7) Soldering Tools and Techniques 

I think you are misinformed. A Weller soldering station can be had for $100 nowadays, or even a Hakko is affordable. You would have learned this had you continued to watch the video. I'm not sure where you are getting the figure of $1,000. Learning to solder with a properly temperature controlled station, teaches you how it *should* work, and how *easily* it can be done. Advising a newcomer to purchase 3 irons of different power ratings, that are "temperature controlled" via a dimmer... well, this is a family show, so I'll keep it to myself. But I'll leave you to the process of swapping your plugs. Have a good day.

The $ 1000 example wasn't about Weller in your video. And whatever is in the video, you can't buy any new Weller with automatic temperature stabilization for $ 100, which you yourself know very well. It will be several times more expensive. Buying, for example, a supported station or, God forbid, a Chinese analogue is a very dubious decision for beginners. Then puzzle yourself over the question of why it does not work somehow, try to reanimate old stings or look for and buy new ones, and then a heater, etc. - it doesn't look easy. $ 1,000 is roughly double the price of the new Hakko station with cartridge tip technology. Depending on the tasks, you can use 1-3 soldering irons to complete all the soldering that such a station can do, and even more. It's funny when your $ 400-500 station can't handle some kind of cooling radiator, and you still have to buy that very simple 80-100W soldering iron to solder it. Or when you simply cannot solder something that requires acid, for fear of ruining the sting to your station, which you have been looking for for a long time and paid dearly. I am always amused by talking about temperature control, as if it were something that makes soldering in itself more efficient and safer. Ok, let's talk a little about this. Soldering temperature, for example 60/40 tin-lead solder about 392 degrees Fahrenheit (or 200 Celsius). Do you solder yourself or did you see someone soldering the tip at such temperatures? No, even at powerful 90-Watt stations, the temperature is set on the sting much higher, because the "thermostable" station cannot keep the temperature under load. Stations, where the sensor is not physically combined with the heater and is located far from it, especially suffer from the inability to maintain the temperature, which is why you simply cannot unsolder the smd from the motherboard or anything massive with them. The operator has to set 750-930 degrees so that such a soldering iron can finally warm up the heat-intensive area. Again, this is not easy for a beginner, and here we have many cases of overheating of parts and boards. It's like trying to open a tin can with a blunt knife - the likelihood of getting hurt increases. On the contrary, if you take an ordinary soldering iron with a massive heat-capacious tip, then the heat stored in it is often enough to warm up at an adequate tip temperature, where a "thermostable" soldering iron cannot cope.

Thanks Mitch. Glad you found it useful. Welcome aboard!

Good shit my guy!! You are on your shit never stop growing man

Lord all mighty...Do I MISS Radio Shack!

There are still Radio Shacks around. We have at least 2 around me in NC within 10 miles.

Good riddance. I like my hometown local electronic shop the best.

Adan M not when it takes 1-2 weeks for delivery and up charges for everything. Especially with the some times spotty customer service from 3rd party sellers.

So Coincidental I just came across a nearly full 8oz roll of 60/40. From Radio shack and felt some Nostalgia and the fact that same roll of solder is 4x more than is was back in 1989. I’m getting old .

+Jon Vannatto Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for subscribing too!

Awesome. Good luck!!!!

+Matt thanks glad you found it useful

Super, ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KQc7t6osM_s.html

Here: www.aliexpress.com/item/4000210604556.html?albbt=1&isdl=y&aff_short_key=uNb6i2f&aff_platform=true&albslr=238517275&src=RU-vid&tag1=solderwire

Glad you learned something - and glad I didn't come off as a know it all!

🤣🤣🤣🖌🎨🖼

I wish you also a Happy New Year... i'm 10 days late, anyway, enjoy happy soldering... cheers

The wire acts as a heat sink and protects the component and more control will reduce the chance for a bad joint. You'd have to have a pretty bad joint to be able to affect it with clippers.

Hello! It was nice talking to Callum and Mike - glad that brought you here. There's another amateur radio video in the pipeline, coming soon!

Thanks for the comment. I'll probably do more soldering videos related to surface mount and hot air / solder paste stuff. Stay tuned!

Not only vision impaired. I use a microscope for pretty much everything except thm. It's just the convenience of being able to see what you're doing.

They're called side cutters in some places.

@@Cheordig Toenail trimmers in other places.

@@3dloon430 lol remind me not to borrow any of your tools! 😉

Diagonal cutters

Flush cutters are able to cut flush to the surface of the board, while side cutters and toenail clippers can't

Rock More I’m sorry you had a bad experience. Definitely invest in a temperature controlled station and it’ll be like night and day.

@@AmRadPodcast Is that a temperature controlled or power controlled soldering station?

Mick Bones after a dozen or so solder joints you’ll get into the groove. Good luck!

@@AmRadPodcast that's the plan buddy. I've ordered 2 PCBs and a Weller soldering station from Amazon. This looks like a fun hobby to get into and I'll be checking out your videos several times for reference. A lot of people "talk" about soldering but you actually teach it. Thanks man 👍🏼

Just bin the sponge and use brass wool instead.

phillips4 Energy check out contextual electronics (Chris Gammell) channel (you prob already know of it.. but KiCAD is free and a pretty good place to start. Thought about doing a pcb series, but I’m a bit of a bull in a china closet when it comes to dealing with the UI. 😉

@@AmRadPodcast Allright thanks. Making a bee line to dig into this. If I can nail down creating my own custom boards it will open up a world of fun creative opportunities for my journey with electronics. Looking forward to going through your channel. Thanks much!!

through hole is easy try a 0402 SMD resistor without a microscope.

+MikesRadioRepair interesting. I stopped using alcohol 15/20 years ago and don't recall the concentration, but was lab grade anyhow. Side by side comparison showed the flux remover was better looking. Whatever works best! 😀

Lacquer thinner works best out of what all I’ve tried. I use a toothbrush and keep plenty of paper towels around to keep my bench clean.

In my workshop it's ipa all the way. I very rarely use RA flux though, I have a selection of fluxes with RA being reserved for dirty joints. 63/37 fast flow for anything new and occasionally a bit of future 315 to aid adhesion.

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Good luck!

And as a pry bar!

I’m not that familiar with soldering jewelry, but I suppose it depends on the melting temp of the solder. Mine goes up to 850F which is more than enough for leaded solder, not safe for jewelry, but as I understand silver solder requires a flame to melt.

This is an old comment, but in case anyone else stumbles on this video as I have: My girlfriend is interested in jewelry soldering as well, and the temps involved can be much higher than those used for electronics work (up to 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit or more). Soldering irons for electronics usually don't get hot enough for jewelry work. It's also important to note that tin-based solders used in electronics are NOT compatible with jewelry soldering. The solder can pick up the silver from your work piece and create an alloy with a lower melting point, which will weaken the work piece and make it hard to solder anything else near that area (I think it damages your soldering iron's tip in the process).

Should i repair my headphones using eutectic silver solder or normal solder will work fine ?

Q LMAO! The resistance of the solder is negligible, regardless of composition. And it can’t change the capacitance, since it’s not a dielectric (insulator) at all.

Those guidelines were probably made for a different time, when the leads were 2 inches thick and people didn't know which end of clippers to use.

Ducklord High-reliability electronics (aerospace, military, military, and to a lesser extent automotive) are still built to those standards. Those industries are FAR more conservative than regular electronics in every way imaginable, and that includes a) taking no chances on construction, and b) sticking with tried-and-true components LONG after those components stopped being used in mainstream electronics. (And no, in high reliability electronics, the choice of cutters and how to use them is not left to chance, either.)

Pros and cons, talking about hand soldering, repairs and prototypes, since SMD, pick & place and robotics have been the norm for the last three decades. Keeping the leads on while soldering reduces thermal stress on the part and reduces the chances of a bad joint. Both more difficult to diagnose and more likely to affect the end result.

Ducklord For mass production, pick and place/automatic insertion has been the norm since the 70s. But some components cannot be machine soldered, nor are one-off or small runs done by machine. Hand soldering is far from dead, especially in those industries. Not to mention that rework is done by hand. No idea where you got the idea that long leads are better for thermal stress: short leads let you get in and out quicker, reducing thermal stress.

@@tookitogo All components can be machine soldered. Many componts cannot be hand soldered, without unacceptable risk. You clearly have no experience, otherwise you'd know that thermal stresses are reduced by correct heat-sinking, which is a common process to do while hand soldering. A longer lead is a perfect small heat sink, and may actually have been factored in by the part mfg.

brass tip cleaner is for knocking of blobs of solder. i use it when cleaning smd pads by using a solder ball to pick up corrosion etc.

The reason the brass wool was introduced is because with the higher temperatures needed for lead-free soldering, the larger thermal shock of the damp sponge causes more micro-fractures in the tip plating, resulting in tips wearing out faster. (The thermal shock is actually what causes the damp sponge to remove the oxides, not the wiping motion itself.) The brass wool doesn't cause the same thermal shock, prolonging tip life.

J Bienick. I think my 72 years trumps your 52 years, however how long each of us has been saying is totally irrelevant. Your still wrong. But what can you expect from the colonies. ( no nastiness intended).

Kamil Pawłowski that’d be one hell of a soldering iron!

“Pcb fryer” brand? :-)