First Re-Cap Success ! !

[65blkbkgt]

Well guys I finally took the plunge into my mid-60's car radio and was successful. It only took me 5 hours to complete. LOL! I just took it nice and slow and my patience was rewarded. All of the replacement caps were the one's mentioned in an earlier thread and they worked just fine. I'll be sure to keep the importance of the values in mind for my next project. I know one thing....that my soldering skills can use some refinement

Now I just need to find a good place to find reasonably priced caps for my next project. Any good ideas?

My many thanks to those of you who helped me along this uncharted path. Don't worry........you'll be hearing from me again soon...........trust me.

Hope you all had a great 4th!

Steve

[Perry Babin]

If you're struggling to get good solder joints, it's likely due to a poor quality soldering iron or poor quality solder. With a good iron and solder, you can learn to make good solder connections in less than 1 minute.

If you're in the market for a new iron... Weller WES51
Good quality solder... Kester 44. I'd recommend 0.031" or 0.040" diameter

To desolder, use a desoldering pump... Edsyn DS017 or use desoldering braid that's ~0.1" wide and has flux in it. Don't use the braid from Radio Shack. Every time I've purchased it, it's been oxidized and didn't work well.



For good quality caps, I'd recommend the Panasonic line of capacitors at digikey. I've used them for ~10 years and the quality is always excellent.

[65blkbkgt]

Originally posted by Perry Babin
If you're struggling to get good solder joints, it's likely due to a poor quality soldering iron or poor quality solder. With a good iron and solder, you can learn to make good solder connections in less than 1 minute.

If you're in the market for a new iron... Weller WES51
Good quality solder... Kester 44. I'd recommend 0.031" or 0.040" diameter

To desolder, use a desoldering pump... Edsyn DS017 or use desoldering braid that's ~0.1" wide and has flux in it. Don't use the braid from Radio Shack. Every time I've purchased it, it's been oxidized and didn't work well.



For good quality caps, I'd recommend the Panasonic line of capacitors at digikey. I've used them for ~10 years and the quality is always excellent.

I bought my 60w iron station on Ebay. It has a pencil tip which is already bent. Made in China (go figure). I'm using 60/40 Radio Shack solder too. Guess that's what I get for buying cheap stuff to begin with. I've already gone through one soldering iron (another Ebay special)......so I'm into soldering guns to the tune of around $50.00. Live and learn I guess.

Thanks for the suggestions. I appreciate it.....I've written them down and will check prices online on Thursday.

[variable]

What is the difference in using the good quality and bad quality soldering iron? They all heated up the same, aren't they?

[OzMikeH]

I think by good quality he was meaning to say "Temperature controlled"

Some irons have a heater that is always on, these often overheat the solder and burn the flux out.

A Good iron is temperature controlled, it's heater switches on and off and it has a temperature sensor of some kind. The light blue Weller brand have little magnets in the tips that stop being magnets at a certain temperature. Usually 700 degrees farenheit.

That doesn't mean you can't get good connections with an always on soldering iron. You just need to be a lot better at soldering.
Experienced people can get away with a cheap iron, beginners should buy a better, temperature controlled iron.

[variable]

The best one I can find so far is 'GOOT' brand - Japan made??
I've heard somewhere that overheated can cause damage to chips.. is this true?

[Perry Babin]

Things that make a good iron:

Cheap irons often have tips that oxidize and require that you sand or file them to keep it clean enough to accept solder. Good irons have tips made of multiple materials. The cores are often copper which is clad with a metal that doesn't readily oxidize. The tips on the weller WES51 last many months and they are on for 12+ hours a day in my shop.

Temperature control is definitely a plus. If you solder many different size connections, a high power iron with temperature control makes it much easier. Low power (non temp controlled) irons may be able to reach 700°F and may be fine for soldering resistors and transistors. IF you take that iron and try to solder together two pieces of 8g wire, the temperature will drop too low to do the job. A high power (non temp controlled) iron may be able to maintain a sufficiently high temp when soldering the 8g wires but when idle (or soldering resistors and such on a PC board), the temperature will be extremely high which would likely damage a PC board. A relatively high power temperature controlled can solder all of the above with virtually no change in temperature.

An iron with a variable temperature control is good when working with surface mount devices. In some instances, you'll need to remove large surface mount devices. To prevent damage to expensive circuit boards, you would want to use low temperature solder (like ChipQuik). For cheap circuit boards or circuit boards with very thin copper (1/2 oz copper), it's good to have a variable temperature iron so you don't cause the copper to delaminate.

Higher quality irons more efficiently transfer the heat from the heater to the tip. This is very important when soldering large connections. I've seen some cheap irons glowing red around the barrel but the tip wasn't hot enough to make good solder connections.

Good quality irons are generally made of better materials and last a very long time. In general, I only buy a new iron when in need another one or they discontinue parts for the one I own. I've had weller irons last 10+ years. Only the tips needed to be changed.


High temps can cause ICs to fail but failure is more likely with poor soldering technique and/or poor quality iron/solder. IF you have an iron that requires that you hold the heat on the IC for quite a while, the core of the IC is likely to get too hot. If you have a good iron, you can make the solder connections very quickly.

Many people think it's normal to have to hold an iron on a connection for 10 seconds for it to get hot enough to melt the solder. IF it takes more than ~2 seconds for the connection to get hot enough to flow the solder, there is a problem.

[65blkbkgt]

Originally posted by Perry Babin
Things that make a good iron:

Cheap irons often have tips that oxidize and require that you sand or file them to keep it clean enough to accept solder. Good irons have tips made of multiple materials. The cores are often copper which is clad with a metal that doesn't readily oxidize. The tips on the weller WES51 last many months and they are on for 12+ hours a day in my shop.

Temperature control is definitely a plus. If you solder many different size connections, a high power iron with temperature control makes it much easier. Low power (non temp controlled) irons may be able to reach 700°F and may be fine for soldering resistors and transistors. IF you take that iron and try to solder together two pieces of 8g wire, the temperature will drop too low to do the job. A high power (non temp controlled) iron may be able to maintain a sufficiently high temp when soldering the 8g wires but when idle (or soldering resistors and such on a PC board), the temperature will be extremely high which would likely damage a PC board. A relatively high power temperature controlled can solder all of the above with virtually no change in temperature.

An iron with a variable temperature control is good when working with surface mount devices. In some instances, you'll need to remove large surface mount devices. To prevent damage to expensive circuit boards, you would want to use low temperature solder (like ChipQuik). For cheap circuit boards or circuit boards with very thin copper (1/2 oz copper), it's good to have a variable temperature iron so you don't cause the copper to delaminate.

Higher quality irons more efficiently transfer the heat from the heater to the tip. This is very important when soldering large connections. I've seen some cheap irons glowing red around the barrel but the tip wasn't hot enough to make good solder connections.

Good quality irons are generally made of better materials and last a very long time. In general, I only buy a new iron when in need another one or they discontinue parts for the one I own. I've had weller irons last 10+ years. Only the tips needed to be changed.


High temps can cause ICs to fail but failure is more likely with poor soldering technique and/or poor quality iron/solder. IF you have an iron that requires that you hold the heat on the IC for quite a while, the core of the IC is likely to get too hot. If you have a good iron, you can make the solder connections very quickly.

Many people think it's normal to have to hold an iron on a connection for 10 seconds for it to get hot enough to melt the solder. IF it takes more than ~2 seconds for the connection to get hot enough to flow the solder, there is a problem.

I'm learning a lot here........

One thing I've learned is that the solder on these old car radios can be a bear to remove and require a VERY hot iron. I'm having to hold the iron on the joints for long periods of time (much longer than 10 seconds) to remove the solder even with the iron turned to the highest possible temp.. When I replace the old caps I'll forget to lower the temp. of the iron and the solder flows way too fast. It took me over an hour to remove a can (5 legs) and I was ready to throw my iron out the window!

On another note I just finished my second re-cap and double checked the polarity of each cap before soldering. All are good. When I went to test the radio once everything was put back together...........nothing. The radio had static before the recap and now it won't even power up. I checked all power wires and the joints seem fine. Not sure if it was a recap error on my part or what. I don't think it was a heat issue because I don't have to hold the iron on the joint for a second and the solder flows. Any ideas?

[Perry Babin]

A layer of oxide develops on top of the solder. This is a relatively good insulator (heat and electricity). If you add new solder to the connection and then try to remove it, it should be much easier.

[Clipped]

a good but cheap one is the 'Hakko' - "Presto'....its a gun style iron with a button you press to get the heat up, ceramic core with dual metal tip...around $20, i believe its king of the ghetto irons.

http://www.hakko.com/english/products/hakko_presto.html

it gets really hot when you need it to.