So, i've got a soldering iron...

[Tom Maneiro]

...and some other nice goodies, for, FINALLY, learn to (de)solder

I went today to my local electronic parts store, in plan "cheep but not shitty" (A.K.A. "Government budget"), and -with the advice of a random Google search- got...

- A 25W soldering iron (sadly, the tip is a bit thick, but that was the only size that they had - there were cheaper soldering irons, but from 100W onwards!!!)
- A desoldering pump
- 10m of desolder braid
- The smallest and cheapest bottle of flux
- A reel of 60/40 0.8mm soldering tin.



Now, my soldering experience is ZERO and NULL. The last time that i attempted to solder something was with an uber-cheap iron, around 8-9 years ago (!!!), and ended frying everything... including the iron (don't ask how!). So, since we have some soldering gurus and Jedi Iron Masters, someone wanna share some "soldering for n00bs" tips with me (and the community)?

I still have that box full of junk PCBs, so maybe these will now be useful for something

[Tom Maneiro]

Bah, i fail at soldering

- My pulse is way too unstable. Shaky hands anyone?
- Either my desoldering braid is fake, or i fail at that too...
- Oh, the nozzle of my solder sucker warped and it's now b0rked too.
- I only managed to desolder a resistor, a 7805, and a 2-pin connector... with lots of effort.
- However, i'm good at melting cables

This learning will take a loooooooong time...

[oompa loompa]

Oh, so you got a soldering iron now, how exciting

Yea, everyone goes through this learning curve, even 8 year old kids. There's never any trick to it, you just have to keep practicing

Also, the learning all depends on what you want to do. So what are your goals ? Do you want to build a computer? I mean, yea, to get good at soldering, you pretty much have to experience everything, but if you set specific goals, then the learning experience becomes more straight forward

I think you should do some research on the PIC16F84, which is a microcontroller. I think you'll find that a lot of the projects people have made with this controller are very amusing

[jlf65]

20 - 25 years ago, I was a pro. Now I have to deal with stiff joints and bad eyesight. I actually sent the last thing I needed soldered out to some young punk (no offense intended ) even though I have all the equipment. Getting old sucks.

[Tiido]

I've been soldering since 6 years old.... 14 years by now. Practice is all where thigns are

First and foremost thing you must do is tinning the tip of the iron so you have an even layer of solder on it all the time. To do that find a PCB with a larger area of tin somewhere and use it for tinning the tip. Just add lot of flux and extra solder to it and keep on turning and moving the iron in it until the tip is covered.
Form then on everything will be easy as when the tip of the iron touches some solder, it will immediately melt.

[socram8888]

I need to learn to desolder, too. I bought two weeks ago a Famiclone (NASA, pretty known) and it came with a fake game, and inside there are two 27C1000 (without quartz window ) and I want to make a FlashCart with it, removing the original 27C1000 and putting a 28F020 (so two games can be at the same time in the cartridge, switching them by a switch)

Well, there are two options. 1: Desolder the EPROMs, and 2 (and the most probabily): cut the pins and then desolder each one from the PCB ;D

I have a desoldering pump, but it's too cheap and it doesn't pump anything

PS: I finally bought a EPROM/PIC/AVR programmer from China ;D

[oompa loompa]

If you want to keep the parts, but break the PCB, then use a blow torch

If you want to break the parts, but keep the PCB, then it's best to just snip each pin off, and desolder each pin. To get the solder out of the via hole without a solder sucker, you can heat up the solder, and then quickly slap the PCB on a table

If you want to invest in desoldering, then you could buy a heat gun. I myself never bought a rework station because they're kinda pricey, and I don't do desoldering work everyday. I use this: www.amazon.com/Darice-Embossing-Multi-Purpose-Heat-Tool/dp/B0013LAYUQ/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1274330417&sr=8-4

I desoldered a big Hershey bar chip (64 pin pdip) with this thing. It just takes some time to desolder because the heat spreads everywhere

[Tiido]

for desoldering big chips and surface mounted stuff I use a heatgun too.... if you want the break the chip and PCB, flick it to 600C instead of 300C ^^