Learning how to solder

One of the best things you can do is either ask someone at a local ham club if they can show you or just buy a cheap kit from an electronics store and tinker with it.

Another good way is to watch videos Expert village did a really good series on soldering which can be found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oyJYZRRU8c&feature=channel

Hope this helps

Yeah, good answer above, but even after watching videos and reading books, the best thing to do is basically get a soldering gun and a roll of solder.

The way I teach people is to "tin the tip" (melt some solder on it and let it build up a little) and then work big on trying to solder things together. Get a clothes hanger or some medium sized (12-18g) wire and first try to make some connections. After you get that down some, try and do it with less solder and making smaller areas of connection.

After you get a little more proficient, try some different techniques to see what works best with you (by looking on youtube and other places to see how others do it) and keep practicing it. Once you feel comfortable, try getting and old circuit board out of something that doesn't work anymore and try making some connections on the board.

It really is not a hard thing to pick up and I would suggest just diving head first into practice. A paper towel or piece of cardboard will work for wiping off excess solder if you get too much melted on it as it doesn't use too much heat and won't immediately catch anything on fire. (Don't rest the hot iron on anything though, because it can and will burn things [experience!]) But just work on it, don't breath in the fumes, and in no time, you'll be an old pro!

Stephen

KJ4RAU (Vanity Applied For)

What you want to do is heat BOTH surfaces and let the solder "flow" into the connection. If soldering wires together, tin each wire first with a light coat of solder.Some new solderers just make a "blob" of solder onto the joint. A bad or "cold" solder joint will be hazy and or have small cracks in it. A good solder joint will be shiney.

ALWAYS use rosin core solder, never acid core solder, you will ruin the components or PC board. When soldering on a PC board, it is best to have a controlled temperature soldering station. They may seem a bit pricey, but if you are going to work on PC boards, this is the only way to go. The "just plug it into the wall" cheapo soldering irons often get wayyyyy too hot for PC board work and can delaminate traces if you're not careful. (As well as ruin certain components by too much heat, such as IC's and transistors). This is especially true if you are assembling a PC board for a kit. You WILL eventually make a mistake and install the wrong component and have to remove it. Forget trying to save the component. It's not worth ruining the PC board to save a resistor, cap or diode.

The best way to learn to solder is look at some pictures on the internet of (Cold) solder joints (Bad Ones) and then look at some good solder joints they will be nice and shinny-No clumps of solder-always use good quality solder,I recomend Kester Brand,and always use Rosen core,Never Acid core or Flux as it is called by plumbers.I use 2/62/32 mix-silver,tin,lead on most of my repairs and projects.Get some parts and start soldering onto a Radioshack proto project board-You should Always Heat The Work-1st, then apply the solder to the part or circuitboard,a good joint will shine nicely,being careful not to overheat the part or board,you can destroy parts and the board. It is always good to wipe clean the tip of your soldering iron,pen, gun each time a solderjoint is made ,this well keep the tip in top shape and hot enough to melt the solder ,the solder should flow onto the part,board evenly looking like a small volcano-let it cool before inspecting you work-bad joints also look crystaline and dull colored - practice on some old radio takeing out parts and resoldering them back-in-Like learning the morse code -practice is best-get an inexpensive kit after you think you know how to solder-also get a Solder sucker-or Solderbulb to help remove excessive solder or when removing components-Good luck. Paul K8PG