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You did a great job teaching about the different things that could go wrong. Im still not sure what part im getting wrong. My iron goes up to 400 or 450 not sure if that's hot enough. Im using a very fine tip but im soldering very small pads for fpv drone parts the pad is a little less than 1/8 of an inch big maybe smaller . The solder im using has worked before and I think has rosin in it but the label is gone so im going to try a different kind with a new iron that I can get hotter . The iron holds solder but I cant get the pads to flow and stick. It keeps building up and popping right off. They look clean to ne and I used some Flux after trying the first time. So maybe its dirty.... ill try to sand it a bit to clean it. I just dont want to damage the board with having to stay so long on the pad. :( thx for the help !! .
I can not say for sure, but it does sound like dirty work pieces. For fine connections you can clean them with clean white paper. There's much less risk of damage and you can see when they are getting clean from the paper. The worst common contaminate is oil from food, skin, etc. If the board is unpopulated I clean it with dish detergent and a toothbrush. Some less common problems include things like your soldering iron tip is corroded where it contacts the heating element and good heat transfer is not happening. I've tried many ways to fix that, none of them are long lasting. A new tip is better. I've never seen something that won't solder IF you have a clean work piece and enough heat and a rosin core solder.
It was the heat . I after watching you video I went out and got me a much better soldering iron. But my tip got corroted pretty fast. I think the solder im using is the kind you didn't recommend. Is there a way to get it back in working order? Or am I just going to have to buy a new tip? Idk where I could even get a tip from. Michael's maybe? My new rig had a bigger tip too so that helped but the pads im having to work with are so small. Thx again for all the advice you have helped a ton!! And ill be flying my drone in no time. ;)
Glad to help. Acid flux (in the solder or applied separately) is really bad for electronics and eats up solder irons quickly. Acid is used for soldering steel and such. New tips are usually cheap and if it is badly corroded new is best.
What temperature should I set my variable temp iron to for common small copper solid or stranded wire? What’s the best way to clean the wire AND our iron tips? Thanks for the video demonstration!
I'm no expert, but I can say, on adjustable irons, the tip plays a much larger role in temperature setting than most people would assume (at least what I assumed). I have an old RadioShack digital soldering station, which was a rebrand of an Atten product and is a variation of a Hakko clone. I learned through experience, nothing beats genuine Hakko tips. Their platinum alloy tip plating is much better than anything else I've tried (around 20-25 cheapies). I use two different tips regularly a large chisel and a long conical with a tiny beveled pad at the end. (Said all this because:) I set the Chisel to 575F most of the time and the conical to 645F. These settings yields similar results on contact. All of the Hakko and Hakko clone irons that use the classic 900 series tips are bad about incorrect temperature readings in general. They measure the internal heating element which has nothing to do with the actual tip temperature. In practice the length of the tip, it's thermal mass, and the quality of contact made between tip and element are all critical for actual tip temperature, at least in my experience. The main thing to do with the platinum coated tips is to keep them covered in solder all the time, at least according to Hakko's instructions. They say oxidation is the enemy of tip coatings. Non-plated tips like iron should be a bit different in practice, I think. I rarely ever use them. There is a cleaning product I have called Sal-Ammoniac. It comes in a solid white block. You rub the oxide off of a tip pretty easily with it. There are are also tip cleaning products that come in little tubs for cleaning off heavily oxidized tips. I'm not sure if it's the same stuff. The best thing to do is to keep it shiny all the time, then you'll never need tip cleaners. Using a brass or copper scrubber ball to clean the tip off while soldering seems to help a lot too as it leaves a thin coat of solder on the tip. I use this 9 out of 10 times and only use a sponge if I'm working in super tight spaces and trying to absolutely avoid any potential bridging from any wet solder on the back side of the tip. Just my $0.02 ;) -Jake
For cleaning I use a solder sponge (ordinary sponges melt and mess up your tip, do NOT use them!) or a damp piece of paper (but they are a fire hazard when they dry out). For cleaning wire, bigger stuff I use a knife, sandpaper or even file. For small stuff, knife. For the temperature thing that's a really tough question. The goal in good soldering is to flow heat at a rate so the work piece reaches the temperature where your solder becomes truly liquid, and not so slowly that the heat can spread far enough to damage sensitive components / tracings. Caveat: If the wire is a smaller heat sink than the solder you have to heat both doing things that are generally considered bad technique (like applying the solder directly to the tip where it touches the wire). This is a long winded way of saying I have no idea how to use the temperature to do the above. To do the math would require knowledge of the thermal masses of everything involved and calculus (seriously) to get the final answer. I think the best use of the temp readout is to tell you when you are falling below the melting temp of your solder and therefore not getting the rate of heat flow needed.
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You did a great job teaching about the different things that could go wrong. Im still not sure what part im getting wrong. My iron goes up to 400 or 450 not sure if that's hot enough. Im using a very fine tip but im soldering very small pads for fpv drone parts the pad is a little less than 1/8 of an inch big maybe smaller . The solder im using has worked before and I think has rosin in it but the label is gone so im going to try a different kind with a new iron that I can get hotter . The iron holds solder but I cant get the pads to flow and stick. It keeps building up and popping right off. They look clean to ne and I used some Flux after trying the first time. So maybe its dirty.... ill try to sand it a bit to clean it. I just dont want to damage the board with having to stay so long on the pad. :( thx for the help !! .
I can not say for sure, but it does sound like dirty work pieces. For fine connections you can clean them with clean white paper. There's much less risk of damage and you can see when they are getting clean from the paper. The worst common contaminate is oil from food, skin, etc. If the board is unpopulated I clean it with dish detergent and a toothbrush. Some less common problems include things like your soldering iron tip is corroded where it contacts the heating element and good heat transfer is not happening. I've tried many ways to fix that, none of them are long lasting. A new tip is better. I've never seen something that won't solder IF you have a clean work piece and enough heat and a rosin core solder.
It was the heat . I after watching you video I went out and got me a much better soldering iron. But my tip got corroted pretty fast. I think the solder im using is the kind you didn't recommend. Is there a way to get it back in working order? Or am I just going to have to buy a new tip? Idk where I could even get a tip from. Michael's maybe? My new rig had a bigger tip too so that helped but the pads im having to work with are so small. Thx again for all the advice you have helped a ton!! And ill be flying my drone in no time. ;)
Glad to help. Acid flux (in the solder or applied separately) is really bad for electronics and eats up solder irons quickly. Acid is used for soldering steel and such. New tips are usually cheap and if it is badly corroded new is best.
What temperature should I set my variable temp iron to for common small copper solid or stranded wire?
What’s the best way to clean the wire AND our iron tips?
Thanks for the video demonstration!
I'm no expert, but I can say, on adjustable irons, the tip plays a much larger role in temperature setting than most people would assume (at least what I assumed). I have an old RadioShack digital soldering station, which was a rebrand of an Atten product and is a variation of a Hakko clone. I learned through experience, nothing beats genuine Hakko tips. Their platinum alloy tip plating is much better than anything else I've tried (around 20-25 cheapies). I use two different tips regularly a large chisel and a long conical with a tiny beveled pad at the end.
(Said all this because:) I set the Chisel to 575F most of the time and the conical to 645F. These settings yields similar results on contact.
All of the Hakko and Hakko clone irons that use the classic 900 series tips are bad about incorrect temperature readings in general. They measure the internal heating element which has nothing to do with the actual tip temperature. In practice the length of the tip, it's thermal mass, and the quality of contact made between tip and element are all critical for actual tip temperature, at least in my experience.
The main thing to do with the platinum coated tips is to keep them covered in solder all the time, at least according to Hakko's instructions. They say oxidation is the enemy of tip coatings. Non-plated tips like iron should be a bit different in practice, I think. I rarely ever use them.
There is a cleaning product I have called Sal-Ammoniac. It comes in a solid white block. You rub the oxide off of a tip pretty easily with it. There are are also tip cleaning products that come in little tubs for cleaning off heavily oxidized tips. I'm not sure if it's the same stuff. The best thing to do is to keep it shiny all the time, then you'll never need tip cleaners. Using a brass or copper scrubber ball to clean the tip off while soldering seems to help a lot too as it leaves a thin coat of solder on the tip. I use this 9 out of 10 times and only use a sponge if I'm working in super tight spaces and trying to absolutely avoid any potential bridging from any wet solder on the back side of the tip.
Just my $0.02 ;)
-Jake
Thanks for all this!
For cleaning I use a solder sponge (ordinary sponges melt and mess up your tip, do NOT use them!) or a damp piece of paper (but they are a fire hazard when they dry out).
For cleaning wire, bigger stuff I use a knife, sandpaper or even file. For small stuff, knife.
For the temperature thing that's a really tough question. The goal in good soldering is to flow heat at a rate so the work piece reaches the temperature where your solder becomes truly liquid, and not so slowly that the heat can spread far enough to damage sensitive components / tracings.
Caveat: If the wire is a smaller heat sink than the solder you have to heat both doing things that are generally considered bad technique (like applying the solder directly to the tip where it touches the wire).
This is a long winded way of saying I have no idea how to use the temperature to do the above. To do the math would require knowledge of the thermal masses of everything involved and calculus (seriously) to get the final answer.
I think the best use of the temp readout is to tell you when you are falling below the melting temp of your solder and therefore not getting the rate of heat flow needed.
Upcycle Electronics Thank you Jake!
tsbrownie Thank you. I’ll just have to do some testing and use some of your info!