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I should probably post this at like diystompboxes or somthing. But that is too bad.

So. I have begun my journey of building/cloning/modding shtuff. I bought a bunch of components (enough for a few projects) and read up on pretty much everything.

Now, I have never soldered before sunday. I have watched and read countless instructionals, and like to think I know what I'm supposed to be doing. Unfortunately, the solder has decided not to cooperate. When I make the accual joint the solder forms kind of a bubble that just sits on top of the board. I figured this would not suffice so I read some crap and thought that maybe I hadn't cleaned the stuff enough. So I tried on a brand new board and rubbed the stuff down with alcohol wipes. Same problem.

I really don't know what to do. Damn my suckiness. Maybe it's the iron? (It's whatever piece of crap radio shack had out on the shelf) Maybe it's the solder? Err, I guess I'm just asking what possible problems could be...?

I could try to get a pic of my failures if it would help in any way.



HALPZ!

Thank you.

Getting good solder joints is tricky at first.

For what it's worht I've always used the cheap $8 radioshak iron. I've built tons of pedals now, and you have to buy a new tip every dozen projects or so, but it works.

Now, I guess all I can say is practice.

Basically what I try to do is take the very point of the soldering iron and stick it down in the little 'armpit' where the component lead comes through the hole. i try to keep the beveled edges not touching anything, so its jsut the point down in there. but it need sto be touching the component lead and the pcb trace. and then i start feeding it a little solder and hopefully it flows onto the pcb. s ometimes you got to kinda start to feed the solder onto the tip of the iron to get it melting at the first, but i dont think your supposed to do that. also once its flowing it might help to let the bevel of the iron tip cmoes downa nd touch the trace.

i think with some practice you will get it. just dont feed it too much solder because then it will turn into a big solder blob which might want to flow out to other parts and make a short int he circuit

Make sure you are using flux core solder or apply a thin coat of flux , paste I think is all you can get anymore, but the liquid ( which is outlawed last i heard) will give tremendous results. the Flux's only duty is to help the solder flow where you want it. that may help your solder keep from having the high surface tension and bubbling... maybe not , laughter , i haven't soldered but a few times in the past ten years, more laughter.

I'm new to this myself, but as mentioned above if I heat the lead and the socket in the board and then hit the tip of the iron with some solder it kinda wicks down into the joint when everything's up to temperature. Took me a few times but I'm cruisin' pretty good now.

Good luck out there!

This is pretty good I'd say:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_NU2ruzyc4[/youtube]

This is great -- I always thought I was the worst solderer on the planet. Nice to know I've made progress
The key is to make sure the parts you're trying to join are hot...touch the solder to a hot part (not the iron) and it will flow. Don't dip the iron in the solder and try to dab it on. You'll get the bubble if the parts are too cold too.
Get a decent heat sink too like an old haemostat so you don't fry your components.
You'll need rosin core solder, 60/40 Sn/Pb not the acid core stuff they use for plumbing.

I find desoldering to be a bigger PitA, especially RoHS stuff with the unmeltable lead-free solder. I have a couple of repair projects lying around because I can't get parts off the board .That stuff just sits there while everything around it melts.

Holee shit old topic.

Yeah I wound up almost getting it down, burning my hair once, freaking out and then burning my hand. And then burning my hand again.

I haven't soldered since.