Soldering: Some Through-hole Counterexamples

 Here's the first row of pins by a beginning student.  Note that the plating on this board is pretty minimal.
Problem: Incomplete solder joint on D, E.
Cause: not enough solder fed into the joint.
Solution: Feed enough solder to make a nice Hershey's Kiss shape.

Problem: Middle joint flows into adjoining through-hole.
Cause: Too much solder, or soldering iron crossing two holes.
Solution: Make sure your iron is firmly contacting just one hole/pin, and don't feed too much solder.






After just a couple of rows, the joints are good, and look like Hershey's Kisses.









Problem: "Mushroom" Top, no connection to through-hole.  Look at the third from the right.
Cause: Not making contact between the through-hole and the soldering iron.  The plating is pretty minimal -- this is more symptomatic of Cheap PC board construction.  In our previous class we had some higher quality boards and didn't see this problem.
Solution: Bear down on the iron, to make sure there's a good concurrent touch between the pin and the through-hole.

And here's the same board, after cleanup.  Textbook job!  If you have a wedge or screwdriver tip, be sure the flat edge is touching both the pin and the pad.




blogodex = {"toc" : ["Soldering", "Soldering Class"]};

Soldering Class, Success!

The calm before the storm.  Would we be able to handle 24 students?  Would the power be enough?  Would the combined smoke of 24 irons set off the fire alarm?

There was a total of 23 people that showed up for class.  We set up the tables in two rows of three tables, four students per table.  Checking with our facilities people, we had two 20A circuits available.  We ran an extension cord from each circuit to the center table of each row, and plugged a power strip into that.  We then ran a power strip to each adjoining table, so that there was an outlet for each student.  Gaffer tape ensured that nobody would trip on a wire and cause calamitous injury to the other students.

Everybody did well.  We covered the syllabus in just under two hours.  There were lots of new Weller irons being taken out of the box.  I'm sorry I didn't use an Amazon affiliate link!

Much appreciation to Tom Duff (who has been fiddling with electronics longer than I have been alive!) and Josh Minor for helping out, and Shaun Brown and Victoria Yu for assistance in setting up.

Some notes to put in the syllabus:

• re safety: double check that the soldering iron aren't touching any power wires.  Especially important for non-station types.
• Hold the solder with enough length so you can feed plenty of solder quickly once you establish the heat bridge.

The Khan Academy-style class seemed to work pretty well.  Even with 24 students we were able to jump right in and start practicing each skill.  It was interesting to see the progression in skill as students would make several identical solder joints.  Especially on the PC Board soldering where you could look down the row and see the tangible improvement on each successive joint.

Hmm, how's your work? After a deliberate and careful examination the instructor exclaims, "A textbook job!"









blogodex = {"idx" : "Soldering Class"};

EastBay RC Guide to Soldering

Overview.

This are the notes and videos for a two-hour introductory soldering class.  It's designed to be taken Khan Academy style -- watch the videos and read the notes first, and we'll be able to spend the entire class on soldering.

• Hands-on class, two hours.
• Time: 15 minutes, intro and tinning soldering iron; 15 minutes, tinning wire; 15 minutes, soldering thicker wires; 10 minutes, soldering thinner wires; 30 minutes, soldering PCB; 10 minutes, heat shrink; 15 minutes, soldering pads.
• Watch the videos first, be ready to practice in class.

EastBay RC is a continuing work in progress. Let me know what you think!

Here's all the videos as a playlist.  Watch it in HD, it will be a lot clearer.  I'm trying to figure out how to specify that an entire playlist should be shown in HD.  If you know how to do this, let me know! Individual videos are down below.