Ill break it down for you really fast, OP. Some of the advice here is on point, and some of it is misguided. I obtain flawless shiny smooth joints every time, using the following method.

1. I use a 10$ 40watt weller iron from home depot, with a wedge tip. It gets hotter than the $150 soldering station at my track
2. Use 60/40 rosin core solder from radio shack. RC brand solder is crap
3. Get a little tub of flux
4. I score the solder tab a bit with a scraper, pick, or file so its a little rough
5. Dab a tiny bit of flux on your twisted/stripped wire and the solder tab
6. Tin both the end of the wire and the solder tab. Only 4mm or so needs to tinned on the wire, make sure to not use too much, or too little. (tinning means to pre-apply some solder to the end before joining it with something else)
7. Use quality high strand count wire. I always use Deans wet noodle
8. Hold the wire onto the solder tab, and then use the iron to press the two together. Sometimes I RE-apply a tiny bit more of flux before I do that too.
9. If done right, the wire will sink into the tab in less than a second, and you're done.

I couldn't find any closeups of my solder joints, but this should give you an idea of what this technique and choice of products can do. One day i'll make a video.

http://brandonpcollins.com/misc/rc/33.jpg

Thanks to everyone for helping me out this is wat I was able to accomplish let me know how I did ?

http://img1.imagehousing.com/71/1bff...33842e466c.jpg

Better.. but it looks like there is still a bit of mess on the back of the solder tabs... and if you look closely at your middle wire, you will see the wolder wicked down the wire too far. you want to make sure that you just tin that outer bit that will touch the solder tab. If the solder spreads down the wire, you will run into issues. (and it looks funny).

Practice makes perfect.

How can I clean it up ?

Snip the ends and then do it again. It seems you simply took what you had and tried to make it work. With all the solder already embedded in the wire, it's difficult to bring it up to optimum temperature an it ends up looking this way. Also, the way the wires look stressed in those angles is indicative that you over tinned. It's killing the flexibility of the wire. use something to hold the wires steady and solder them all at an identical angle so it looks clean.

http://www.frys.com/product/6508443?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

http://images.frys.com/art/product/3...43.01.prod.jpg

I wish I had someone local to help me but I'll keep trying :)

I'll try and scramble to finish the job I'm working on and try to make some illustrations to show you how to do it properly. Hang tight, but in the meantime, grab some spare wire and practice stripping 1/16" off the insulation and tinning the exposed lead.

You can leave your iron sitting on it's own and hold the wire onto the tip and REMEMBER to place the solder on top to apply pressure on the wire until it begins to absorb the solder. Once the top os tinned, turn the wire over quickly and tin the underside LIGHTLY.

If you find it's not melting, slide the solder on the side, IN BETWEEN THE WIRE AND THE TIP and work it towards the front as that ALWAYS gets the tinning going. Once it's starts absorbing move quickly up top and tin as I pointed out above.

YOU DON'T WANT OR NEED MUCH!!! Just enough so the lead is coated.


Then move onto the motor leads. It seems you have too much on their already so I suggest you apply heat to liquify it and then blow the existing solder off the leads. Blow hard so it's as bare as possible. Then apply heat to the lead and slip a bit of solder on to the lead.

Most people apply the solder onto the iron tip which is incorrect so be sure to slide it onto the contact point. Once you see a SMALL bead, lift the iron off and grab a tinned wire and place it one the tip of the iron and place it back onto the motor lead and then slide out the iron to join them. If you get lucky and it turns out perfect, great! If not, simply apply a bit of pressure with the iron to liquify everything up and position it in the ideal angle (in your case a slight forward angle and the end of the wire pointing down) and remove the iron and let cool.

Try and LMK how it works out. If anything I can FaceTime with you tonight to show you exactly how to do it. No biggie. I have a burnt out P.O.S. Novak motor I can use to demonstrate for you.

your bumper looks funny...did you cut it? also, I would have have the sold joints facing backwards. if you land on your tail, you could break off a tab.

You can use a Soldering Wick to pull some of the extra off the tabs.

http://www.seattlerobotics.org/guide/images/wick.jpg

Meh, the last time I tried that stuff was probably about the same time that picture was taken:lol:..meaning a long time ago.

I prefer the "flick" method....Which involves exactly that. Holding the motor or whatever, heating up the excess solder and "flicking" it off. Obviously you need to be smart about where you do this.:eek:

I am a flicker too, we have no carpet and as long as the molten metal does not spatter on my skin, and I keep the hot tip of the iron out things that burn/melt/or scream... I am OK. But I did pick up a spool of the stuff real cheap on ebay many months ago, it does a fair job.

:ha:..a fellow flicker, cool.....not something I would advise someone new to soldering to try.

I learned it racing slot cars..The entire car, literally, is soldered together. You had no choice but to learn how to do it. Some tracks had signs posted "NO Solder Flicking"......aka, they had carpet floors.

Yes I cut some off :) I did have it backwards some guy crashed in to me at the race track and pulled one of the esc wire off the motor so I decided to do it how everyone had it at the race track :)

In my THE stuff I run my wires like this. .