Soldering

This is a page all about the wonderful art of soldering! It covers electronics soldering, jewelry soldering, sculptural soldering, and links to helpful places around the internet to view guides and read more.

Electronics Soldering

Working with circuits, wires, and electrical components. Have a website you love to get parts from, or recommend a certain tool? Add it to one of the categories below!

Video: Soldering - Beginner's Tutorial

Refresher guide on soldering from Sparkfun

Open Hack Nights

Every Friday 6-8pm the makerspace hosts Open Hack Nights.

Come to the Electronics Lab and tinker, share, and chat with other makers working on fun projects!

Safety

1. Always treat the soldering iron like it is hot. You can't tell just by looking at it how hot it is, so to be safe don't touch the hot end of the iron or set it on anything other than the holder.
2. Use ventilation for fumes. The flux will smoke and burn off, and it will sting if it gets in your eyes.
3. Be careful of the power cord. You don't want to melt the power cord to your iron. Position it so it won't be in your way when trying to solder.

Tips

1. Use the SIDE of the soldering iron tip, NOT the POINT. The point has very little area with which to heat up the parts you are soldering, but the side of it is large in comparison and can heat up your wires and pins much better.
2. Make sure you're applying enough heat. If solder is taking too long to melt (more than a second or two), you need to change something. Either your iron isn't hot enough, the iron isn't clean, you need to apply flux.
3. Heat the parts you are soldering evenly. If one part is hotter than the other, the solder will be drawn to that one and not the colder one.
4. Avoid heating up the circuit board or parts for more than 10 seconds. Give both time to cool down. Overheated parts may stop working right, and overheated boards may start peeling apart.

Recommended Equipment

• Soldering Iron
  • Stand-alone iron with variable temperature. Recommended: Adjustable 30W 110V soldering iron - XY-258 110V
  • OR
  • Soldering Iron Station with variable temp. Recommended: Weller WLC100 Soldering Station or Aoyue 936
• Lead-free Rosin Core electronics solder. Recommended: Solder - 1/4lb Spool
• Solder Paste for surface mount parts (SMD, SMT)
• Rosin Paste Flux for electronics
• Wire-strippers/clippers
• An insulated work mat. Cork mats are available at craft stores. Silicone mats are nice.
• Helping hands (a pair of pose-able metal clips mounted on a sturdy base). Recommended: Third Hand
• A fan or other means of ventilation

Helpful Accessories

• Heat shrink tubing
• Pliers
• Lamp
• Magnifier
• Circuit board holder

Where to buy supplies

• Online Electronics Hobby Stores:
  • Sparkfun: http://www.sparkfun.com
  • Adafruit: http://www.adafruit.com
  • Makershed: http://www.makershed.com
  • Radioshack: http://www.radioshack.com

• Good places to get parts:
  • Mouser: http://www.mouser.com
  • Octopart: http://www.octopart.com
  • Electronics Goldmine: http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com
  • A Maine-based company: http://www.leading-leds.com
  • Need batteries? http://www.cheap-batteries.com/
  • Parts and kits: http://www.allelectronics.com/
  • Guitar parts and kits: http://www.stewmac.com

• Robotics and 3D Printing:
  • Pololu http://www.pololu.com/
  • Trossen Robotics http://www.trossenrobotics.com/

Jewelry Soldering

• The Basics of Soldering - Jewelry 101
• Soldering for crafters

Sculptural Soldering

• How to silver solder - metal hardware sculptures