Soldering / Wiring: How Did You Get Good At It

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Lost In Autumn
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Re: Soldering / Wiring: How Did You Get Good At It

Post by Lost In Autumn » Wed Dec 01, 2021 3:02 am

I frequently struggled with soldering, too, until I got a decent soldering station. I have this Weller model and it has made all the difference: https://www.amazon.com/Weller-WLC200-St ... g-Station/
I get my wire from either Stew Mac, Philadelphia Luther Supply or MLaval.
one thing that I'm surprised nobody has pointed out: never use acid core solder. it will cause corrosion.

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Re: Soldering / Wiring: How Did You Get Good At It

Post by MKR » Wed Dec 01, 2021 4:42 am

someone said it earlier it can't be understated... practice is key. I remember the first time i tried it the process and results were super clunky. I remember burning part of the pickguard. it just seemed way harder than i thought it would be.

Over the years i replaced enough parts (jacks, pots, pickups, switches) that my work is pretty tidy now. It definitely gets easier the more you do it. Also i remember watching a lot of youtube videos in the process of learning. That helped.

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Re: Soldering / Wiring: How Did You Get Good At It

Post by jorri » Wed Dec 01, 2021 4:55 am

Agree with all this here. I built many pedals and sold them, although I am hardly gifted at it .

-better irons with a suitable tip size for the job improve immensely. Also the heat power can be beneficial, if you are holding it against a component for long trying to heat solder, thats not good and is why short and hotter might be better

-CLEAN irons help. The flux and tinning help. If its really gunked then more drastic measures like fine sandpaper as solder will simply not adhere to oxidation- which happens mostly when its not well tinned. I use up as much solder tinning it so it doesnt start gettin brown.

- tinning is needed for conducting heat too. Heat the component and just drop in a bit of solder. Ensure its hot enough, not a blob and has dropped its viscosity to gel well to the pad and legs of component. I heats too low as first point this can take longer, the component conducts to much and things like melty switches and fried IC happen in the extreme case.

-a meter just makes things easier. Being meticulous means not debugging as much. Debugging is the job that has about 5:1 effort for whats often simple mistakes in the first soldering process.

*Probably adding repetition to a thread.

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Re: Soldering / Wiring: How Did You Get Good At It

Post by Scout » Wed Dec 01, 2021 7:07 am

Replace the tip if it won’t take solder to be tinned, I done think you can repair it at that point.
Tips are cheap, again the key is to have a properly tinned tip and you must tin it as soon a it comes to temp
and keep cleaning and tinning between soldering, it makes all the difference.
Lead solder will flow sooner than silver solder, it will allow you to see a good shiny solder joint
when staring out. Once you get a couple of nice joints you’ll see.
The larger the piece the longer you need to hold heat to it, not necessarily a hotter tip, just more time
Try practicing on a spare pot, pretin any wires and see if you can get a good joint on the back.
I agree with timtam on the old school habit of grounding guitar circuits to the back of tone
and volume pots, absolutely archaic buts it’s good practice on heat control.
Too much heat will destroy delicate parts.

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Re: Soldering / Wiring: How Did You Get Good At It

Post by Dr Tony Balls » Wed Dec 01, 2021 7:54 am

How did you get good at it. Practice. I've built like 900 guitar pedals and 60 amps. Getting better all the time!

What kind of tools do you need. I have a cheap iron and some non- lead solder. That will work fine. If you're soldering to the backs of pots for grounds you might need a more powerful iron, but this is enough to get you started.

Do need a solder station to do basic guitar wiring? Nope. The nicest thing a station usually does, imo, is provide a tray for a sponge thus getting you in the habit of cleaning the tip of your iron frequently.

Do you use solder wicks or suckered? Sucker. Specifically the Engineer SS-02, which i've found to be vastly superior to other contenders.

What wire do you for guitars? Where do you get that or any of this? Whatever, really. People like stuff that looks classy, but any 18-22 AWG stranded hookup wire will do.

Do you need helping hands to get anything done at all? Nope. Never used one.

Are there exercises I can do to practice? Sure, just solder some stuff. Get some perf-board or terminal strips and wire and practice making good joints. The more you do, the better you'll get (see answer #1).
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Re: Soldering / Wiring: How Did You Get Good At It

Post by fuzzking » Wed Dec 01, 2021 12:18 pm

I always have to use one of these because of bad eyesight and general clumsiness Image

but managing that thing is a task in and of itself :P
Nobody exists on purpose.

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Re: Soldering / Wiring: How Did You Get Good At It

Post by mackerelmint » Wed Dec 01, 2021 7:21 pm

fuzzking wrote:
Wed Dec 01, 2021 12:18 pm
but managing that thing is a task in and of itself :P
True story!
This is an excellent rectangle

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Re: Soldering / Wiring: How Did You Get Good At It

Post by luau » Fri Dec 03, 2021 6:39 am

Dr Tony Balls wrote:
Wed Dec 01, 2021 7:54 am
Do need a solder station to do basic guitar wiring? Nope. The nicest thing a station usually does, imo, is provide a tray for a sponge thus getting you in the habit of cleaning the tip of your iron frequently.
Agreed. I bought a Hakko for about $100 some time back and the best thing about it is the sponge and brillo right there ready to be used.

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Re: Soldering / Wiring: How Did You Get Good At It

Post by Dr Tony Balls » Fri Dec 03, 2021 6:58 am

luau wrote:
Fri Dec 03, 2021 6:39 am
Dr Tony Balls wrote:
Wed Dec 01, 2021 7:54 am
Do need a solder station to do basic guitar wiring? Nope. The nicest thing a station usually does, imo, is provide a tray for a sponge thus getting you in the habit of cleaning the tip of your iron frequently.
Agreed. I bought a Hakko for about $100 some time back and the best thing about it is the sponge and brillo right there ready to be used.
I have the same station and it's brilliant. I had a Weller one (the orange one) for a while before that and it was a great starter but the hakko was a great step up.
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Re: Soldering / Wiring: How Did You Get Good At It

Post by Fiddy » Fri Dec 03, 2021 9:07 am

I also have the same one. A good soldering iron will avoid lots of unnecessary headaches.

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Re: Soldering / Wiring: How Did You Get Good At It

Post by fisonic » Sun Dec 05, 2021 4:08 am

Image

One of these works better, than your lungs, at getting rid of toxic fumes also.

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Re: Soldering / Wiring: How Did You Get Good At It

Post by adamrobertt » Sun Dec 05, 2021 7:27 am

I have always found those things to be almost literally useless, but maybe I've never found a good one.

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Re: Soldering / Wiring: How Did You Get Good At It

Post by seenoevil II » Sun Dec 12, 2021 2:48 pm

Small update.

I've ordered a few things after some digging. This topic was surprisingly opaque to research given how enthusiastic the electronics community appears from the outside.

I dropped $60 on an X-Tronic solder station with control up to 75 watts, multiple tips, helping hands, Brillo pad, solder, and silicon work pad.
https://www.xtronicusa.com/X-Tronic-Mod ... p228042958

It was recommended in a NYT round up of soldering gear, so, hears hoping.

And a further $20 on AWG 22, tinned copper, PVC insulated, hook up wire from Digikey.

I'm waiting for shipments now. In the mean time I've shielded my VMJM project, and mocked up the CTS pots, Switchcraft jack, and some Korean made toggle. I'm gonna nix the Rhythm circuit.

Now we wait.

Edit to add:

Sitting here reflecting on how I've been trying to solder with a tip that was bare copper for years. What I find remarkable is how I've actually managed to make quite a few things work this way. I've repaired XLRs, I've wired up speak cabinets. It seemed that I'd sand down to shiny copper metal, then try to tin said metal as quickly as possible, but soon enough, there would only be this tiny sliver of the tip that could run the solder. So, I'd do the the thing that you're never supposed to do and run the solder directly with the tip, then touch it to the work. Now, it could be that literally all of my solder joints are cold, and are only being mechanically attached via the solder. But, I also think it might be possible that the running solder let the heat conduct into the components and they became attached that way? IDK. That old iron will still be good for pulling frets and burning off warts.
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Re: Soldering / Wiring: How Did You Get Good At It

Post by øøøøøøø » Sun Dec 12, 2021 5:07 pm

I’d wager that once you get a proper decent soldering iron and some 63/37 tin/lead solder like Kester 44, you’ll find that all the difficulty melts away.

If really trying to stick with lead-free, the good iron becomes even more important.

The Hakko FX888 is worth every penny and will last you a lifetime.

It’s not exorbitant for a quality tool, but if you need more affordable options check back and we can come up with something to help you.

Edit: the X-tronic station you posted about above is probably totally fine, and will most likely be a big upgrade.

I also recommend the Soldapullt brand of vacuum desoldering pump…it’s the cheapest solution I’ve found that actually consistently works very well. Avoid the knock-offs

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Re: Soldering / Wiring: How Did You Get Good At It

Post by andy_tchp » Sun Dec 12, 2021 5:51 pm

seenoevil II wrote:
Sun Dec 12, 2021 2:48 pm
Edit to add:

Sitting here reflecting on how I've been trying to solder with a tip that was bare copper for years. What I find remarkable is how I've actually managed to make quite a few things work this way. I've repaired XLRs, I've wired up speak cabinets. It seemed that I'd sand down to shiny copper metal, then try to tin said metal as quickly as possible, but soon enough, there would only be this tiny sliver of the tip that could run the solder. So, I'd do the the thing that you're never supposed to do and run the solder directly with the tip, then touch it to the work. Now, it could be that literally all of my solder joints are cold, and are only being mechanically attached via the solder. But, I also think it might be possible that the running solder let the heat conduct into the components and they became attached that way? IDK. That old iron will still be good for pulling frets and burning off warts.
Well, cold or 'dry' joints will hold components together (and conduct) just fine. Right until they don't. :)

Meanwhile a well executed joint will generally outlast us all/civilisation (notwithstanding poorly designed/engineered PCB solutions in certain amplifiers).

You won't believe how easy it is to do properly with the new setup. Enjoy!
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