This was posted to /r/amateurradio a couple of days ago:
In addition to this illustration, the post has a lot of good soldering advice, including:
- [Use] high quality solder wire…There are a lot of crappy unbranded/fake solder wires being sold on eBay and other sites that causes nothing but frustration.
- Before heating the part, you should add some solder on the tip so heat transfer is more efficient.
- Try not to breathe [the fumes] in. You can get carbon filtration fans on Amazon for less than $40. If you’re doing more than a few connections, you should be in an open garage or use some sort of ventilator.
WA2ONH Charlie says
The “Adafruit Guide to Excellent Soldering” Booklet is FREE and available at …
https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/downloads/pdf/adafruit-guide-excellent-soldering.pdf
It’s 39-pages downloadable PDF file of approx 2,639 kb . Enjoy
KD0JPE, John says
When the Air Force was training me to be a Ground Nav-Aids Technician, many years ago, I was taught to place the solder between the tip of the iron and the lead when first heating the joint. The instructor explained that the molten solder transferred heat to the joint much faster, because of the greater surface area of the solder pool, than just heating the land and lead with a small portion of the tip of the iron. It’s worked well for me ever since. I’ve never had to re-flow a cold solder joint.
John Smithwick says
Hi John
I was reading about you being at Middlegate LoranD in 1973.
I was there from 1971, when we installed the site, and reassigned to Koran Thailand. We’re you with Mark Fowler, civ Don Bartlett. Where did they go?
John Smithwick, USAF Vet,