more soldering help please - Page 3

nobody special · 5th June 2003, 03:22 PM

I agree with these guys... sounds like you need to clean your PCB. You aren't using the water-washable flux solder are you? I hate that stuff!
As far as tinning goes, you have to do it as the iron is warming up, or it won't take. Keep rubbing a piece of solder on the tip as it is warming up. Just as it starts to melt is when you get the best tinning. It dosen't sound like your iron, if it is taking to the resistor.
ANother problem is if the board has too much copper on one area with no thermal relief. It will heatsink your iron and cause it to not take solder onto the PC board. I ran into this recently with my AlephX when I was using unetched PC boards for the bus between capacitors. I actually plugged my iron into my Variac to up the voltage and get some more heat. Then it was just a matter of waiting to get the board hot enough to take solder(requires some patience).
Clean the pc board with a scotch-brite. Sounds like that should probably do it!

nobody special · 5th June 2003, 03:25 PM

Oh, and one other thing it could be is that your heating element or cord is going bad. That has happened to me. I had one iron I used that had a loose plug from the base to the iron, and it would heat, but since the connection was intermittent, it would never get up to a usable temperature.

timsch75 · 5th June 2003, 04:07 PM

I'll try cleaning the PCB with scotchbrite. It is a new board that was taking the solder very well initially. I don't see how some tracks will be different than others. It may be that the tip got corroded and this layer of corrosion did not allow the copper to get hot enough. I posted on Madisound a while back on this and someone suggested that I get some solder flux to dip the iron into in order to remove the corrosion. I bought some liquid flux to dip into, but this didn't do the trick. I scotchbrited the tip, but this didn't do enough either. The layer was still visible. Finally i took a fine file to the tip, but have yet to try it out since then. Hopefully it will work as it did when new (not that long ago). The more I think about it, if the fine tip was not transferring heat due to corrosive buildup, that would explain my problems pretty well.

tim s

5th June 2003, 03:22 PM	#21
nobody special diyAudio Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: USA	I agree with these guys... sounds like you need to clean your PCB. You aren't using the water-washable flux solder are you? I hate that stuff! As far as tinning goes, you have to do it as the iron is warming up, or it won't take. Keep rubbing a piece of solder on the tip as it is warming up. Just as it starts to melt is when you get the best tinning. It dosen't sound like your iron, if it is taking to the resistor. ANother problem is if the board has too much copper on one area with no thermal relief. It will heatsink your iron and cause it to not take solder onto the PC board. I ran into this recently with my AlephX when I was using unetched PC boards for the bus between capacitors. I actually plugged my iron into my Variac to up the voltage and get some more heat. Then it was just a matter of waiting to get the board hot enough to take solder(requires some patience). Clean the pc board with a scotch-brite. Sounds like that should probably do it! __________________ Steve

5th June 2003, 03:25 PM	#22
nobody special diyAudio Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: USA	Oh, and one other thing it could be is that your heating element or cord is going bad. That has happened to me. I had one iron I used that had a loose plug from the base to the iron, and it would heat, but since the connection was intermittent, it would never get up to a usable temperature. __________________ Steve

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5th June 2003, 04:07 PM	#23
timsch75 diyAudio Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: austin, tx	I'll try cleaning the PCB with scotchbrite. It is a new board that was taking the solder very well initially. I don't see how some tracks will be different than others. It may be that the tip got corroded and this layer of corrosion did not allow the copper to get hot enough. I posted on Madisound a while back on this and someone suggested that I get some solder flux to dip the iron into in order to remove the corrosion. I bought some liquid flux to dip into, but this didn't do the trick. I scotchbrited the tip, but this didn't do enough either. The layer was still visible. Finally i took a fine file to the tip, but have yet to try it out since then. Hopefully it will work as it did when new (not that long ago). The more I think about it, if the fine tip was not transferring heat due to corrosive buildup, that would explain my problems pretty well. tim s