• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Tiny soldering - How I do it.

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.
SolidxSnake said:
One other note I must add.

If you solder something on an IC Leg the wrong way at first, like its in the wrong position, DON'T TAKE THE IRON TO THE JOINT RIGHT AFTER. Wait at least 5-15 seconds before going back to the joint.
Click to expand...

Very good advice! I never thought about that, becasue I'm used to doing it automatically, but that is very good advice. Reheating before an IC has a chance to cool down is just as bad as holding the iron to it. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to make sure these IC's are not overheated. Some of them have very critical thermal specs, and if you go outside of them, you can ruin the IC. Heating a pad too long can cause delaminination of the printed circuit board also. Use ***just*** enough heat to do the job. This is very very important.
 
3DFlyer said:
Very good advice! I never thought about that, becasue I'm used to doing it automatically, but that is very good advice. Reheating before an IC has a chance to cool down is just as bad as holding the iron to it. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to make sure these IC's are not overheated. Some of them have very critical thermal specs, and if you go outside of them, you can ruin the IC. Heating a pad too long can cause delaminination of the printed circuit board also. Use ***just*** enough heat to do the job. This is very very important.
Click to expand...


So true. this is how I ruined my Creative Zen Xtra... I was resoldering the headphone jack, and I had too much heat cause my iron tip was dirty as sin. I ended up heating the PCB so much, that when I placed the PCB back in the case, I had to move the jack a millimeter. Did that, and it snapped the trace right out of the board!
 
I use a handy item that you can get at RadioShack called "helping hands":

helpinghand.jpg

one of the best investments i have made. sorry for the quick and somewhat blurry pic.
 
son, i had one of them that i lost somewhere in a move. i tihnk its in a storage unit. but this ine seems to get a bit better magnification, which is good for lookin for bridged pins. arent they less tha $20 at RS? i have a different branded one, with a levered suction base thingy, it looks like its about 20 years old, and i got it from my dad, so it probably is.
 
Yea, they are the cheap ones at RS. I used it when I did mods on my paintball marker chips. I only using the magnifying glass tho because it cant realy clamp video cards lol but for soldering LEDs and Resistors its perfect

Its funny to hear u call me son lol somin only my dad does heheeh

~Ken
 
hey... your sn is son1990... leave off the numbers and its son. and i know a guy who's first name is son, so it just seemed like your name... lol...

those clip things re good for soldering resistors, caus they are good at transferring heat RELLY fast, and get really unpleasant on the fingers. I wouldnt try to hold likea VC in there anyways, if you were to push too hard or anything, it'd tip and probably jsut get annoying. but holding the magnifier is fine, and it could even hold a wire still while you solder it to the board, but prolly be alot easier to move than holding it with a finger.
 
SolidxSnake said:
So true. this is how I ruined my Creative Zen Xtra... I was resoldering the headphone jack, and I had too much heat cause my iron tip was dirty as sin. I ended up heating the PCB so much, that when I placed the PCB back in the case, I had to move the jack a millimeter. Did that, and it snapped the trace right out of the board!
Click to expand...

Oh no. :( I sounds like the heat delaminted the trace, and when you pushed it nothing was holding the actual land at all anymore. Thin copper and gold will do that. Sorry that happened man. That's the aggravating part of OC'ing and modding. You try and get more performance, and then something like that slaps you in the face. I've had stuff happen to me before. I smoked a CPU doing something I shouldn't have been doing...it's called SNDS. :(
 
3DFlyer said:
Oh no. :( I sounds like the heat delaminted the trace, and when you pushed it nothing was holding the actual land at all anymore. Thin copper and gold will do that. Sorry that happened man. That's the aggravating part of OC'ing and modding. You try and get more performance, and then something like that slaps you in the face. I've had stuff happen to me before. I smoked a CPU doing something I shouldn't have been doing...it's called SNDS. :(
Click to expand...


meh, i'm over it. I kinda threw out everything on my zen anyway. Only have the harddrive and the battery remaining. The harddrive is a 4200rpm 40gb laptop harddrive (2.5" Form factor, its not even 1cm in height). It retails for over $100, i'm almost positive.
 
{PMS}fishy said:
I think you mean max.

I prefer to use 24g.
Click to expand...


That's a hard thing to determine. I'd understand it better with minimum, as in, that should be the biggest you use. confusing :0

But yeah, I like 28ga. It's easy, and most of my headphones, and most of my USB cables (mini-B-->A) are 28ga, just rip em open, strip and set.
 
Do it yourself Helping Hands:

Materials:
Block of wood
Solder
Soldering iron
large staples/stapler
thick copper wire
2 alligator clips

Instructions:
Self explanatory I think...
staple the wire on to the block. solder the alligator clips onto the wire
don't make the wire too long or it'll be too hard to keep from moving
if the wire breaks from being bent too much, simple! staple on another one

Why spend $10 at radio shack when you can just make it yourself, for a mere $5 in materials plus $5 in time?
 
You guys should see what I do at my job. We have leet soldering irons, and the TINIEST resisitors that you can imagine. We have to make 2200 boards this weekend at my job, between about 8 people.

Hopefully, someone has a digi here so I can show you guys.
 
if i could afford the money for a SMD rework station.... i would be a happy man. but im poor, so nothin fancy for me. If i had better tools, i could worm smaller and stuff, but it would be reall hard for people to follow along and do it themselves.
 
four4875 said:
After it's stripped, seperated and twisted, I tin it. I have a habbit of just sticking the wire up from bottom through a screw hole on the board im working on to hold it. Then come from the bottom of the wire with the iron and put the solder on top of the wire. I start at the end of the wire and work my way towards the insulation, I've found that this minimizes the amount of melted / burnt insulation
Click to expand...
This is where flux is very useful even if you use rosin core solder. To tin a wire: brush a little of the flux on the bare wire, get some solder on the iron and touch it to the wire's end. Solder will flow like butta towards the flux. This is especially useful for ~30 awg wires where the method of feeding the solder on the wire to tin it is not practical.

Weller sells these specialty soldering irons for doing very fine soldering work. But I find that usually a regular radioshack iron (what I use) will do the job because it's more about control than the tool you use.
 
ive personally never used much flux, only once a long time ago when i was still terrible at soldering, didnt like it so i never touched it since. plus i dont think it can be had at radioshack (at least not my local one) so i wouldnt want to include it in here, its supposed to be somethin anyone can easily get the tools for and do, so if they have to searc around for flux, it becomes a pain in the rump.

I'll have to find some somewhere and play with it, see how i like it ow that im moreexperienced. i hear its handy when mounting SMD ICs, it'll stickthe ic in place and help pull in the solder. i hvnt tried puttin SMD ics back on after ripping them off lol.
 
You guys have no idea as to what I've been up to all day/night. I'm at my job putting together electric boards... it's been about 14 hours and i'm still goin. We have a HUGE shipment tomorrow of 2200 electronic interfaces, and all weekend ppl have been working.

The pick-and-place machine that puts all the tiny resistors/transistors/diodes onto the electric boards is not placing all of them completely perfect, so I have to look over them and fix them with insanely fine tweezers and a magnifying lens.

You know all those TINY, LITTLE electronic things on your mobos, vid cards, etc? Yes, that's what I'm playing with!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
DTT3500 - Liquid Damage - Help Fixing
Replies
2
Views
2K
don256us
don256us
U
Delidding Zen 4 Ryzen, 7950x etc
2
Replies
27
Views
2K
User5566
U
C
Profile Issue or Windows Issue?
Replies
16
Views
194
Crash1
C
xarzu
How do I ensure I properly get text alerts on my Android phone?
Replies
3
Views
197
Zuzzz
Zuzzz
N
CPU unstable no matter what I do, and it's getting worse
2
Replies
25
Views
1K
mackerel
mackerel
Back