I'm a 71 year old female who has been soldering here and there for most of my adult life, I never claimed to be an expert. Thank goodness because I just learned a few things that made me realize that I've been doing a couple things wrong. Thank you for posting this video. I certainly do appreciate it because I'm going to attempt to replace the switches in my M570 Trackball mouse.
Be wary though he didn't mention that tinning the tip is essential before even using a new soldering iron and after each use. Using tip tinner rather than 60 40 solder can shorten the life of your tips
I have been curious how difficult soldering is, so I express my thanks for creating this guide to assist beginners. Soldering is definitely an essential skill to learn.
Terrific Video TY. Haven’t soldered in years. I just inherited the contents of an early Radio & TV Shop. It sold and repaired both. It’s been preserved and passed down over the years. The shop opened around WW II. Each item resembles a museum piece. Hundreds of radios & TVs. Tens of thousands of repair parts; bulbs, etc..+. It was my Grandfather’s shop. The shop was successful, but he pretty much kept it just for storage and repairs. He’d started installing TVs in hospital rooms. Back then patients paid rent to watch TV. He supplied thousands of TVs and collected rental fees. Here’s something shocking I learned. His TV rental customers were billed by mail. In the 1980s I asked him: “Of those countless customers how many never paid you?” He looked down as if he’d never considered such a thing, paused, then replied, “Honestly Bob, I know it was less than 5, I’d guess 2 or 3.” A different era. As a young man he tried to enlist but he’d been born blind in one eye. He spent the War learning the trade via a mail order correspondence course. He saved everything. The lessons and catalogs are so damn cool. There are even rolled up 6’ x 6’ schematics of early TVs. They’re beautifully artistic, I’m framing a couple. The family folklore goes like this: Grand Pap Ben built his own first TV. In fact the first one in the neighborhood. His parents, my Great Grandparents, had to point this amazing new invention toward the front porch windows to accommodate the overflow of outdoor curiosity seekers. I have his Shop’s working neon sign. The name of the shop circles a 2.5’ clock. We were fortunate, with five generations for years. Forgive me, I’ve gone on too long. I love him and miss him still. TY
I read the entire comment and I’m so glad my patience actually allowed me to! My ADD usually gets the best of me but ur little story was so cute and worth it🤗
What are you going to do with the stuff? I know guitar geeks would LOVE old transistors, oil caps, potentiometers etc. Do you think you'll ever itemize and sell? ⏚
share more about your grandads shop please, what i just read got me extremely curious id love to see or help you organise this group of items so other people can explore this collection, it sounds like his buisiness is also a it of a time capsule, from what year did he start trading and in what country, im from the uk, you should make a mini tv museum in honour of your grandpa ben but make it virtual, you can buy devices that scan 3d real world objects then you could upload high resolution versions of each item you catalouge hope to see this some day, let me know if you need advice or ideas i have an abundance of them!
Your first tip was crucial to me to learn to solder. I initially thought that you got solder on the tip and almost "painted" it onto the wires. Learning that you heat the wires so that the draw/wick the solder in place was a game changer for me and led to work that was very passable :)
A couple of comments that may be useful to newbies. Traditional tin- lead solder that is designed for electronics usage usually contains a rosin flux which is actually a pine tree type product, non toxic, and generally non corrosive and non conductive. The fumes from soldering this type of solder may be mildly irritating to your nose and throat, but the boiling point of lead is much higher than the temperatures you are soldering at and therefore any kind of lead poisoning scenario from the fumes is extremely unlikely, but you should certainly wash your hands after handling it. Lead free solder generally uses a very different type of flux made from organic acids, the fumes of which are extremely unpleasant to breathe and can be potentially toxic. Those specialized lead-free fluxes are also both conductive and corrosive and *must* be thoroughly removed from the circuit board or they can cause problems for the circuitry had some later date. Rosin flux is best dissolved and cleaned away with alcohol, but lead free type fluxes are often water-soluble and may or may not clean off easily with alcohol. Also note that lead free solder is more corrosive to the soldering iron tips than lead solder, partly because of the corrosive effects of organic fluxes and especially because of the higher temperature tip settings necessary in order for lead-free solder to flow well. Regardless of which type of solder you are working with, the soldering iron tips will degrade with time and use, so be sure to buy a couple of spares, and ideally you should buy an arrangement of shapes and sizes. For most electronics work I find that the simple conical, sharply pointed tip as used in this video is not the preferred tip shape. A chisel shape tip with a rounded, blunt end works best for about 95% of my electronics work. Get an assortment of tip sizes and shapes to experiment with. Note that high quality soldering tips are usually made of copper (or sometimes brass) that has been plated with iron or steel. Steel resists the corroding effects of solder and flux much better than plain copper does, and yet still wets to the solder well; copper is a better heat conductor, but plain unplated copper very quickly pits, corrodes and oxidises from the constant heat and chemical effects of the solder and flux. So many of the soldering tips are made in Asia nowadays, probably from a variety of recycled metals, that you might have to try several different brands and sources to get something that lasts a reasonably long time. I do like the brass wool tip cleaner shown in the video here; they work quite well and I have read elsewhere that the traditional wet sponge cleaning technique tends to cause micro fractures in the tip and shortens its life. (The springy brass sponge tends to fling little bits of solder around as you clean/wipe the tip, and so a holder with a hood over the brass wool will help contain the mess). You can use steel wool to clean the tip if absolutely necessary, but with proper tip care, maintenance and suitable temperature settings, steel wool shouldn't be necessary. By the way, the "best" way to turn the tip of the soldering iron so black and oxidised that it doesn't work well for soldering is to use it to melt and fuse plastic parts, repairing cracks and so on; a useful technique, but keep a sacrificial extra tip around just for that use. By the way, *never* scrape a soldering iron tip with a razor blade or take a file to it in order to "clean" it (as shown in some You Tube videos). Never! You will remove the steel plating and the tip will wear out that much faster. You may find it instructive to put a magnet to the soldering iron tip and see if it is magnetic to any degree. A copper or brass tip that is still plated will have at best a very mild magnetic attraction. If it's strongly magnetic then the chances are good that the entire tip is made of steel. If a highly magnetic steel tip still works well for your soldering purposes, that's fine, but generally copper or brass are better heat conducting materials for our purposes.... Regardless, lead-free solder often tends to make a more grainy, crystalline, dull looking solder joint, and the solder joint is likely to break down prematurely if exposed to extreme heat from a power supply resistor or regulator, and interestingly also tends to break down in extreme cold temperatures and form "tin whiskers", aka dendrites, that can short-circuit to adjacent parts or circuit paths and PCB foil traces (as polar explorers and NASA engineers have discovered, the hard way; Google "tin pest"). I personally prefer traditional tin- lead electronic solder with a flux core. Lead free solder doesn't wet and flow as well as lead solder, and is responsible for numerous devices breaking down and failing prematurely and ending up in the landfill. If you are just starting out learning to solder, I recommend that you start with lead solder, and only use a known, name brand product from a reliable source, such as Kester or Weller. Be advised that solder, or the flux inside of it sometimes seems to go bad if it is old and therefore freshly made product is probably better. There's also a lot of variation in lead free alloys and the fluxes they contain. Probably a good idea to buy at least 2 different brands of solder from different sources and see if one is easier to work with or gives you more consistent results. It is also a good idea to buy yourself some separate flux in paste or liquid form; but unfortunately I have seen cases where soldering flux that isn't actually designed for work on electronics is being sold to electronics hobbiists. Always check the label on the bottle to see if it has a precaution against using it for electronics work. The highly acidic ( and corrosive) fluxes designed for soldering copper water pipes are not the same as, and not interchangeable with, fluxes designed for soldering circuit boards and electronic components; nor can plumbing solder be used as a substitute for electronics solder. Be aware that there is a special-purpose "soldering paste" which is a mixture of powdered solder (typically lead-free) and flux, designed specifically for soldering microprocessors with miniature, nearly microscopic pins (or hidden "pins" on the underside of the processor chip), and therefore is not the same as plain soldering flux.
The bit about the fumes from soldering coming from the rosin and not lead was super good info. As someone who's allergic to half the known universe but wants to do soldering for projects it's good to know that A: I won't be giving myself lead poisoning and B: Any allergic reaction will probably be from a tree allergy lol
@@neonlights_12 , Here in New England I frequently see some kind of pine or fir trees on my walks in the woods that appear to be bleeding sticky sap down the side of the tree. I intend to bring some home and see if it will actually work as soldering flux! My best guess says that it will, although it's probably not a bad idea to dissolve it in a little alcohol to make it thin enough to run it through a filter and get out the bits of bark first, and then evaporate the alcohol off....🙂. Anyway some people claim to be allergic to the flux fumes, so just use a fan or a shop vac, or solder in a well ventilated place, and you should be fine. Have fun!
@@TD75 , Thank you! That is easily the nicest thing anybody's ever said about one of my comments. I am glad to have been of some help to people. One of these days I'm gonna have to post some videos of my own, but I am an analog guy in a digital world and not very skilled with smartphones and computers, so it would be a steep learning curve for me.
The tip about using the round chisel shape tip was very helpful. I tried the point tip first and I wasn’t have very much success making clean solder points, but after I switched tips it was much easier. Thank you!
Also, thanks Wermy for introducing me into this hobby. I saw the minty pi lite and I was really exited to build it! I enjoy watching your videos! Thanks
After watching countless soldering videos making it look easy, trying and getting no results whatsoever, this one finally gave me all the information I needed in a clear fashion. I was able to reproduce all the exercises, except that last board on board one, which I'm not interested in at the moment. I have several projects that I had been putting off because of lack of confidence in my soldering, that can now tackle. Thanks so much for this.
This is an excellent video and there just isn't enough videos about soldering. I know voultar has quite a lot of content based around soldering and stuff but, he never really goes into detail about all of the little stuff. You nailed this one, dude.
I love this channel. I got a soldering iron for my birthday and I love it. Thanks for the new hobby, wermy, and i hope you do well in these trying times.
I didn't know anything about soldering before your video, now I do. Thanks for a clear, easy to understand video that gave me a very good understanding of basic soldering! Great start for a newbie!!
Wow incredibly beyond helpful video. Cleared up decades of confusion in a few minutes. Thank you. I can’t wait to buy a soldering kit and get started on a couple of projects I’ve been putting off for years because of intimidation.
I've watched this video in the past, but must not have been ready. I'm back into having the need to efficiently solder, and re-watched this video. A lot of things made more sense to me this go round. Thanks for all the care in the instructions. You, sir, have earned my subscription more than twice over.
Ive always just winged soldering and learning through trial and error, but this definitely filled all my knowledge gaps. Love all the tips and tricks. Thanks!!
This was great! I've never soldered before and ordered an adapter board for my pi with unsoldered components, because I've always wanted to solder and was determined to do it myself. With your help, I got it right on the first try! Thank you. I can now connect Atari 2600 controllers directly to my RetroPie for a more authentic feel 🙂
I’m retired and just starting out to try to see if I can do some board repairs. This is by FAR the best and most concise tutorial I have seen explaining soldering. Nice job & thank you sir!
Thank you for walking through the basics!! I was struggling because I didn’t have an understanding of the basics. I successfully made my connection as soon as you explained the heating of both the items I was needing to fuse together!!
This is the best tutorial on soldering for those who know next to nothing about it. Every other tutorial for beginners I’ve watched assumed the newbie knew what tools and supplies were needed, they just needed to know how to use them. I appreciate that you explained what the specialized substances and materials and what they do in the process.
Thanks for the great video. I have been working on a drone project and have a problem with the solder not melting quickly on the motor controller. This video helped
Thank you. Excellent coverage. As a beginner, I feel much more equipped to get started. Also, your comment about not approaching it like cake icing is priceless.
i think a useful addition to this would be tinning the iron tip before actually using it to solder for the first time and re-inforcing tinning after you finish (in a production environment you tin much more often). Also static protection should be mentioned as it is not all that hard to ruin an ic with a static discharge.
I'm currently learning to become an electrical engineer (first year) and we just started with soldering, so this video is a great help! You're explaining everything very well and the fact that you're showing it is of great help. Thank you for the great video c:
WoW! I actually stumbled on this video. it's like finding gold on a walk to the park, your explanations are clear and precise and totally easy to understand. wish I had discovered you 12 months ago . Thank you
Excellent video, helped get me from never holding an iron to finishing my first electronics project. The one thing I'll say that I'm kinda surprised wasn't mentioned in the video and doesn't seem to be very frequent in the comments: keep things ventilated! The wisps of smoke that come off the iron are mostly flux fumes, and they can cause chronic respiratory issues (namely asthma). The lead in leaded solder is most dangerous if flakes of it (like, say, the ones that tend to come off the tip of your iron when you clean it) are ingested or inhaled, but soldering with it also produces some lead-based fumes that are equally dangerous with enough exposure. Make sure the space you're working in is reasonably open; open a door if you're in the garage, a window if you're in an office, etc. If you can, use a carbon-filter-based smoke absorber to pull those fumes away from your face and to keep the air cleaner. If you don't have one (or ideally even if you do), use a desk or household fan behind or to the side of you to push air away from you and toward the open window/ventilation.
Thank you so much, I had never done any soldering in my life and with your tutorial I was able to replace the Oscilating Crystal in my original NUS-001 Snes and It's back to working like a charm!
Really glad you mentioned rosin core solder. I've seen so many comments about soldering where people say you have to use flux. I worked for years doing electronic repairs on telecoms and radio gear and before that, electronic assembly. I never once used flux, because all the solder I used was rosin core. Even when I was trained in high-reliability soldering, we never used flux.
Thanks for the video. I've not used a soldering iron in 20 years, and with this handy video I did quite a fiddly ESP32 wiring job and it all came out great first time!
I’m looking to become a computer engineer, and this tutorial is going to be invaluable for me. I really appreciate you taking the time to go through every step of each type of connection. Keep up the awesome work!!
I was definitely an “icing squeezer” when I first tried, and was “taught”, to solder. Your definition of the correct way is perfect, and couldn’t be more simple. Yet, it’s misunderstood by so many. And just FYI, your guess for why some people even try to solder that way, is just lack of being taught (or even told) what to do properly. So yes, people that you see do it that way (since I was one of them) do it for the exact reason you wondered why, because we (or I...) just thought that’s what the people who showed me meant, not know that this is not the way to do it, at all. At first I used to wonder how the hell people did it this way, until I found out I was just doing it all wrong.
I wanted to do a single soldering project and I'm realizing over time (even before finding this video) that i need to keep buying more and more and more stuff ... geez lol
Thank you for an up-to-date tutorial. Need more time on solder iron tip selection, temperatures for size of connections to be made. Minimizing time soldering iron is on the pad as not to lift the pad. More heat = less time on scene. There's a fine balance. Flux is your friend. Use it! Practice with a practice board till you get the hang of it. replacing components can get expensive if you damage them.
This was super helpful, thanks for putting this together. I've wanted to get into soldering for a bit, and finally bought an iron recently. Still afraid to break stuff, but looking forward to finally trying.
Would love to see a crash course on Desodering! Seems fairly frequent for repairs or changes to fix old electronics. Seems common to add an extra "solder ball" to prevent static or something similar Btw Thanks! Great starter course
What I've learned to use is the desolder pump, look it up. What it basically does is, once you melted the solder you hold it near and you release it, causing it to quickly vacuum away most of the solder. Simple and cheap. There are obivously fancier tools and better tools, like vacuum desolder guns etc.
Fantastic crash course in learning how to solder. The information was conveyed in a very simple and easy to understand way along with visual instruction. Thank you so much.
I just replaced the faulty cord on my old Sony MDR-7506 headphones with your help, particularly the "wire to board" section of your video! I am forever grateful to people like you who offer advice and tutorials to those of us who can't afford professional repairs or replacements. Thanks a million!
for those who want to get into it but don't like soldering, I was the same but when I got a minty pi lite kit, I loved it. It may take a few times to get strong connections, but once you do it a few times, you will get the hang of it.
tip tinner actually shortens the life of your tips. best method to preserve your tips is to melt a blob of solder onto the tip just as it's cooling down so it covers the tip and forms a blob on the end. when you go to use the tip again it will be perfect.
I work on guitars (potentiometers, capacitors and switches) and amplifiers and had to learn this the hard way... your wire splice tips were great and turned out really clean, great video!
Quick tip: if you are gonna solder something new and the solder is not melting add a bit of new solder and then try to melt it again and it should work :)
Just wanted to say that this video is incredibly informative and well made, it deserves many more views! I will now go and attempt my first soldering exercise... :sweat_emoji:
For 8:30 another method is to use liquid flux to add more fluidity for the solder to melt along with through the hole when heated. Extra tips: 0) Wear eyepro; flying bits from snipping pieces, fumes, general safety. 1) Drag upwards when adequate amount of solder has been melted for a nice cone shape. Using liquid flux helps. 2) After solder has cooled, use a nylon brush plus 99% isopropyl alcohol to clean and shiny the solder. 3) Use the solder to cover the soldering iron tip, and dab into the cleaning container to apply a protective coating to the tip after you're done soldering. 4) Wash hands w/ soap and water every time you're done; don't want an eye infection from rubbing your eyes or face with dirty hands do you? *Correct me if I got anything wrong & I'll edit my comment.
Just what I was looking for! Can't get the solder melted when trying to put the wire in (only worked once, and was just thinking about getting some liquid flux). Is this usual or am I doing something wrong?
WHY DOES THE SMOKE ALWAYS FOLLOW ME!? Lol. I've soldered electronics, built my own quadcopter, fixed trailer wiring, indoors, outdoors, always the smoke seeming to go right for my face. The leaded solder is supposed to be easier to work with but just knowing there is lead in it has me always holding my breath.
Sryously The lead does not vaporize, as soldering temperature is far below its boiling point. The smoke is only the flux. It’s not good to breathe in either, of course. And no, it’s not your imagination: the smoke DOES follow you! Somebody analyzed it scientifically and was able to explain the physics of it. The solution is a solder fume extractor. You can get cheap ones from China.
The "squeezing icing onto a cake" part was the most helpful part of this video....THANK YOU for explaining!!! I couldn't understand what I was doing wrong...(I had watched a couple of other videos, which didnt explain what they were doing really, and I'm like, well that looks easy enough....NOT lol my connections never would.....connect....😂) Im so glad I came across this video!!! FINALLY it all makes sense....yay!!!
You should only get 63/37 solder, particularly for beginners because it has no plasticy state, its sometimes called eutectic, because it goes straight from liquid to solid and vice versa. 60/40 is close, and will work if you are a little bit more careful, but the easy/best is always going to be 63/37
Flux is used in for transfer of heat... use it sparingly but just enough. It’s a necessary evil. It leaves a sticky brown mess after soldering that can be cleaned up with 99.9% tech grade isopropyl alcohol and and acid brush after a few cleanings. The 91% from Walgreens works too but it’s whatever is available. Make sure you get under the components you solder. As far as tip maintenance... if the soldering iron is on for a few minutes while you figure out your next move... blob some solder on the tip. Have a “solder dump” (a small metal container with a DAMP paper towel)... when ready to use the iron again, give the iron a small tap into your solder dump OR use a lint free “tech wipe” to lightly brush the excess solder you blobbed on earlier to lightly brush into your solder dump. *recommended because you don’t want molten hot solder flinging all around you. Use a wet sponge to “ thermally shock” your iron and begin to solder by touching a small amount of solder to the side of it and make a solder bridge between the pad, your component and the fresh solder. Your solder joints should look shiny, smooth and concave. Minimal amounts of time should be spent on the board in regards to heat. Flux is key. Cleaning is key. 600 F to install max. 650-700 F to remove
really helpful tutorial, ive done some soldering, but not a lot, and im getting a new iron for christmas, so its really good to get these tips, especially the little details like how you arent supposed to put the solder directly on the iron, really helpful!
I watched this and a few other vids, n went from bird poop all over my boards to beautiful points in a few days. ... Thx so much! I still use flux on all my joins, n just spray it off after. Keeping my tip clean was NEVER a thought, but now I'm Capt Clean after every touch 🎉🎉 I even go as far as to mark my solder roll every 5mm with a sharpie to be sure I don't just feed it in like a madman 😂
You're a lifesaver mate! I had no idea smaller soldering wire existed, yet I've wondered why the new boards always have neatly soldered components, now I Know!
This was an awesome video with great content. I feel like the soldering work I did today for my 3D printer was a million times cleaner and considerably quicker. Ended up buying the 853D and it was so much easier to knock out my project. Thanks for all the great information!
This is going to be very helpful for me at work, as I'll be doing a soldering training course sometime soon. Thanks for the excellent explanations of these basic techniques!
I'm studying this in highschool right now and this video's been a great help in realising I solder in the incorrect way you described. Thanks for the advice!
I've been soldering everything imaginable in electronics from vacuum tube boat anchors to surface mount postage stamps going on 65 years. Your video is an excellent introduction to the art of electronics assembly and wiring. 👍
I was taught how to solder copper pipe when I was young and i picked it up for electronics in the last year or two. I still feel like i know nothing, so I absolutely love these types or informational videos.
Great video! You convinced me to finally learn to solder, just went all out and bought the 853d soldering station and some practice boards wish me luck.
Never soldered before, but the projects I'd like to do have some soldering in them and the cost of having others do it ends up being too much for me so I rlly appreciate you making this video.
I wasn't even looking to do soldering, but now I want to! Brilliant video, thank you , I am now inspired to try, but will have to think what to solder!
I'm getting shoved into soldering a bit abruptly (art tablet usb port disconnected interally), and this is so incredibly helpful. Thank you so much! I'll probably be back to look at more things as I get more adventurous 👀
Wow, short, comprehensive, and to the point. I've been soldering all my life the wrong way. You nailed all my questions. And thank you for the flux demonstration on the raw wires. Turns out, I've been doing it all wrong all along.
