https://youtu.be/stvg0THePLc
Loved the heatsink trick, and how to avoid burning pots while soldering.
Fred.
Envoyé de mon Pixel 2 XL en utilisant Tapatalk
Soldering Tips and Technics by Dr Z
Moderators: pompeiisneaks, Colossal
-
fred.violleau
- Posts: 511
- Joined: Tue Jun 06, 2017 12:20 pm
- Location: Montreal, Canada
Re: Soldering Tips and Technics by Dr Z
I liked the video and took some notes:
• Use NASA grade solder such as Kester .031”
• Avoid cold solder joints
• Use good solder station. Get one that is temperature controlled such as Weller WES51
• Change the soldering iron tip every 40 to 80 hours of use.
• Strip, twist, and tin wire. When tinning wire start at the tip and go toward the insulation (to keep from melting insulation)
• Make sure you have a good mechanical connection before soldering
• When soldering turrets or anything that takes a lot of heat, feed solder to the side opposite the soldering iron to avoid cold solder joints.
• When soldering pots, turn the shaft to the stop (either end) so the wiper does not transfer the heat to the carbon strip and destroy the pot.
• Clean/scrape the leads of the components before soldering (removes oxidation). This can be done quickly using a pair of needle nose pliers.
• Use heat sink when soldering components using clip leads or similar to protect the components from heat.
• Alternate soldering components. Solder just one side of each component and then go back to solder the other ends. This allows time for the component to cool before the other side is soldered.
• When soldering components to a pot, cut the leads of the component at 45 degree angle so it is sharp and easier to feed through a small opening.
• When using a crimp connector, solder the connection after crimping.
• When the iron sits for a while, the tip can get cold. Right before use, feed a little solder to the tip and it will heat up.
• When you put the soldering iron away, tin it with a little solder to protect the tip.
• Use NASA grade solder such as Kester .031”
• Avoid cold solder joints
• Use good solder station. Get one that is temperature controlled such as Weller WES51
• Change the soldering iron tip every 40 to 80 hours of use.
• Strip, twist, and tin wire. When tinning wire start at the tip and go toward the insulation (to keep from melting insulation)
• Make sure you have a good mechanical connection before soldering
• When soldering turrets or anything that takes a lot of heat, feed solder to the side opposite the soldering iron to avoid cold solder joints.
• When soldering pots, turn the shaft to the stop (either end) so the wiper does not transfer the heat to the carbon strip and destroy the pot.
• Clean/scrape the leads of the components before soldering (removes oxidation). This can be done quickly using a pair of needle nose pliers.
• Use heat sink when soldering components using clip leads or similar to protect the components from heat.
• Alternate soldering components. Solder just one side of each component and then go back to solder the other ends. This allows time for the component to cool before the other side is soldered.
• When soldering components to a pot, cut the leads of the component at 45 degree angle so it is sharp and easier to feed through a small opening.
• When using a crimp connector, solder the connection after crimping.
• When the iron sits for a while, the tip can get cold. Right before use, feed a little solder to the tip and it will heat up.
• When you put the soldering iron away, tin it with a little solder to protect the tip.
-
fred.violleau
- Posts: 511
- Joined: Tue Jun 06, 2017 12:20 pm
- Location: Montreal, Canada
Re: Soldering Tips and Technics by Dr Z
@mwelch55, Great transcriptions ! Thanks!
Envoyé de mon Pixel 2 XL en utilisant Tapatalk
Envoyé de mon Pixel 2 XL en utilisant Tapatalk
Re: Soldering Tips and Technics by Dr Z
I didn't see the video, but I have some additional comments, probably just my own ideosyncrasies.
• Use NASA grade solder such as Kester .031”
??? I don't think "NASA grade" has any particular meaning. NASA may specify a solder alloy composition for its assemblies, but I suspect it's simply a specification for normal good-quality solder alloy plus some wording about fluxes and removal. For a really fun soldering experience, get yourself some 63-37 eutectic solder. You'll love it, and will likely not have any more cold joints, as 63-37 goes directly from full-liquid to full-solid in a flash, so it's quite difficult to move the joint in the miniscule time between liquid and solid. Hmm. Maybe NASA likes eutectic too. Don't know.
I'm probably too sensitive to something like this, but that hits me much like the statement "Danger!! 50,000 Ohms!"
• Avoid cold solder joints
Ummmm, sure. That's the second lesson. It comes right after which end of the soldering iron to hold. But frequently the second lesson is cut too short to mention eutectic solder.
• Use good solder station. Get one that is temperature controlled such as Weller WES51
I enthusiastically agree!! Love my WES51.
• Change the soldering iron tip every 40 to 80 hours of use.
Good idea. Even better idea: just like new, known-good tubes for your amp, keep a spare tip on hand, and when you swap the spare into service, go buy another spare.
• Strip, twist, and tin wire. When tinning wire start at the tip and go toward the insulation (to keep from melting insulation)
Yes. But for even more durable wiring as well as much, much faster stripping, get a thermal stripper like the low end Patco PTS10 so you can strip FAST and avoid nicking the wire at the end of the insulation, which promotes fatigue cracks at the end of the insulation.
• Make sure you have a good mechanical connection before soldering
Yep. That's lesson #3 in "how to solder".
• When soldering turrets or anything that takes a lot of heat, feed solder to the side opposite the soldering iron to avoid cold solder joints.
Yep.
• When soldering pots, turn the shaft to the stop (either end) so the wiper does not transfer the heat to the carbon strip and destroy the pot.
Hmmm. I've been soldering pots for over 50 years and never killed a pot. Of course, technique has a lot to do with heat damage. I can see that it would be possible to damage a carbon composition pot by heat-soaking the wiper, but then most electronics parts can be damaged the same way. A carbon comp resistor, by the way, has the same kind of carbon comp material inside it, and it's much closer to the resistor cap/lead than the wiper contact on a pot, for instance.
To avoid heat damage:
1. Clean the solder surfaces on the parts to be soldered (see comments on this, coming up next) down to bright metal.
2. Bend, fold, wind, etc. the parts to be soldered into a firm, self supporting mechanical joint, as mentioned above.
3. For extra points, and an even better, faster, less-likely-to-be-cold joint, dip a toothpick in liquid flux and touch the droplet on the toothpick onto the joint. You would not believe how much this eases your soldering. A 4oz bottle of liquid rosin flux costs $10 at Mouser. That's ...thousands... of easy-flow joints.
4. Swipe your soldering iron on the oxide removing pad to clean it, then apply a whiff of flux core solder to it so there is a smooth coating (not a blob or drop) of liquid solder on it.
5. Heat one side of the joint ...making sure that there is a film of liquid solder on the iron for good heat transfer... and as mentioned above, feed solder to the joint, not the soldering iron.
6. Use a high enough heat on the iron to get in fast, solder the joint, and get back out. Many people never learn the feel for fast, clean joints and damage things because they don't learn that heat flow has a time delay. See "heat sink" below.
7. If you've prepared a mechanically sound joint, you don't have to worry about cold joints, because only the iron will be touching the joint, and you simply remove the iron. Nothing can move in the time when the solder goes pasty between liquid and solid because it's self supporting against gravity, and you've carefully used 63-37 eutectic.
8. Don't use lead free solder. It's very, very difficult to make clean joints by hand with any lead-free solder I've found and I've tried a lot of them. Just to see.
9. Don't even try lead free solders. It's a waste of time and money.
10. Did I mention - don't mess with lead free solder.
• Clean/scrape the leads of the components before soldering (removes oxidation). This can be done quickly using a pair of needle nose pliers.
This leaves long, scraped areas free of oxide, but unless you're careful about your pliers-scraping technique not all the oxides are removed, so there are embedded stripes of non-soldered surface under the joint surface if the flux is not aggressive enough. Pliers can also strip off surface plating on the leads. This may or may not degrade soldering depending on the alloy of any plating versus the underlying metal. If, for instance, the lead has been tin- or tin-lead-plated, you can make soldering harder. Far better: pinch the lead in a 1/4" wide strip of 400 automotive sandpaper between your fingers and twirl it as you pull it out of the sandpaper. This removes the oxide and leaves the plating there.
• Use heat sink when soldering components using clip leads or similar to protect the components from heat.
Hmmmm. Well, if you're not very good ore experienced or skilled at soldering, yes, you can use training wheels. Dang, did I say that out loud?
Heat has a speed of transfer down a wire. To prove this, take a 2" piece of bare solid hookup wire and tin one end well. Then pinch the non-tinned end in your forefinger and thumb in your non-dominant hand, and apply a clean, prepped hot soldering iron to the other end. Note how long it takes before you curse and drop the length of wire. It's probably a good two seconds, perhaps more depending on the iron heat, air temperature, phase of the moon, etc.
Humans will usually not willingly keep their fingertips in contact with metal surfaces at temperatures over 130F or so. You dropped the wire when it went past 130F. No common electronics parts are damaged at 130F. In fact, they are universally specified for wave soldering operations for about 260C/500F for three seconds. A good solder joint for electronic parts almost never needs more than two seconds to make, depending primarily on the relative masses of the soldering iron and the joint. A turret lug may take 2-3 seconds to get to good flowing temp, but turrets are also the most likely joints to have a significant fraction of an inch of lead to the actual part body. The moral is: You have more time than you think you do to make a joint and get the heat off the joint, >>> IF YOU'RE DOING THE SOLDERING RIGHT <<<.
A PCB joint with very short leads takes about 1.1 seconds on average. A turret/lug connection takes up to 3 seconds. If you have clean leads, good mechanical joint, a bit of flux, and a hot enough iron (600-700F is good), you can make this joint and not need any kind of heat sink.
The screaming advantage of careful joint prep, flux, and a HOT iron is that the joint is made so quickly that heat doesn't have time to get over to sensitive parts, and if you think about it, the total heat put into all of the joints is smaller with this do-it-quick approach than a barely-hot-enough iron and long cooking time.
But if you feel like using heat sinks, go ahead. They won't hurt. Neither will wearing your lucky shoes.
• Alternate soldering components. Solder just one side of each component and then go back to solder the other ends. This allows time for the component to cool before the other side is soldered.
Good idea for big, many-lead turret/lug joints, but - well, I've done a lot of soldering, and I can't remember killing things not doing this. That is, heat ONLY the joints, then get off them quickly.
• When soldering components to a pot, cut the leads of the component at 45 degree angle so it is sharp and easier to feed through a small opening.
?? OK, I guess. Never had a problem.
• When using a crimp connector, solder the connection after crimping.
Hmmm. The connector makers (and, I suspect NASA
) say not to do this. Crimping is a different duck. Crimping deforms the joint metals to form zillions of points of contact where the metals are forced into what they call "gas-tight high pressure contact points". This can in some cases cause some cold welding because the contact forces are so very high with pressures high enough to deform the metals so much.
Solder can flow in and help exclude air - but then the air is already excluded from the contact points. You could make an argument that says that solder lowers the contact resistance, but then crimp connectors are usually for plug in or screw terminal connections away from the crimp, so you'd be improving something that doesn't affect the overall use. I've read hints that soldering heats the crimped joint after it's been made and the liquid inserts itself in the microscopic interstices and on cooling can help lever some of the gas-tight points open, and covers up the damage. Solder creeps and cold flows under mechanical loads, so it can both loosen the crimp and hide looseness til failure.
All that I've ever read on crimped joints says that if you're going to crimp a connection, (1) use the proper tool (2) do a good quality crimp, and (3) leave it alone; don't solder it. Of course, most DIY stuff never gets enough use to put this to a test.
• When the iron sits for a while, the tip can get cold. Right before use, feed a little solder to the tip and it will heat up.
Hmmm. Maybe. Depends on the iron and the accuracy of the thermal regulation. I'll have to try it.
• When you put the soldering iron away, tin it with a little solder to protect the tip.
GOOD idea.
• Use NASA grade solder such as Kester .031”
??? I don't think "NASA grade" has any particular meaning. NASA may specify a solder alloy composition for its assemblies, but I suspect it's simply a specification for normal good-quality solder alloy plus some wording about fluxes and removal. For a really fun soldering experience, get yourself some 63-37 eutectic solder. You'll love it, and will likely not have any more cold joints, as 63-37 goes directly from full-liquid to full-solid in a flash, so it's quite difficult to move the joint in the miniscule time between liquid and solid. Hmm. Maybe NASA likes eutectic too. Don't know.
I'm probably too sensitive to something like this, but that hits me much like the statement "Danger!! 50,000 Ohms!"
• Avoid cold solder joints
Ummmm, sure. That's the second lesson. It comes right after which end of the soldering iron to hold. But frequently the second lesson is cut too short to mention eutectic solder.
• Use good solder station. Get one that is temperature controlled such as Weller WES51
I enthusiastically agree!! Love my WES51.
• Change the soldering iron tip every 40 to 80 hours of use.
Good idea. Even better idea: just like new, known-good tubes for your amp, keep a spare tip on hand, and when you swap the spare into service, go buy another spare.
• Strip, twist, and tin wire. When tinning wire start at the tip and go toward the insulation (to keep from melting insulation)
Yes. But for even more durable wiring as well as much, much faster stripping, get a thermal stripper like the low end Patco PTS10 so you can strip FAST and avoid nicking the wire at the end of the insulation, which promotes fatigue cracks at the end of the insulation.
• Make sure you have a good mechanical connection before soldering
Yep. That's lesson #3 in "how to solder".
• When soldering turrets or anything that takes a lot of heat, feed solder to the side opposite the soldering iron to avoid cold solder joints.
Yep.
• When soldering pots, turn the shaft to the stop (either end) so the wiper does not transfer the heat to the carbon strip and destroy the pot.
Hmmm. I've been soldering pots for over 50 years and never killed a pot. Of course, technique has a lot to do with heat damage. I can see that it would be possible to damage a carbon composition pot by heat-soaking the wiper, but then most electronics parts can be damaged the same way. A carbon comp resistor, by the way, has the same kind of carbon comp material inside it, and it's much closer to the resistor cap/lead than the wiper contact on a pot, for instance.
To avoid heat damage:
1. Clean the solder surfaces on the parts to be soldered (see comments on this, coming up next) down to bright metal.
2. Bend, fold, wind, etc. the parts to be soldered into a firm, self supporting mechanical joint, as mentioned above.
3. For extra points, and an even better, faster, less-likely-to-be-cold joint, dip a toothpick in liquid flux and touch the droplet on the toothpick onto the joint. You would not believe how much this eases your soldering. A 4oz bottle of liquid rosin flux costs $10 at Mouser. That's ...thousands... of easy-flow joints.
4. Swipe your soldering iron on the oxide removing pad to clean it, then apply a whiff of flux core solder to it so there is a smooth coating (not a blob or drop) of liquid solder on it.
5. Heat one side of the joint ...making sure that there is a film of liquid solder on the iron for good heat transfer... and as mentioned above, feed solder to the joint, not the soldering iron.
6. Use a high enough heat on the iron to get in fast, solder the joint, and get back out. Many people never learn the feel for fast, clean joints and damage things because they don't learn that heat flow has a time delay. See "heat sink" below.
7. If you've prepared a mechanically sound joint, you don't have to worry about cold joints, because only the iron will be touching the joint, and you simply remove the iron. Nothing can move in the time when the solder goes pasty between liquid and solid because it's self supporting against gravity, and you've carefully used 63-37 eutectic.
8. Don't use lead free solder. It's very, very difficult to make clean joints by hand with any lead-free solder I've found and I've tried a lot of them. Just to see.
9. Don't even try lead free solders. It's a waste of time and money.
10. Did I mention - don't mess with lead free solder.
• Clean/scrape the leads of the components before soldering (removes oxidation). This can be done quickly using a pair of needle nose pliers.
This leaves long, scraped areas free of oxide, but unless you're careful about your pliers-scraping technique not all the oxides are removed, so there are embedded stripes of non-soldered surface under the joint surface if the flux is not aggressive enough. Pliers can also strip off surface plating on the leads. This may or may not degrade soldering depending on the alloy of any plating versus the underlying metal. If, for instance, the lead has been tin- or tin-lead-plated, you can make soldering harder. Far better: pinch the lead in a 1/4" wide strip of 400 automotive sandpaper between your fingers and twirl it as you pull it out of the sandpaper. This removes the oxide and leaves the plating there.
• Use heat sink when soldering components using clip leads or similar to protect the components from heat.
Hmmmm. Well, if you're not very good ore experienced or skilled at soldering, yes, you can use training wheels. Dang, did I say that out loud?
Heat has a speed of transfer down a wire. To prove this, take a 2" piece of bare solid hookup wire and tin one end well. Then pinch the non-tinned end in your forefinger and thumb in your non-dominant hand, and apply a clean, prepped hot soldering iron to the other end. Note how long it takes before you curse and drop the length of wire. It's probably a good two seconds, perhaps more depending on the iron heat, air temperature, phase of the moon, etc. Humans will usually not willingly keep their fingertips in contact with metal surfaces at temperatures over 130F or so. You dropped the wire when it went past 130F. No common electronics parts are damaged at 130F. In fact, they are universally specified for wave soldering operations for about 260C/500F for three seconds. A good solder joint for electronic parts almost never needs more than two seconds to make, depending primarily on the relative masses of the soldering iron and the joint. A turret lug may take 2-3 seconds to get to good flowing temp, but turrets are also the most likely joints to have a significant fraction of an inch of lead to the actual part body. The moral is: You have more time than you think you do to make a joint and get the heat off the joint, >>> IF YOU'RE DOING THE SOLDERING RIGHT <<<.
A PCB joint with very short leads takes about 1.1 seconds on average. A turret/lug connection takes up to 3 seconds. If you have clean leads, good mechanical joint, a bit of flux, and a hot enough iron (600-700F is good), you can make this joint and not need any kind of heat sink.
The screaming advantage of careful joint prep, flux, and a HOT iron is that the joint is made so quickly that heat doesn't have time to get over to sensitive parts, and if you think about it, the total heat put into all of the joints is smaller with this do-it-quick approach than a barely-hot-enough iron and long cooking time.
But if you feel like using heat sinks, go ahead. They won't hurt. Neither will wearing your lucky shoes.
• Alternate soldering components. Solder just one side of each component and then go back to solder the other ends. This allows time for the component to cool before the other side is soldered.
Good idea for big, many-lead turret/lug joints, but - well, I've done a lot of soldering, and I can't remember killing things not doing this. That is, heat ONLY the joints, then get off them quickly.
• When soldering components to a pot, cut the leads of the component at 45 degree angle so it is sharp and easier to feed through a small opening.
?? OK, I guess. Never had a problem.
• When using a crimp connector, solder the connection after crimping.
Hmmm. The connector makers (and, I suspect NASA
) say not to do this. Crimping is a different duck. Crimping deforms the joint metals to form zillions of points of contact where the metals are forced into what they call "gas-tight high pressure contact points". This can in some cases cause some cold welding because the contact forces are so very high with pressures high enough to deform the metals so much. Solder can flow in and help exclude air - but then the air is already excluded from the contact points. You could make an argument that says that solder lowers the contact resistance, but then crimp connectors are usually for plug in or screw terminal connections away from the crimp, so you'd be improving something that doesn't affect the overall use. I've read hints that soldering heats the crimped joint after it's been made and the liquid inserts itself in the microscopic interstices and on cooling can help lever some of the gas-tight points open, and covers up the damage. Solder creeps and cold flows under mechanical loads, so it can both loosen the crimp and hide looseness til failure.
All that I've ever read on crimped joints says that if you're going to crimp a connection, (1) use the proper tool (2) do a good quality crimp, and (3) leave it alone; don't solder it. Of course, most DIY stuff never gets enough use to put this to a test.
• When the iron sits for a while, the tip can get cold. Right before use, feed a little solder to the tip and it will heat up.
Hmmm. Maybe. Depends on the iron and the accuracy of the thermal regulation. I'll have to try it.
• When you put the soldering iron away, tin it with a little solder to protect the tip.
GOOD idea.
Re: Soldering Tips and Technics by Dr Z
If we are to have a good mechanical connection then why do professional amp builders skip that part when wiring up tube filament strings?
Most just poke the bare wire into the tube socket pin and solder.
I saw a video that Gaby from Gabriel Amps Soundgarden used to have out there, gone now, that he showed how he trimmed the filament wires long and wrapped it through the tube socket pins several times for good mechanical connection before soldering.
Mark
Most just poke the bare wire into the tube socket pin and solder.
I saw a video that Gaby from Gabriel Amps Soundgarden used to have out there, gone now, that he showed how he trimmed the filament wires long and wrapped it through the tube socket pins several times for good mechanical connection before soldering.
Mark
Re: Soldering Tips and Technics by Dr Z
He advises to use a heatsink between the joint and the component body, then goes right on to solder a silver mica bright cap to a pot without aforementioned heatsinking 
Silver mica caps, modern ones at least, having something of a rep for being sensitive to temperature damage during soldering.
Silver mica caps, modern ones at least, having something of a rep for being sensitive to temperature damage during soldering.
My band:- http://www.youtube.com/user/RedwingBand
Re: Soldering Tips and Technics by Dr Z
A few extra tips.... Keep a wet sponge at the station, and wipe the tip often. A lot of the Wellers and the likes have a sponge holder included. I prefer the wet sponge to the "Steel wool" cleaners one sees nowadays. A tin of Weller tip cleaner also does magic. A quality plated tip should last a LOT longer than 40-80 hrs. unless they're used often at max. temp. Have a few tips of different sizes available - the larger the joint, the wider the tip...
A "normal" joint, like a 1/2W resistors and such, should be made in 2-3 sec's with som training.... Do practice, if this is new territory.
Also - if you're out for buying a new quality iron and willing to spend the money - the newer 80W versions are a heck lot better than a 50W version, particularly on larger components and joints...
A "normal" joint, like a 1/2W resistors and such, should be made in 2-3 sec's with som training.... Do practice, if this is new territory.
Also - if you're out for buying a new quality iron and willing to spend the money - the newer 80W versions are a heck lot better than a 50W version, particularly on larger components and joints...