Soldering techniques

Betty Wont said:
I do one component at a time and ensure the pad has been wetted thoroughly on both sides of the board.
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This is how I roll... mostly... If I have a bunch of multiples that are spread out on the pcb like a handful of 10k resistors I will place... solder and clips them all at the same time... that way I'm not reaching back in the bin for the same value
 
I like to talk to my PCB letting it know that it will be violated shortly with parts penetrating its holes. A calm, reassuring voice is essential. Then I do one part at a time, patting and caressing the board the whole time. I never use sticky tape. It can appear demeaning to the board and I don't want that. And although I use leaded solder I never refer to the PCBs increased weight. That is the way to a sad, disillusioned PCB. Remember, we are trying to increase the board's self esteem, not destroy it. I also ask the board if it will accept the solder I offer. This decreases the risk of cold shoulders.

A lot of pedal builders are dismissive of the PCBs feelings. I suspect a lot of pedal malfunctions are down to this basic lack of respect.
 
Because of the Covid pandemic we still have a fair collection of surgical masks. So I use one when sanding the edges of Vero board with my belt sander. In fact when working with timber on my table saw or when sanding, routing, whatever I wear a surgical mask because I can get a better seal than with one of the plastic respirators and my glasses don't fog up. I'm done with inhaling dust of any kind. I used to work with jarrah a lot and it's a deep red in colour - a beautiful timber but a real bugger to work with. I use to blow my nose afterwards and turn the tissues black. I suspect that it wasn't doing me any good!
 
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I don't use through hole resistors that much these days but when I do I often top solder and then flip the board and touch up anything that didn't wet out fully on the bottom side. I stuff all the same value ones and then solder in most cases too.
 
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