From: WardShrake (wardshrake@aol.com)
Subject: TECH TIP: soldering (longish). 
This is the only article in this thread  
View: Original Format 
Newsgroups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting
Date: 1994-10-25 10:49:49 PST 
 

I got some good responses on my query, asking if you guys wanted more
technical info. (You may have created a monster, getting me started! Don't
say I didn't warn you, if I end up going ballistic on you....)

Here are today's tidbits, for what they are worth...


-----------------------------------
  GENERIC SOLDERING TECHNICAL TIPS
-----------------------------------

This is a big subject. I may touch on it more later. For now, I'll just
give some quick recommendations to get you started, or to improve your
technique / make your soldering life easier, and see how people respond to
this file.

Fat solder is a royal pain in the butt. You can't control it well, easily,
even if you are pretty experienced. A beginner has almost no hope of using
it well, at least not consistently. Don't get me wrong, it does have its
uses (like soldering plumbing pipes together maybe, or tinning a new
iron's tip) but the near 1/8th inch thick stuff has no use in my personal
tool box for soldering IC's, small parts, or any circuit board work.

The super fine stuff is worlds better, for ease of control, making you not
feel like a fool, and making good quality solder joints, consistently. My
recommendation, for what solder to buy: Radio Shack part number 64-013,
"Silver solder, 62/36/2% formula, 0.022" size, 1.5 oz roll." It's only
$2.99 a roll; buy it! Well worth it, ten times over, to avoid all the
frustration "fat" solder causes. In my opinion, this one suggestion (small
diameter solder, used to gain more control over soldering conditions) is
the best soldering tech tip I can offer.

After you've tried the small diameter solder, life just won't be the same.
Major worlds of difference! You may even feel like throwing the fat stuff
out! If nothing else, the smaller solder gives you more control over how
much solder you put down on each of a board's connections. This is
important for avoiding "solder bridges," which is when your circuit
malfunctions, when excess solder shorts something out.

My second-rated, most important soldering tip: don't overdo it on heat
used, when working on delicate IC's or PC boards in general. 

I recommend a cheap-as-heck ($7.49) Radio Shack soldering iron (part
number 64-2051) as all you need to start off with for PC board work. If
you don't already have an iron, or the one you have is huge, watt-wise, I
suggest you give this one a try. At that price, I can't see how you could
go wrong. (And never, ever, use acid core solder, or a "soldering gun" on
PC boards; the acids and excessive heat will ruin the board! If all you
have is a soldering gun, buy this smaller iron, for PC board work.)

This iron is only 15 watts, which means that it won't work very well for
large diameter cables (not enough heat output). It also means you will
have a hard time damaging a PC board due to excessive soldering heat. The
tip is even grounded as a sort of static protection, apparently. This is
significant, as even relatively small amounts of static electricity can
damage (kill) IC chips, especially CMOS ones.

I didn't give this iron a chance, myself, until my used-to-be-trusty,
expensive, temperature-controlled Weller soldering station died on me
recently, in the middle of working on a 30-year old, irreplaceable circuit
board for an out-of-production, high-quality audio preamp. (An original
Dynaco PAS-3 preamp to be exact, for any potential audiophiles out there.)
I was forced to use this iron or nothing at the time. Almost by accident,
I found that this inexpensive iron's heat output is about perfect for PC
board or IC work, as Radio Shack's catalog says it is! (Imagine that;
truth in advertising. Will wonders never cease?)  Anyway, I got some of
the best solder joints I had ever made to that point, almost effortlessly.
It shocked the heck out of me, at the time. (I figured out later that this
meant I had been a bit too impatient before, using was using just a bit
more iron heat than I actually needed, with my ex-trusty, expensive,
temperature-controlled Weller soldering station!)

Considering the age of this PC board, and the nature of the modification I
was then doing to it, (cutting some of the board's wire traces in two, and
resplicing them in a new circuit configuration with jumper wires), I could
not have asked for more from this iron. With this delicate a modification,
and an old board, a big iron might have lifted or peeled the small wire
traces right off the board, ruining it forever. This danger is pretty much
removed, as the iron's relatively low heating capacity won't allow you to
cook traces off a board. Highly recommended, especially to those new to
hands-on electronics!

Other soldering tips, very briefly...

If you are starting out, while you are at Radio Shack --- making them rich
at my suggestion --- you can also pick up a spool of desoldering braid
(part no. 64-2090, $2.19 each), and their "Soldering iron holder/cleaner"
(part no. 64-2078, $6.49 each) if you don't already have one. (You wet the
sponge, and wipe the iron's tip on it from time to time, say every other
or every few solder joints. This removes impurities on the tip; a clean
tip is a happy tip!)

Even if you were to start from scratch, without any of these tools, if you
bought the recommended 15-watt iron, the stand/cleaner, solder, and some
desoldering braid, you are only talking about a total investment of $19.16
plus tax. That doesn't sound bad at all to me. Technicians charge $60.00
an hour for repair work! It really sounds like a damned good deal, when
you justify the purchase that way, right !?!?

If you have a semi-large wattage (30 or 40) soldering iron already, you
can buy a temperature controller circuit (part no. 64-2054, $9.99 each) to
tone it down, to avoid heat damage. Their "Vacuum desoldering tool" (part
no. 64-2098, $5.99 each) is pretty good, but I've seen posts from this
newsgroup which stated that their "one-handed desoldering iron" is much
better for parts removal (desoldering). At $8.49 each, you can't go wrong
I guess, to try it. (Although I would highly recommend the $10.00
temperature controller, as it is a 45 watt iron!)

For those of you that want practice, after buying the proper soldering
equipment, I can strongly recommend a company called "Chaney Electronics,
Inc." They make kits, from very simple soldering practice ones, to complex
ones, even surface mount technology kits! They only deal with schools and
students, but with all the ".edu" places out there, finding a way around
this is highly recommended. They can be found at 1-800-227-7312, or P.O.
Box 4116, Scottsdale, AZ 85261. Their kits include very good instructions,
with how-it-works info, too. 

Hope these tips are useful! Let me know, either by posting or email, if
I'm on the right track here. Am I helping any of you frustrated beginner
types out there, or am I just off on a tangent somewhere? I truly don't
mind doing this, if it is of some genuine use. I remember how I felt (we
all do) not that long ago, when I was just starting out, tinkering with
electronic circuits.

And before I forget, Rick Schieve (and others) have done a lot of work
along these lines before. I highly recommend you obtain and read his
excellent tip articles, found at the FTP site at "wiretap.spies.com",
under the directory "game_archive". Rick has helped a lot of people, it
seems! In fact, there seem to be a lot of nice, friendly, very
knowledgeable people in this newsgroup, from what I've seen.

Suggestion: If we all were to write up just one short tip from our areas
of expertise, post it and perfect the text through constructive, online
criticism, we'd have one really killer set of helpful documents, wouldn't
we? (For instance, I remember seeing some interesting posts on different
aspects of key locks recently, that would be good to have handy, in a FAQ
or text file somewhere.)

That's more than enough out of me, though, for now! Let me know what you
think of these "tech tip" attempts of mine! Are they worth continuing? Did
anyone get anything out of this one?

Regards,
Ward Shrake
wardshrake@aol.com