bridge(if there isn't any already), but it also boils the flux, so you have to add the solder too. Both are necessary.
You also have to tin the tip to prevent oxidization of the tip.
that was a very well made video....nice!
Short n simple, nice.
I frigging love these videos.
I wish this video had a little more emphasis on soldering surface mount parts. Through hole is rarely done anymore. At least for the stuff I work with.