The photo at right accompanied a reddit post with the title, “some things just can’t be replaced” appeared on reddit a couple of days ago. I immediately thought of the Heathkit solder spool that I used and re-used for many years. When the spool ran out, I would wind twenty feet or so of fresh solder onto the spool.
Comments on this post morphed from a discussion of soldering techniques to the demise of Radio Shack. Before that happened, however, there were a few good soldering tips:
I liked the RadioShack solder “pencil” tubes, which were just tightly coiled solder in a plastic tube. I would wrap solder from a spool tightly around a pen, slide it off, and put it back in the tube because it was just so much easier to handle.
I use an empty pill bottle, with a hole drilled in the center of the lid. I coil up some solder and put it in bottle and feed it out through the hole. I can control it with my thumb, it stands on it’s own for tinning the tip handsfree, and stores easily.
I wind new solder into my empty braid containers. They’re much easier in the hand, they keep the gray dust off my fingers, and they keep it from unspooling loose in my toolbox.
Do yourself a favor and don’t buy any more 60/40. Get some decent 63/37 from a manufacturer like Kester. Makes a big difference. 63/37 is eutectic so the whole mass melts/freezes at the same time, yielding fewer cold solder joints. At least that’s my understanding – I haven’t used 60/40 since I discovered eutectic.
I’m going to try the solder braid container idea and see how that works. Do any of you have a good soldering tip?
W8SFC~Steve says
I don’t do a large amount of soldering, but I prefer the thinnest gauge solder I can get because you don’t need a long dwell time under the iron to get a good result – and it reduces the possibility of cooking components nearby. Of course there are times you need a volume of solder such as when soldering components with bigger leads. Since I started using small gauge solder and fine point tips on my iron I have yet to burn any components. It also helps when soldering thinner hook up wire as you don’t melt the insulation if you are using minimal amount of solder, heat and time.
Dave New, N8SBE says
Don’t cheap up on your soldering iron. Beware of the $15 ‘specials’ that claim ‘temperature setting’ or some sort. They only have a simple control that adjusts the wattage to the iron. When you touch the iron to the joint, the temperature drops like a rock, and you end up with a cold joint. I had picked up one of these at a local swap, and ended up throwing it out, it was so bad, I couldn’t bear to give it to anyone else. I was looking for a small iron I could pack for club build projects, but it wasn’t to be.
Spend at least $80 or more on a good temperature controlled iron, that can keep the tip withing a couple of degrees of the target temperature. Using one of these is like night and day. You’ll wonder how you ever put up with anything less.
I’ve been buying all my soldering equipment these days from EAE Sales, https://www.eaesales.com/
My most recent purchase was a refurbed EDSYN 951SXe, https://www.eaesales.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=65_66&product_id=223
The one shown is a new unit. I got the refurbed one at Dayton/Xenia from EAE for less.
The Hakko FX888D is also very popular, https://www.eaesales.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=65_66&product_id=80
EAE will likely be at the Ft. Wayne show in a couple of weeks. They always show up with a lot of new and refurbed equipment, and lots of supplies.
Dave New, N8SBE says
Here are Bruce’s Top 25 Tips for Soldering:
https://www.eaesales.com/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=7
You can download it from there as a PDF, print it out and keep it next to your soldering station.
Betty Hunt says
Here a blog post that provides some guidance to beginners: https://www.makerspaces.com/how-to-solder/.