I suck at soldering
 

Can anyone give me some dang pointers on soldering?
I hate soldering 'cause I suck at it. LOL

Thanks

practice makes perfect... :-)

make sure both surfaces are clean, apply a small amount of solder to both surfaces before joining.
and most important, use a good quality soldering iron with the right tip.

the actual soldering should only take a second or so and the solder should look smooth and flowing.

the biggest mistakes people make


1--- iron is not strong enough (enough watts/heat)

2-- the trying to use old sodder. If your motor or wire is already caked with soder simply get it hot and flick it off. Cold joints don't conduct electricty well.

As with anything...good tools make all the difference. A nice Hakko iron is a necessity if you're hard wiring.

Blake

make sure u use electronics solder also.. some people use plumbers pipe solder.. this does not work well with irons.. it is meant for torches... also i would recomend at least a 40 watt iron with a good size flat tip...

before u solder two items together it is very important to tin both pices.. add solder to the wire till u can see it has flowed all the way through... then when u solder it will bond right..

if you are sokldering to a clean flat surface.. ie battery bars to the cells.. i recomend scuffig the surface.. if it is to smooth solder will not stick.. it needs the scuffing to stick to...

The trick is: heat the work, not the solder :)

IE if you're soldering some wires to join them, place the soldering iron on the bottom, the wire on top and heat it. You may need some needle nose pliyers to hold it, look out it gets hot! Then gently prod the wire with the solder until it melts. That is how to 'tin' a wire, then its ready to be soldered to your motor or battery packs.

I don't know if this is good for my iron but I use 80 grit sand paper to clean the tip. It comes up rough but still works. I thought my soldering was pretty crap to, but recently I have noticed I am getting really good. Lots of practice and use the right tip. Now I only use the flat tip, where as before i was using the pen tip.
I don't have a really good solding iron, I just use it on the motor wires. I will see how I go when I make my battery packs.

something i would recommend using is called flux. If you cant get the solder to stick to well, apply some of this and it will. And im not talking about the flux they use in plumbing, there is flux for a soldering iron. I noticed it worked well on wires as it kind of draws the solder in somewhat.

Before soldering clean your soldering iron tip, use a rolled up paper towel, until it is shiney again. Also apply a small bit of solder to your tip(ouch!), it helps make better contact to the parts you are soldering.

Re: I suck at soldering
 

Quinton,

Just a bit more background...

What soldering iron/gun do you currently use?

What brand/type of solder?

Have you looked at www.balakracing.com for their soldering hints? Pretty good.

try using a solder that has a rosin core. i use "Deans Racing Solder with ProFlux" and it works really well versus solder and flux seperate were you need to brush it on before you solder. Practice...it took me 3-4 tries to finally solder 3 noise reduction capacitors to my motor. believe me, you are not the only one that sucked at soldering the first time...i did too.

Soldering UGHHHH
 

During the off season, I plan on practicing soldering on scrap wire and end bells, etc. I went out and bought one of those Goot irons that "Big Jim" reccomends.

I follow the reccomendations about heating the work, pre-tinning the items, etc I still have problems soldering things to objects that work like heat sinks, i.e. copper end bells on motors, loose batteries.

Re: Soldering UGHHHH
 

Sounds like you ARE learning pretty well if you recognize the 'heat sink' aspect of certain items.

Here's another tip for those that clean their irons with sponges. Get the old solder out of the sponge regularly...Like every time I add water to the sponge. And my sponge is soaking wet.

Yea I read RC Cars solding hint and it helped me a lot! I got a Weller 40 watt solder station for $50 bucks its the best thing I've bought in RC!, lol I used Radio Shack 60/40 1/64" solder (really fine) that alone should make a HUGE difference! Like they said above let the heat do the work heat the wire first the melt the solder onto the wire. Then melt some onto what you connecting the wire to place the Solder Iron in the middle of the 2 and wait for it to melt the solder on the top and bottom (about 1-3 seconds max). and stick the two together if the joint drys a shiny silver look its a good conducting joint if its all dull and brownish you need to redo it. Dont forgot to check the joint by pulling and raping it around it shouldn't break under pretty sever conditions...

Hope this helps

Later
Jake

Sounds good; but, I consider a Weller 40 watt iron to be marginal. A 60 watt iron really shines when you are outdoors in a cooler or windy work environment. Wrapping the coiled holder stand with aluminum foil helps get a 40 watt unit through those times.