Soldering 101Matt Jenkins <mdj@emdeejay.net>

Stephen Thomas <stephenquoll@gmail.com> OzKFest April 2015

Soldering - What?

• Joining two pieces of metal with a filler

• Humans have soldered for 5000 years

• Easy when you know how

• Practice is important

Soldering - Tools

• Good irons are cheap

• “HotRod” irons bad

• Hakko 936 clone stations good (< $50)

• FX-888 even better (Dave said so!)

Soldering - Bad Tools

Soldering - Good Tools

Soldering - Good Tools

Soldering - Prep• Iron preparation is crucial to good joints

• Cleaning

• Chemical

• Flux wool

• Sponge

• Tinning

Soldering - Prep

Soldering - Prep

Soldering - Prep

Soldering - Solder

• Thinner is better

• Lead free just makes casual soldering harder

• Buy quality

Soldering - Doing it• Heat the work, not the solder

• For through hole PCB, place iron against

• The land

• The leg

• Flow solder onto land, making a fillet

Soldering - Desolder• Special tools available

• Not necessary for casual use

• Desoldering braid

• Use Goot or other good brand

• Cheap braid is useless

• Vacuum

Soldering - Desolder

Soldering - Summary• Good tools!

• Good technique

• Heat the work, not the solder

• Practice on something you don’t care about