Let's Get Technical > Techniques and Tooling
Techniques and tooling
vansinn:
Thought we should have a thread dedicated to repair techniques and tools needed et al..
So, let's kick it off. Any technique goes.
Soldering
--- Quote from: Systematic Chaos on April 15, 2016, 10:08:52 AM ---I have set my soldering station to 400°C, both desoldering and soldering.
When desoldering, I heat the solder joint just to the moment the it gets liquid and immediately push the button on the solder-sucker.
I tried desoldering braid but I personally get way better and cleaner results with the method mentioned above.
Up till now, I have yet to have any lifted traces or other nightmares.
Just make sure to just apply the soldering iron tip to the chunk of solder and don´t try to poke around into the solder joints. Immense heat + pressure + prying around = no good! :nono: :nono: :nono:
--- End quote ---
Mostly agree, though ~380 deg is more the norm.
What I think many forgets, is to use the right soldering tip - and I've been just as lame, mostly sticking to the same versatile one.
Would be easier simply having two solder handles with each their most used tips, and swap those on my Weller station.
I also have a thin piece of iron/steel curled up to be press-fit in over a longer, thin solder tip. The end of it is shaped into a rather thin ~60 deg angled tip.
Very useful for getting into tight spaces, like when are components very close to an IC socket.
Regarding solder suckers, I have two: a small one for more delicate PCB works and such, and a large mother sucker that'll rip everything not being sturdy; good for larger removals (suck it baby, suck it dry). Really goes chunks-slurps.
I find solder braids mostly useful for flat-cleaning an area, once the sucker has paid due visit.
Holders and fixtures
Also for soldering, yes I do have one of those stands with magnifier glass and flex arms with clamps.
And yet, I still find myself often securing one wire with a heavy tool, and holding the solder between my teeth. Two big drags of air, hold it, solder :facepalm:
Folks, don't do this. Solder wire isn't heathy, weren't meant to be licked and drooled upon, and solder fumes are even worse than ordinary smoking :nono:
PCB holes and mounting components
Make sure to get the right sized components. Some have been known to order capacitors with fatter legs than the original, and tried to push it through the PCB holes.
Might work, or could easily damage / rip loose the copper pads, and especially might easily damage the via in a dual/multilayer board, i.e. the metal things connecting the layers. These via's are essentially pretty thin metal tubes.
A PCB drill can be used handheld to clean/smooth a PCB hole, sortof like using a very thin round file.
I have a fairly small handheld electric (12 volt) PCB drill; neat for minor things like repairs or making smaller custom boards (not for production).
Larger components may be subject to physical vibrations, so secure those with heat gun plastic or a designated compound.
rnolan:
Hey Van good idea :thumb-up: so I made it a child board :wave:
Griphook:
Nice :thumb-up:
What kind of soldering tips should i use for which kind of work?
rnolan:
Ok so here's a few iron temps to consider (all in degrees C BTW),
MJMP uses 360 to solder, 380 to desolder
SC uses 400 C for everything, not a bad way to go, efficient (well he is German LoL) but be quick and organised.
I find 350 quite good for leads etc
Now I've seen on blogs where they say 310 for soldering, my experience (and no idea how accurate my solder station is (but I can dial in the numbers)) is that higher temps work better, with 310 (which I've seen recommended) you end up hanging around way to long. Get in, melt it, get out and if it's problematic, have a break, let it all cool down, come back later.
Tips for irons, seems to me a 2mm chisel tip is good for most of what we all want to do. The better irons give you some choices, worst choice (unless you really need to) is to use pointed non chisel tips as they don't convey the heat as efficiently as chisel tips.
Having used a plug into the wall iron for many years (hey it did most of what I needed to do) and more recently bought a decent soldering station. I'd advise buy a good quality soldering station, they are really worth having. I bought a good one (it wasn't particularly expensive) so I can now dial in the temp. Also came with a few different tips to suit different jobs.
Now I also bought a desolder station (decent ones are not that expensive anymore), and on the whole it does a good job. But I also discovered the desolder braid, I find it also works well depending what you are doing (probably 2 and 4 mm braid is most useful (for the stuff we do)) and here the chisel tip comes into its own :thumb-up: Heat the braid, let it suck up the solder, high temp, quickly, get out of there.
But hey I'm a novice in this area...
rnolan:
--- Quote from: Griphook on April 16, 2016, 05:09:11 AM ---Nice :thumb-up:
What kind of soldering tips should i use for which kind of work?
--- End quote ---
Hey Griphook, I've found that a 2mm chisel tip works well for most things (that aren't speaker leads). Chisel tip is important as it delivers the heat better (ie keep it flat (flat side) on the solder join). I found this works well for re-flow (remelt all the joins)) installing new components (bring chisel tip to one side of the wire, solder to the other), desoldering with 2 or 4 mm braid and also works well for leads (jacks, XLRs etc). The fine non chisel tips work ok for really fine things but they lack contact area so are slow to heat and I'd only use one if I had to (but sometimes you need them).
These blogs are worth a watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Sb21qbpEQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYz5nIHH0iY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft50m8UU5WQ
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