Soldering guide

[josh_smaxx]

I was just looking through some of my old, backed up documents (for a bit of nostalgia, yeah) and found this that i wrote a few years ago, might come in useful for someone out there.

Then again i might of already posted it a while ago, who knows...

Soldering guide for beginners - part 1

This guide should answer any question you have about soldering in the RC hobby, it will serve as a step by step guide to solder and walk through all the equipment needed to solder properly.

Safety
This isn’t the safest part of the hobby by all means, it involves melting solder at over 400° into a liquid and applying it to batteries (in some cases) that with excessive heat can vent harmful gasses and chemicals and in some extreme cases, explode. But don’t let this put you off, if take all necessary safety precautions specified in the products and don’t do anything silly then nothing should go wrong, if finding you are unable to apply solder to cells in less than 10 seconds, or solder them together, then cease heating and leave cells to cool down or it could be dangerous. For best safety in the work area it would be a good idea to purchase a soldering mat, a heat proof mat the solder, the soldering iron or your work piece will not be able to burnt through, these can be picked up very cheaply (like £5) from B&Q, in the plumbing section.

Equipment
The first thing you will need is a soldering iron, naturally. The best types of soldering irons are LCD soldering stations, although the most expensive, will last the longest and have controllable temperature so they can safely be used for every job, these can be picked up for around £50 from maplins (at time of writing): http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...9133&doy=21m12
For soldering battery packs or other large jobs then an 80W+ iron is ESSENTIAL, I personally use the weller 80W iron with 9.5mm chisel tip, this can be bought for around £20.
Next on the list is good quality solder, 60/40 solder with flux does the job, but for the best power flow I recommend silver solder with a flux core, like that from maplins: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...=34965&doy=3m7
Next up is a desoldering pump for when things go wrong, it is basically a plunger which you place on the melted solder that you don’t want, press the button and the spring pushes the piston up and sucks the melted solder inside. They can be picked up for £10 from maplins (at time of writing): http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...=97040&doy=3m7
After this all we need it specific tools, apart from the odd pair of pliers and some wires strippers. If making your own battery packs, which a lot of people do as it works out a lot cheaper, then it is very beneficial to use a battery jig, these come in sizes of 6 cells and some of the better ones even have a little arm to hold the battery bars in place to avoid burnt fingers. The best one on the market at the moment will be the ‘Deans speed jig’ which can be purchased for as little as £14 from respectable online hobby shops (at time of writing): http://www.modelsinmotion.co.uk/prod...421&tamiya=258
Other things you may need is a ‘third hand’ which is a stand with two arms coming off and two croc clips on so you can hold things while using the iron and not burning the kitchen table. Also you will need is varying sizes of heat shrink tubing, this can be purchased from maplins in a varerity of different sizes. Soldering flux can be used but I choose not to as it is corrosive and most modern solders com with a flux core anyway.

Process
When soldering the most important thing is to have the iron up to full temperature required for that piece of work, to start with we will solder 2 pieces of wire together. For this we will need our soldering iron, solder, a pair of pliers and possibly the third hand tool if available, heat shrink is also needed.
First thing to do is to plug in the iron and leave it to heat up, while heating up, wet the supplied sponge (if not supplied one will need to be purchased or a washing up sponge will do), leave this to drip till no longer dripping, this is the best wetness. When the iron reaches the desired temperature (around 300°) then apply a little solder to the tip of the iron, make sure this is just a slight coating, if it appears on the iron tip in a little bead then the iron is not hot enough yet, or if it is a blob you have applied to much solder, wipe it on the sponge and try again. After ‘tinning’ the iron tip, wipe it on the sponge and tin again. Now take your two pieces of wire, strip of about 5mm of coating off the end and twist the strands tightly together. Once you have done this take your tinned soldering iron, touch the stripped end of the wire and start applying solder, apply enough solder so that the end of the wire is coated, but not in a blob, this is tinning the wire. Remember to clean the tip on the sponge every time you use the iron. Repeat this with the end of the other wire. To solder them together you need one wire securely held down (put reel of solder on top of it maybe) and the other needs to be held with pliers (till your fast enough to hold it and not burn your fingers). Tin the iron again, hold the wire in pliers in your left hand and have the soldering iron in your right hand, push the two tips of the wire together and heat up with the iron applying small amounts of pressure, if the wires were tinned enough then they should be no need to apply any more solder. Once the wires have appeared to have been fused together then remover the iron and let cool down naturally, do not blow on the joint, this could create a ‘dry’ joint which is a dull grey colour and doesn’t allow optimum power flow. If these wires are attached to something then before soldering it is wise to pop about 15mm of heat shrink over the end of one, so once soldered you can cover the bare joint with the heat shrink.