Soldering techniques

[hamerfan]

I recently watched a youtube vid of an electronic engineer and hobby guitarist. He did a pedal kit from musikding with a to me strange soldering technique.
He stuck the parts thru the holes as usual but fixed them with a small soldering points on the parts side. He did that with all resistors and diodes in one turn and then he flipped the board. He cut all sticking out leads first and soldered them full. Then with the bigger parts in the same way.
I know, there are many ways to skin a cat, but here you have the double amount of solder points. Whats the reason to do it this way? May the double sided solder points have a better connection? Does look cleaner on the solder side without the bended legs? I read somewhere that there is a chance that the solder joint could break if you cut the leads after soldering as most of us do it.

 

[szukalski]

Just seems like soldering with extra steps..

I never bend the legs anymore. Just populate all the resistors, flip it over onto the table and solder them. Then on to the next height layer.. and so on. Cut my build time in half.

Each to their own though, if that’s what makes him happy

 

[hamerfan]

Thanks, the table trick is good hint. I hate this sticky tape technique - sometimes it falls off or some parts don‘t hold.

 

[szukalski]

Sometimes I put a piece of card over the board before flipping if there are some tricky parts, and every now and then I use blue tack for a component but it’s rare.

 

[andare]

Just seems like soldering with extra steps..

I never bend the legs anymore. Just populate all the resistors, flip it over onto the table and solder them. Then on to the next height layer.. and so on. Cut my build time in half.

Each to their own though, if that’s what makes him happy

Don't the parts fall out or move when you flip the board onto the table? I bend the legs a bit and stick the board to blue tack

 

[szukalski]

Don't the parts fall out or move when you flip the board onto the table? I bend the legs a bit and stick the board to blue tack

Sometimes there’s a little movement but nothing that I can’t adjust easily as I solder. I used to use a piece of card before I flipped but now I just flip and it works pretty well.

 

[Guardians of the analog]

I don't solder until the entire board is populated. I put the components in and slightly bend them legs and clip them. Everything stays in place. Then once I make sure there are no mistakes and all the right values are in, I solder away. The excess leads being clipped before solder means the odds of a cold solder joints or broken connection while trimming are eliminated. It also means that the iron is on for less time.

 

[hamerfan]

The excess leads being clipped before solder means the odds of a cold solder joints or broken connection while trimming are eliminated. It also means that the iron is in for less time.

Good point!

 

[Betty Wont]

I do one component at a time and ensure the pad has been wetted thoroughly on both sides of the board.

 

[steviejr92]

I do one component at a time and ensure the pad has been wetted thoroughly on both sides of the board.

This is exactly how I do it. Eliminates a lot of the room for error.

 

[Erik S]

I'm pretty new to the soldering game, and I've been picking up tips wherever I can find them. My board populating strategy comes mainly from a YouTube video by Jason at Fuzzlord Effects. Load parts by size, then pinch the leads together and solder from the outside. I've tried bending out and soldering from the inside too, but the pinch method is my favorite. Electrolytics I bend out though, otherwise they'll wick the solder up the leads since the spacing is so much closer.

 

[PunchySunshine]

He lost me when he put the pots in upside down then figured it was easier to dremel the PCB to fit the box rather than de-solder and put them in right side up.

 

[Alan W]

I’m in no rush. On a denser board, I work in sections. I place components (typical size based order) in, and use flat nose pliers to pull leads down tight and then out at about 45 degrees, then cut the leads so only 1/4 inch or so stick out. This cutting step doesn’t take long. It both leaves a lot more room for moving my iron around, and also removes a lot of metal heat sink—the leads heat up considerably faster. Then I go round the leads, soldering only one component lead at a time, to give it time to cool off. When all are soldered, I trim the lead stubs tight, and go round and re-wet everything.

 

[micmac]

Hi all,

I had a little bit of a "revelation" when I was doing the Thumb Sucker. I was reading the Valve Wizard documentation (Link to PDF) and it said this:

"Best soldering practice is to tack solder the component in place so it does not fall out, then snip off the excess leads. Then re-solder the joints properly. This ensures the cut ends will be fully coated in solder. Failure to do this will leave exposed copper that will oxidise over time."

And that's what I've been doing ever since. Row by row.

P.S.: I also think that your solder iron and the solder tip are important. I had a fancy "expensive" soldering iron (I guess from the 70 to 90€ range) and it was complete garbage. Then I found an older and cheaper iron (15€ to 20€) in my tools and that one just works splendidly, making the soldering a breeze.

 

[steviejr92]

Hi all,

I had a little bit of a "revelation" when I was doing the Thumb Sucker. I was reading the Valve Wizard documentation (Link to PDF) and it said this:

"Best soldering practice is to tack solder the component in place so it does not fall out, then snip off the excess leads. Then re-solder the joints properly. This ensures the cut ends will be fully coated in solder. Failure to do this will leave exposed copper that will oxidise over time."

And that's what I've been doing ever since. Row by row.

Yup solder one leg make sure the component is sitting correctly then solder the other. Its become standard practice for me. It helps with neatness as it allows you to reposition the component by reheating only the one leg.

One thing i recommend is jumping around the board and not soldering by row. Why? This allows the area you just soldered to cool down so your not applying too much heat in all in one area.

 

[jimilee]

I solder all the resistors and diodes from the top. Then I touch it up as I’m cutting the leads.

 

[spi]

I never solder on the parts side.

 

[steviejr92]

Same except for wires. Even the pots i solder on the other side.

 

[RetiredUnit1]

I do most of my soldering on turret boards making amps. It's not unusual for me to take a month or longer just to do the circuit board due to my schedule. Never thought being retired would be so busy, lol.

I put the resistors and caps into place, bending the legs and make one pass soldering after everything's in place. Turrets are funny things, they'll suck all the solder you can give them and start dripping out the bottom without ever filling to the top. So I just put enough in on the first pass to put some into the middle of the turret without dripping.

Then I mount the board into the chassis and measure all the wires and crimp into position (I use solid core just so this works). The wires are usually crimped *around* the turret while the caps and resistors go inside. Once I have everything into position I solder all of the wires. Then I make another pass to fill the turret up to the top. You have to be quick so as not to remelt the connections already made. This keeps corrosion out.

I haven't made enough pedals to come up with a system for that yet, so I'm taking notes

 

[ThePanda]

He lost me when he put the pots in upside down then figured it was easier to dremel the PCB to fit the box rather than de-solder and put them in right side up.

Holy crap!! This is worse watching it happen!

What if he created a short!