novice etched soldering help....?

[idgit]

well I've soldered manufactured kit boards with no trouble.  I'm attempting to try my first etched board today and at the start i didn't see any trouble.  Now i realize it's tight and tricky.  i think my tipis too big and possibly my iron. 

does anyone have any tips recommendations for me to make this go smooth, I'm going up to Radio Smack, although i can;t stand the place, to look for the tiniest tip i can find.

is there a particular watt rating in an iron i need, anything else?

thanks much

[jimilee]

Well, a variable adjustable is ideal, otherwise, I think they only have one option.

[Jederino]

Thy have two.  I have the variable one that goes from 25-50 watts.  It's alright.  Tips are crap.  Best bet, hit up lowes or Home Depot and get a Weller.

[slimtriggers]

Make sure the surface of the board is clean and shiny.  I buff mine with steel wool before soldering.  Seems to help.

A far as the iron goes, I use one of these: Stahl Soldering Station

You won't have it today, of course, but I've used it on all my builds and it hasn't let me down.  My only complaint is that I wish the wire from the base to the iron were longer and more flexible.  It tends to coil up a bit.

If you're at Radio Shack anyway, try some of the silver bearing solder.  I like it better than the regular 60/40 stuff.

[RobA]

If you are going to be doing much soldering, get the Hakko FX-888 soldering station. It's the best tool purchase I've ever made.

Smaller tips can help. but, too small a tip can't deliver enough heat and sustain it for larger parts and bigger pads. One of the things that makes the Hakko great is that it can deliver plenty of heat to larger parts without any sag in the iron temp. For Solder use a eutectic solder. This is really important for getting solid joints. The 63/37 tin lead solder is eutectic but the 60/40 stuff isn't. If you are using lead free solder, there are eutectic solders available in those too. Also for lead free you need a higher temperature, so a good iron that has plenty of heat reserve is even more important.

[billstein]

If you are going to be doing much soldering, get the Hakko FX-888 soldering station. It's the best tool purchase I've ever made.

+1 on the Hakko

[drezdn]

If you want a cheap solution, Home Depot carries a Weller for $17 or so that comes with one of the small tips that I usually use (IIRC, it also comes with a big tip).

[idgit]

great info, thanks to everyone.  i managed to get the board populated with a new RadioSh. tip and some tinner/cleaner.  my 40Watt iron is crap and the tip is massive.  I'll check into all the options suggested here.  thx

Lead is better?  I am well ventilated so Lead does not matter much to me.......

we'll see, when i get my jacks, how well i did

This forum rules

[das234]

If you are going to be doing much soldering, get the Hakko FX-888 soldering station. It's the best tool purchase I've ever made.

+1 on the Hakko

Make that +2.  I only use the standard, out of the box tip, and it works really well.  When it doesn't, it's operator error.

[billstein]

If you are going to be doing much soldering, get the Hakko FX-888 soldering station. It's the best tool purchase I've ever made.

+1 on the Hakko

Make that +2.  I only use the standard, out of the box tip, and it works really well.  When it doesn't, it's operator error.

I ordered the smaller tip and didn't like it. Went back to the original one they sent with the unit. The only thing I wished it had was an on/off light, so easy to walk away thinking its off.

[drezdn]

One un-asked for suggestion. If you don't have one already, get a brass sponge (I got my last one from Radioshack) to clean your iron tips. When I used water/sponge I went through tips every few builds, now my tips are good for much much longer.

[das234]

One un-asked for suggestion. If you don't have one already, get a brass sponge (I got my last one from Radioshack) to clean your iron tips. When I used water/sponge I went through tips every few builds, now my tips are good for much much longer.

+1 that too.  The Hakko iron comes with one and a little spot for it right under the iron rest.

[RobA]

...
Lead is better?  I am well ventilated so Lead does not matter much to me.......

Sn/Pb solder has some advantages. It flows well to start with. The 63/37 solidifies at on instant across the whole joint. That's important because if the solder solidifies while there is any movement, it is more likely to cause a bad joint. The eutectic solders lessen this issue significantly.

One of the things that makes lead-tin solder nice is that you can see a good joint. It's shiny. The lead free solders tend to have a bit of a frosted look even when the joint is perfectly good.

There are newer varieties of lead free solder that are actually supposed to have closed the gap with leaded solders, including flow, solidifying, and appearance. I have a new one that's called SN100C that is supposed to be really good. It's a tin, copper, nickel, germanium alloy that is actually supposed to be better than tin-lead solder in almost ever characteristic. I haven't pulled it out of the package yet though because I haven't used up my old stuff yet.

The main thing wrong with the leaded stuff is that lead is really, REALLY, bad for the brain in incredibly small doses.

[RobA]

One un-asked for suggestion. If you don't have one already, get a brass sponge (I got my last one from Radioshack) to clean your iron tips. When I used water/sponge I went through tips every few builds, now my tips are good for much much longer.

+1 that too.  The Hakko iron comes with one and a little spot for it right under the iron rest.

I'll +2 that one. The Hakko has a little rubber bumper there too that really helps get stubborn gunk off the tip too.

Another thing I've read that is supposed to help with tip life is to always tin the tip if you are going to be letting it sit for even small amounts of time between parts. I've taken to populating groups of parts, soldering them in, and then tinning the tip before I start to populate the next group.

[derevaun]

I prefer the screwdriver tip that came with my Weller 100. Some say you get better heat transfer with a bigger tip. Seems convincing; it's at least very convenient to use the thin end for small work and the thick side for more heat-sucking situations.