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Easy soldering project?

fustercluck

fustercluck

Diamond Member
Hope this forum is fine...can move it if you wish.

Soldering is a skill that could come in handy a lot. I've always wanted to learn but damn it's tough/complicated. Gonna give it a shot anyways. I got a small PC board to practice on, but I don't know how much that will help. I'd like to solder something that's broken and try to fix it maybe, some kind of real easy soldering project where if I mess it up it won't matter but if it works then i'll be happy.

Here's what I want to solder once I feel a bit more up to the task:
PDF

Hopefully that's not as crazy hard as it looks.

I've already read and watched lots of videos about soldering, It still doesn't make any sense to me, I need a hands-on experience, working on something I already have would be the best option, I don't want to buy a whole bunch of crap as I'll probably give up on this anyways once I realize I can't do it 😛
 
I spent 6 years in the Navy soldering sound powered phones, electrical & electronic gear, and sensors to V8 engines (usually when the damn thing was running and I was climbing on top of it in the enclosure). Two things I will never give up for soldering: liquid flux & silver solder. And never use that rosin core crap--I hate that stuff. Just my $.02.
 
Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
I spent 6 years in the Navy soldering sound powered phones, electrical & electronic gear, and sensors to V8 engines (usually when the damn thing was running and I was climbing on top of it in the enclosure). Two things I will never give up for soldering: liquid flux & silver solder. And never use that rosin core crap--I hate that stuff. Just my $.02.
Click to expand...

Odd that you say that, because I can't stand silver solder. It takes an extra 100F to melt and doesn't flow as good.
 
Soldering isn't that hard, I've done a lot of amplifier and guitar projects, but when I just glanced at the job you're trying to do theres no way I would reccomend trying that as first project. For one thing ICs overheat and die so you have to be quick and accurate. Try watching these videos at http://tangentsoft.net/elec/movies/ and you might want to try building a Cmoy pocket headphone amplified as a first project, its easy and you can get almost all parts at radioshack.
 
The tangentsoft videos were helpful, thanks. What's an "IC"?

I guess it's pretty understandable how all of this looks insanely hard for a guy who's never done it. I probably don't have the best tools either. Don't think I have any flux. I have rosin core...I thought you had to use rosin core on electronics anyways?

I have this "Cold Heat" soldering iron by Coleman, according to most reviews it's a giant POS, but maybe it's good for a beginner, dunno. I have a regular soldering iron also if I choose to use that. Would hate to waste a perfectly good sponge on this but I guess I will 😛
 
Practice until you got it down then do what you have to do. Also, make sure your using a 15-watt soldering iron and something with a fine tip on circuit boards. This one at Radio Shack is 10 bucks. I've used it on small stuff. Just keep practicing, you'll get the hang of it.
 
Get rid of the cold heat iron. I've heard nothing but bad things, I say if you are trying to practice to get good you might as well practice with something good. Go to Home Depot, they have loads of soldering tools and equipment, most things you would need you can get there.

Soldering takes practice but is an art of patience, which for me is hard. I've done soldering on several Xbox's that I have modded/worked on. Pretty fun once you get good at it.
 
Originally posted by: Adaman
Can I do it without flux? I'm broke 😛
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Technically you can solder without flux but it is MUCH more time consuming--if you are soldering IC's, time is especially important. As far as I'm concerned, flux is a requirement for soldering. Falls into that bit about "right tools for the job".

Someone I know was doing some soldering in school, and he never used flux. I told him to use it, and how to use it, and he was absolutely amazed about how much faster the soldering went when he used flux.

Also, in RE: to silver solder, for IC and circuit board applications, I could understand not using silver solder due to it's higher temp requirements. I am usually soldering power supply cables and the like for mods, so silver solder works great for those. But I will never use that rosin-core crap. 🙂
 
What does IC stand for? I'm curious...(I mean, I'm curious to find out what IC stands for, I'm not suggested IC stands for "I'm curious" 🙂 )
 
I have no idea what you're talking about.

I was thinking flux was the cleanup braid thing, but I guess that's a soldering braid...or something like that. I imagine a soldering braid also really comes in handy? Flux is just for cleaning off the top of the iron?
 
Flux is the stuff that cleans the to-be-soldered pieces and lets the solder flow very easily. Rosin-core solder has flux inside it, but you can buy it separately. There are many kinds of flux, but rosin is what you want to use for most electronics work.

Braid is useful for removing solder, as is a desoldering pump (solder sucker).

To clean your iron, do what the tangentsoft videos tell you to do.
 
Practiced some soldering yesterday and it actually went better than I thought it would. Still had plenty of blobs and silver crap everywhere, but made some good solders.

I don't understand how I'm going to do this project though. The thing I don't get is what connects the trackball to the old mouse board. Trackball->?->Mouse board->USB->PC

Confused out of my mind.

Should I be able to see solder from the opposite side of a PC board?...If this question doesn't make any sense I'm sorry 😛 - Though on my practice board I could only see 2 soldered holes from the opposite side, the rest didn't fill in much.
 
I think know some tips/tricks can be very helpful. Soldering became much easier when a 20years experienced contractor has showed me few things. My hands were always steady and decent, but without the tips/hints I couldn't solder as well. If you have any difficulties let me know I might be able to give you a tip of two, or simply suggest how I would do it, if I were you.
 
Originally posted by: yassine
I think know some tips/tricks can be very helpful. Soldering became much easier when a 20years experienced contractor has showed me few things. My hands were always steady and decent, but without the tips/hints I couldn't solder as well. If you have any difficulties let me know I might be able to give you a tip of two, or simply suggest how I would do it, if I were you.
Click to expand...

Lay it on me...that's what this thread is for.

Along with me not having the know-how, my hands shake a lot. Just call me Shakey McJitters
 
Originally posted by: Adaman
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: yassine
I think know some tips/tricks can be very helpful. Soldering became much easier when a 20years experienced contractor has showed me few things. My hands were always steady and decent, but without the tips/hints I couldn't solder as well. If you have any difficulties let me know I might be able to give you a tip of two, or simply suggest how I would do it, if I were you.</end quote></div>

Lay it on me...that's what this thread is for.

Along with me not having the know-how, my hands shake a lot. Just call me Shakey McJitters
Click to expand...

Things I always do:

1- I always position my pinky somewhere stead to minimize the hand shakiness.
2- always clean tip.
3- always tin the wire and the tip a little. Having solder on both ends helps solder flow.
4- depending on what I am soldering I use 2 different types of solder. One gets solder quicker than the other. This helps if I need to adjust the position of a component or not after applying solder.

These are general... thing change with teh situation... let me know if you need specifics

 
Thanks, still confused about a couple things though.

Supposed to always clean the tip, but your also supposed to tin the wire and the tip, can't have it both ways right? Or can you? Is flux for cleaning the tip or do you also need the sponge thingy that comes with soldering kits? Or do you just need either the flux or the spongy thing?
 
Well the sponge is to cool the tip off. Cleaning the tip gets rid of whatever it is you might have on your tip, it is diff then tinning.
So here is the deal, I clean the tip, cool it off then tin it.
 
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