Soldering issue on ctb16k pc kit

[JeffF]

MikeLand wrote:

I'll need to find some other way of holding those spade lugs in place on the next one.

Thank you for everyones help.

Sorry for the late tip, but I use masking tape to hold all my spade lugs in place. I do a strip of tape length wise across all of them and then I do a few at 90 degrees to those to hold all of them tight to the board. Only burned myself a few times this way.

Oh, and if you do try using tape, do not try and re-adjust the tape once it's made contact with the spade lugs... otherwise you'll be taking the tape off of all of them and re-doing everything.

[Tim Fischer]

I've only done one PC kit, but I too just used the blue tape as recommended in the instructions. Other than the issue Jeffrey mentioned about don't try to readjust the tape or you'll be cursing and pulling countless little spades from the tape one by one and starting over

Also, as mentioned in the instructions, try to work in such a way that the heat from the previous joint helps preheat the next joint. Those neutral pads are very large and will hold a lot of heat, but also take a lot of heat to heat up .

-Tim

[Denny]

I changed the tip on my soldering station to a chisel point giving more surface area. This helped transfer the heat more quickly.

[Max-Paul]

John Hertig wrote:

Watch out for temperatures. If you get high enough temperature, it will boil away the rosin and can lead to bad joints. More wattage is probably better than more temperature.

John makes a very good point. Also as I have been reading down to this point I am screaming that by cranking up the heat. You are oxidizing the lead on the tip. This will also lead up to a dirty solder joint (read cold). I would not go much over 650 and if that is not enough to do the job, then you need a higher WATTAGE iron.

My technic is to as someone else mentioned. Is to wet the iron tip with just a little solder. Then apply the iron to the lead and solder pad on the board. And apply the solder to the oppisate side of the lead till it flows. Hold the iron on for another second, to insure all parts are hot enough for the solder to flow onto the junction. In a few cases I have put jut a small dab of flux on the tip of the solder wire and then touch the joint. The flux helps clean the joint and promotes the flow and adhearsion of the solder.

Good luck

Max

[Max-Paul]

MikeLand wrote:

Here is another.

In the top row, 3rd & 4th look like they could be cold solder joints. I am seeing a black line between the solder and the post. In the 3rd row and 3rd from right, looks like a blob around the post and a copper pad below. This appears to me that the pad was not hot enough to allow for the solder to flow onto it.

Now even though you took good photos. I could be mistaken, without the ability to give each solder joint a good 3D inspection in person. All other joints look real good. I presume this is one of your first kit builds and soldering is new to you? Pat yourself on the back. Hell I have almost 35 years of soldering and sometimes mistakes slip by me. Not all wires take to being soldered easly. Here is a tip. Take one of those large pink erasers we used in schools. Give the back of a PC a good rubbing. Then use either the eraser and give resistors, caps, diodes a good rubbing on the leads so that they shine. Dont try this with IC chips as their leads are easy to bend and break. This will help the solder to flow onto the leads.

Max