10 Soldering Tips to Instantly Improve Your Soldering Skills 

For people saying I'm giving out bad information, these 10 (11 tips on the website) tips are based off speed, efficiency and results from soldering for the past 20 years. I have a degree in electronics engineering and my first job out of college was repairing surface mount components under a microscope at Nokia. My job for 3 years was soldering daily. I can comfortably say I've built over 100 quads. When you've been soldering for this long you find out what works and what doesn't. Yes in school they teach you to use flux but we all know what is taught in school is not always practical in real life. I'm not saying don't use flux, it's just not needed. Use a rosin core solder, it has flux in it. As for the tip, I'm just saying the cone tip is a more versatile tip. Yes, a wedge tip is great for batteries and motor wires but there are some jobs it can't do. Like if you're trying to replace a surface mount component on a vtx or flight controller. Try replacing a microprocessor chip with a wedge tip, you'll end up with solder blobs everywhere and kill the chip. A cone tip doesn't excel for any job but it can do all jobs.

Liked the way you talk. Simple fast

All great tips! Tip 11: Practice a LOT and practice on scrap electronics. Scrap and broken parts are plentiful! I found that because i sometimes go for long periods of time between solder work, it really helps to do a little practice before working on something, just to freshen up my skills.

The best video about soldering that I've seen.

Beautiful, I'm taking an 8-hour soldering class next Saturday and this will help me prepare, thanks

I'm new to this, and I was having a heck of a time! This man is to the point, knowledgeable, and experienced! He made all the difference for me! Thank you!

It has been decades since I was in electronics and electrical shop at high school. Now I am going to do some fine, small wire soldering to install a car audio system. I am so thankful that I came across your video. These ten tips to improve my skills are most definitely going to result in my success with this project that I am doing. Thanks so very much for your easy to understand instruction.

I saved this in my favourites a couple years back. Today I'm watching it as I'm about to solder. Thanks!

This is the best soldering instructional video I have ever seen. It's clear, quick and comprehensive. 5 stars!

I've been soldering for 20+ years, and you've helped me greatly. Thanks for the lead to that nice new iron too!

Great video. Saved to my favs playlist. As an amateur electronics enthusiast I have been doing a lot of things wrong that just made everything harder. Even if it worked it definitely looked bad and I even doubted how long it would last or how well it would perform. These tips have given me a lot more confidence and helped me increase my quality and speed.

Just a few tips: 1. the flux melts first cleaning oxidation so the solder can wet the pads when it melts. 2. I would use the larger tip for the larger pads and wire. 3. Don't mash on your solder wick. This is where you could use some external flux. Flux the pad and the solder wick, melt your solder and put the end of the solder wick into the melted solder. No pulled pads and it will wick really fast. Other than that I liked all your info regarding tools and equipment. Not bad info; it will get the job done. And, btw, I'm a master soldering instructor, been doing it for 40 years.

Very well done young man. I'm 66 years old and you were fast, yet accurate. Thanks

Not a RC guy but this is very helpful for anyone doing electronic work.

Really good tips. Should be shared in classes for those that teach.

I haven't done any soldering in years. Started feeling the urge to do a few projects during the quarantine. This video was a great reminder on the "little things" I forgot over the years. Thanks for posting!

Thank you for clear and to the point tips. I'm a single mom and I would usually ask my dad or grandpa how to do it, but now since they've passed on it's nice to find someone like you to help! Thanks again!🌴

Been soldering for a few years and came across this video. This is such a great video and perfect for getting a crash course in soldering! I never knew the fumes were toxic at all so I'm glad I decided to check this out, awesome tips!

Really appreciate this video as I’ll be doing my first solder in the coming days and needed to understand certain things before I start. Thank you

Loved your video. Zero BS, straight to the point, great tips. Too bad more youtubers don't follow your example. Thanks!

Instantly went from being discouraged, to being able to saunter thank you much love 🙏🙏

Best video so far, straight to the point , I wish I’d seen this before I worked on my DJI now ima go back and fix it thanks to you bro

loved the fact you didn't drag it out straight to the point and quick examples.......Thank You

This is the best soldering video I've seen yet. You showed everything we need, nothing we don't. You explained everything we need, nothing we don't.

Well done! I have to do a bunch of soldering today and I've never done it before. I feel alot more confident now!

WOW i just start soldering kit for hobby and i learn so much in 5 min. thats just make me like more this facinating new hobby.thank you , really appreciate

Loved the video man. Very professional , accurate, and simplified. Great job thank you.

Clear, concise, and no bs. Thanks for taking the time to make this video.

I've started to learn so this moment and your instructions and tips were perfectly clear and understandable. I highly appreciate the time you took to help beginners such as myself.

Awesome tips! I just started soldering a few weeks ago and I wonder why I did not pick up this skill years ago. Thank you for the tips they where very helpful!

I'm impressed. I'm new to soldering and found this video extremely helpful. Thanks!

Best and simplest of all the solder how-to videos I've watched! Especially appreciate the "tin the pad, then insert the wire into the solder;" great tip!

A big thank you. This is the best 6 minutes I have spent on the internet. I have looked at other postings on this issue. The others waster time talking about other subjects.

Great tips, all of which I've learned the hard way. My favorite one is high heat quickly, not low heat slowly, escpecially when soldering aluminum wire. If one wants to get into soldering, I'd suggest to get a rework station. It doesn't have to be a real high priced one, x-tronics 4000 series is a real good unit for the price and very reliable. Learning to use a hot air gun could prove to be just as valuable as learning to solder... they go hand in hand in this field.

High heat low amount of time is the best advice I’ve heard in years

Your thumbnail image for this video is absolutely brilliant.

Everyone else was over-explaining how to solder. I learned more from you being straightforward and simple than from the other 8 or so vids where the people were bloviating and showing off how much they knew. Great vid! 🎉

Thank you for sharing your expertise. I was always kind of scared to try this but wanted to be able to so this was a big help.

Very clear presentation. Great editing, camera work, and audio. Thanks for posting, man!

Awesome, improved my soldering skills

This is THE VIDEO that I tell others to find if they are new or haven't soldered in a while. Thank you for making this!!!

Thank you much, very understandable , short and to the point. i'm ready to start soldering.

This is the soldering video I didn't know I needed. Thank you!

I am just learning this stuff. This guy's presentation was clear, quick, direct and easy to understand ! Thanks.

To the point!! Not alot of filler just good fast tips!! thank you so much, if only most youtube vids were like this prioritizing content over length!

All right, it's 2:39 in the middle of the night! Time to get some soldering done!

Good job, I have been soldering for 48 years, and these tips are great to get the new people started, I learned in high school in my electronics 1 class, and this is what I was taught, except for the ventilation, we did not care back then.

I like this guy! Don't know much about this stuff, but he breaks it down fast enough to get you the gist without filling you with needless crap.

haven't started soldering yet, but the tips were easy to follow, clear visuals, not too much jargon. Thanks!

This is what all instructional videos should be like. It was quick, clear, knowledgeable, and valuable. The visual examples were good and matched what you were saying in the audio. Now show me how to solder tabs onto a very small lithium coin battery. It's a 1216.

I'd been trying to properly solder wires to the heatbed of my 3d printer for like two hours when I found this video. After watching and using these tips, got it on the very next try. Thank you!

Thank you for this video. You speak clear, fast enough, and you do not fill up video time with meaningless verbiage. Thank you!

Well said, short , sweet and direct to the point makes learning new skills enjoyable and achievable.. thankyou

i solder a lot on a daily basis for my electronics hobby. Have done for many years, yet your video was very informative and well presented. I subbed.

Hello, I know it’s been a while since you posted this video. I’m just getting into soldering. Your tips were point on and to the point. Very clear explanation. I very much appreciate this video. I jumped all in and bought a hot air/soldering iron/ bolt meter station. I repair electronics but have lost so much business because the lack of soldering knowledge. You’ve explained your team tips perfect. However you left one very important detail out. Being a person with bad eyes I know I’ll need to purchase something like jewelers glasses. But what you’re wearing looks like they work really well. What are they called and where might I purchase them? Thank you so much for your awesome video! You have a new sub!

That tip about pre tinning is gold. Thanks a lot!

I’ve just started soldering some amplifier kits, so this is very helpful. Well done very well presented.

Thank you Tyler Durden it was very helpful

Some more tips 1) there is nothing like excess flux, even if your solder wire is fluxcore use external flux 2) if solder joint is not shiny reflow it , it will break on worst possible time ( thats where flux comes handy ) 3) pay extra attention to ground pads they will suck all the heat because of the area and produce cold joints

I’ve never soldered anything in my life. But I’m feel very confident going into my first attempt. Thanks! Highly informative!!!!

I'm just learning to solder so all ten of these tips were very helpful. Thank you for making this video.

This video just opened my eyes and my mind.

I have been doing it all wrong - thanks for the tutorial. Looking forward NOW to completing my project

He pronounces solder correctly! 10 points!

Thanks man 850F turned out to be the perfect temp for me with my 18v Ryobi soldering iron. So easy now!

The best tip was right on your face, the magnifying visor is a tremendous help with small soldering.

Am I the only person that gets an unusually good sense of satisfaction from a soldering well-done? I wonder why that is?

Out of all of the videos I just watched, this is the best so far. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, whoever doesn't like it just keep moving and stop criticizing people.

My man this is a great video. It is so concise I couldn't believe it was only ~6 minutes. I learned so much I felt it had to have been longer. Thanks for this.

Thanks for the tip on pre-solldering the wire and the pad~! I'm getting into Arduino and am pretty lousy at soldering, and I'm sure to put these tips to work~!

I'd like to add that it is important to use good quality solder. I bought two different spools of solder on Amazon that were junk, didn't flow well into braided wires, then bought some Kester, wow what a huge improvement. Also on large wires it is good to flatten braided wire then solder onto a large pad so it makes contact with a larger surface area thus able to transfer more current plus be a stronger physical connection.

perfect way to put an engineer on any level at ease with soldering - concise and in plain terms

Getting ready to replace some volume, tone pods and pickup selector switches. Really appreciate you sharing your knowledge.

I'm not interested in drones, but recently got a job involving lots of small, tight solder joints. These are great tips!

Awosome tips for beginners tnx bro🤗

Clear instructions and straight to the point. Excellent video. Thank you.

Thank you so much for these tips, I was attempting to make some RCA interconnects and was having a big problem with my soldering. Now that I watched your video, I see where I was going wrong.

Great tips. One thing I do is use heat sinks on the wire to keep the solder from wicking up underneath the insulation of the wire. Good job. And as someone mentioned, you got it done in 5:45. Straight to the point! Thanks.

i loved the glasses thanks for the tips.

I watch a lot of solder videos and this one put the icing on the cake, thanks

Thanks bro simple and straightforward you helped me more than those 10 minutes then anyone else did in the last year soldering

dude thank you very easy to do things when u have the right instructions and i have wicked bad adhd so well done man, if i learned from you then anyone can. 2 of your tips solved my problem as ive never tried to solder until this year, i wasnt tinning wires and pads before trying to join them also i wasnt aware of the teperature needing to be high for a sort time those 2 things will totally make the guitars ive built work perfectly. again thank you, the four other videos i tried first just made me mad.

Excellent advice. I know this is going to immediately improve my soldering. Thanks

These are great tips and very helpful for my ARRIS M700 custom build. Tinning, high heat, and low time of contact is key. Thanks!

Thank you. I literally watched your video and used a Radio Shack soldering iron I bought over 10 years but never used. I repaired a lighter car plug. I also had rosin core solder I bought with the soldering iron. Thank you. Thank you.

I worked in a soldering factory for a few years. We used rosin core Kester ,the standard stuff. We didn't use soldering paste like I was instructed. We did on occasion use liquid flux when we used old oxidized inventory. At home I use rosin core and dip my tip in paste before every third or fourth cleaning wipe of the sponge. Works great. BTW, factory soldering is done in a very different way than "the right way". The iron is held in a jig in many cases, one moves the parts and solder instead. Speed and good connection not pretty. Speed, excellent connection AND pretty get a raise !

thank you very much, this is helpful

This dude set me straight, awsome directions and 2 the point...1 of the best Y.T. videos ever

Really appreciated this video, especially the visuals you added. I had no idea how to use a soldering wick until I saw it here. Thank you.

The thumbnail is what made me watch your video. Just kidding. Honestly though, great tutorial and thank you for taking the time to record, edit and post it. Cheers brother

I'm just learning how to solder; this video is a GOLDMINE. thanks so much for sharing your knowledge!

Short, sweet, to the point. Thanks for the tips. New to doing this hobby and it helps a lot!

I think the two most important hints for me are high temp for short time (versus the opposite) and heating the pad rather than the solder. I guess it seems obvious in hindsight but good to have that reinforced. I work with JFETs and other sensitive discrete audio gear so this is key.

Nice... Thanks again! Heats little high from what I was told. 650 f has always been good for me But your experience is far better than mine. I'll try higher heat next time.

This really helps I been learning how to solder I been watching other videos but none of them helped except this one thank you this really helps

Thanks. Been soldering 40+ years with issues. Now learning what I missed all those years.

Thanks for the gases tip, I wouldn’t have known otherwise!

Thanks!! I just bought a soldering iron to save money over someone replacing my guitar pickups .

Man this is the best video I've seen for beginner soldering. Helped me out a lot, thanks!

I haven't soldered since I was in the Marine Corps nearly 40 years ago. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Take care!