Soldering Help

[johan851]

I've been practicing all day on my dead NF7-S, just trying to solder wires to mosfet legs, resistors, IC's, stuff like that, and I still feel like I need three hands. I can do bigger stuff ok, but I just can't get a wire on to an IC leg. Is there anything I could be doing wrong? A link to a beginner's guide would be very very helpful...

FYI - I have a 15w iron, fine tip, and pretty small rosin core solder.

 

[greenman100]

you need small clips or clamps to hold the wire in place, or a crab., which has couple alligator clips on arms.

but really, you should have a solid physical connection first...

 

[johan851]

A clip makes sense. Solid physical connection...how do you mean?

 

[greenman100]

A clip makes sense. Solid physical connection...how do you mean?

meaning wrap the wire around the solder point or IC leg, if there is enough space, so that there is a solid physical conneciton before solder is applied.

as a last resort, if no clips are available or you are like me and too lazy to go get them from across the garage, use one hand to hold soldering iron, another hand to place wire in proper place, use tip of said iron to hold wire in place, then use the now free hand to apply solder.

that last technique takes practice and teeth gritting.

 

[johan851]

Yeah, that last one is the one I've been trying. It's a bit tricky. I wasn't wrapping the wire around or anything though, so I'm sure that'll make it much easier.

 

[The_Jizzler]

if your just trying to solder to ic's, tiny resistors, etc, then my method seems to work well. what i do is tin the wire first, then tin the tip of my iron, only put some extra on there. almost like a droplet of solder on the tip of the iron. then, all you gotta do is hold the wire to the point your soldering to, and light touch it with the heavily tined tip. if all goes well as planned, it should literally take like a second or less for the acual soldering of the joint.

 

[Styyn]

Doing the vtt mod on my MAX3, I found it easiest just to put one small bead down on the leg/board without the wire. After that all you need to do is hold the wire on top of the bead you just set and barely touch it with the iron tip. The tip and wire should instantly sink into that tiny bead. Just withdraw the iron as soon as the wire sinks in and you're set. Actual iron-to-board contact should be less than two seconds including setting the bead and then setting the wire. HTH

 

[Pro*Banshee]

dont forget to apply flux to the leg of the IC _and_ the wire you just tinned

 

[dukat]

i do it basically as the_jizzler said, but maybe heat up the soldering point before.
like so: heat up the wire and tin it (not to much tin), then heat up the spot you want to solder to and tin it also a bit. then put both pieces together and heat them up... done! its really easy, mess around with your nf7 a little bit more

meaning wrap the wire around the solder point or IC leg

please show me that on a ic leg

 

[greenman100]

please show me that on a ic leg

considering a mosfet is an IC, technically, it's possible

also it's easy on a DIP-8 or DIP-16 package

:::ROLLEYES::: hurrhurr

 

[dukat]

many things are technical possible, but he didnt ask "show me the strangest way to perform a volt mod".

also it's easy on a DIP-8 or DIP-16 package

he said he wants to solder on his nf7, so its very unlikely that he meant that...

 

[greenman100]

many things are technical possible, but he didnt ask "show me the strangest way to perform a volt mod".

he said he wants to solder on his nf7, so its very unlikely that he meant that...

sorry to give information and techniques applicable to other solderable components

 

[rogerdugans]

I go with tinning the components to be connected first as well.

One thing I do that flies in the face of everybody else I know of who does this stuff...(I think I'm the only one, any way! )

My soldering iron is a 20/40 watt model- I NEVER use 20 watts.

I do everything on the 40 watt setting.....QUICKLY! lol

Tinning the ic chip's leg only takes a split second and very little solder.
Tinning the wire or component is also very quick.

Once both are tinned, I hold them together and it is just another split-second of contact with the iron and done.

I definitely suggest only doing this on DEAD stuff at first, to get the hang of it: at 40 watts I think my iron would fry a chip in just a few seconds of contact, although I am not sure ...so far I have killed nothing this way.
Knock on wood.

 

[sandman001]

I just put a little bit of solder on the end of the wire, and then hold it to the IC chip's leg, just touch it with my soldering Iron, it should stick. If not, you just touch it again.

Once it sticks, you put some hot-glue on it.