How to use a soldering iron correctly: how to solder boards, contacts and LEDs with wires
Soldering is one of the most effective and simplest ways to connect metal materials, wires and parts. Although soldering work is considered simple, you will need certain knowledge and skills. The most common type of soldering is work done with a soldering iron. To know how to properly solder with a soldering iron with rosin or other types of fluxes, you need to delve a little deeper into the topic.
There are different types of soldering irons that differ in power.
- Electric soldering irons are the most common and operate on electricity.
- Gas - they work using a gas burner.
- Thermal air - use air flow.
- Induction soldering irons - their work is based on heating the tip with a magnetic field.
One of the varieties of this tool is also a soldering iron for rhinestones. It is considered one of the most common elements when working with thermal rhinestones. The technology for using this product is very simple - put the rhinestone on the fabric and apply a soldering iron on top, the glue penetrates the fabric and securely holds them together.
In everyday life, electric soldering irons are most often used, having different powers for different types of work. For soldering electronic components, soldering irons with a power of up to 40 W are used; if the parts have a wall thickness of no more than 1 millimeter, then the device has a power of 80 to 100 W. For thicker-walled parts, soldering irons with a power of over 100 W are used.
Solders and Fluxes
Before you begin soldering work, you need to select solders and fluxes. For electrical soldering, there are different types of solder, which can be soft or hard.
Soft ones include tin-lead alloys, which have a low melting point and are not particularly strong. It is not recommended to use them if the soldering temperature exceeds 100 degrees Celsius. Refractory alloys include silver and copper alloys.
They are perfect for those connections where there will only be a static load on the material, since such alloys are very fragile.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKZBAqnGoZ4
Fluxes are responsible for how the metal will be soldered and how strong the connection will be. Its task is to remove the metal oxide film. The following fluxes are used: various mixtures of rosin and acid. Rosin mixtures are commonly used when soldering electronics, while acid is used to join small wires and small contacts.
Security measures
Organize your workplace; it should be bright and ventilated, as the soldering process produces gases that are harmful to health. It is also recommended to wear glasses to protect your eyes from splashes of molten metal or flux.
Tinning the tip
The tip is a cylindrical rod made of copper. Its shape can be changed depending on the type of work. For example, it can be flattened into the shape of a screwdriver tip. This type of sharpening is used when soldering massive parts. You can also grind off a pyramid-shaped tip; it should be used when soldering small parts.
Tinning is used at the preparatory stage and involves covering the tip with a thin layer of solder for better contact with the surface to be connected. This operation will protect the tip from rapid wear and corrosion.
Soldering conductors
To know how to solder a wire to a contact, you just need to practice a little. Before proceeding directly to soldering, you should thoroughly warm up the soldering tool; when you use it for the first time, the soldering iron begins to smoke - this burns out the lubricant used in its production. It needs to be allowed to cool, then turned on again.
Next, the first thing you need to do is clean the insulation; it can be easily removed with wire cutters in one movement. Insulation in the form of enamel, paint or fabric wrapping must first be burned. Then go over the wires with sandpaper or resort to a chemical method - put the wire on an aspirin tablet and heat it with a soldering iron.
The next step is to apply a little flux to the wire you are going to solder, then use a soldering iron to begin tinning. Immediately after this, you need to connect the two ends of the wire, carefully heat the contact point until the solder melts and quickly remove the soldering iron so as not to overheat the parts.
Modern electronic devices do not have wires. The connection is made by soldering the contact surface. For such types of work, use a low-power soldering iron with a power of 10-12 W. Before use, you can make several copper tips with branches for it. They will allow you to use the tool when working with LEDs and various radio elements.
Working with the board
Before soldering the wire to the board , you need to perform certain actions:
- Insert the part into the previously prepared place.
- Bring the heated soldering iron along with the solder to the soldering area.
- Apply a thin layer of solder to the contacts of the board and the pins of the part.
- Quickly remove the soldering tool.
The heated soldering iron tip should be in contact with the board and contacts at the same time. We remove it only when the soldering area is covered with a thin layer of solder. Excess solder can be removed with copper wire; you just need to bring it to the soldering site.
Induction soldering
This type of soldering is widely used in industry and allows you to connect various conductive metals, such as copper, steel, aluminum, hard alloys, etc. During the operation, non-contact heating occurs due to the formation of eddy currents. To protect parts from oxidation, induction soldering is carried out using fluxes or in a vacuum.
Common mistakes
Typical mistakes made by beginners:
- Don't get lost
- Overheat
- Chemical destruction
- Solder rolling
Failure to solder occurs due to the fact that the soldering iron was not warmed up enough , or the materials being soldered were too refractory, and the soldering iron had too little power.
Overheating is the exact opposite of unsoldering. The main reasons for overheating: using a soldering tool that is too powerful, or leaving it on the soldering area for too long.
Solder rolling occurs due to the fact that the surface of the materials being joined was poorly cleaned. The oxidizing layer on their surface does not allow the solder to spread well, which leads to poor contact of the components being soldered.
Chemical destruction appears at the soldering site due to incorrectly selected flux, and if washing is not carried out after soldering. This leads to corrosion and gradual destruction of the soldering area.
Proper care
A high-quality soldering iron is not a cheap tool, and like any other tool, it requires careful care. Basic rules for caring for it:
- It is not recommended to turn on the soldering iron with the tip removed, as this leads to overheating of the element and significantly reduces the service life of the tool
- Before first use, you need to coat the tip with high-quality flux and tin it.
- After completing the work, you need to thoroughly clean the tip and tin it, this will help to quickly warm up the tool the next time you use it.
- During soldering, you need to periodically apply solder to the tip of the soldering agent, so its tip will last you longer.
Source: https://220v.guru/fizicheskie-ponyatiya-i-pribory/payalniki/kak-pravilno-payat-payalnikom-vidy-payalnyh-rabot.html
What is needed for soldering boards
One of the most reliable methods of connecting wires is soldering. This is a process in which the space between two conductors is filled with molten solder. In this case, the melting temperature of the solder must be lower than the melting temperature of the metals being joined. At home, soldering is most often used with a soldering iron - a small device powered by electricity. For normal operation, the power of the soldering iron must be at least 80-100 W.
What you need for soldering with a soldering iron
In addition to the soldering iron itself, you will need solders, rosin or fluxes; it is advisable to have a stand. While working, you may need a small file and small pliers.
Most often you have to solder copper wires, for example, on headphones, when repairing household appliances, etc.
Rosin and fluxes
To get a good connection between the wires, it is necessary to clean them of contaminants, including oxide film. While mono-cores can still be cleaned manually, multi-core conductors cannot be cleaned properly. They are usually treated with rosin or flux - active substances that dissolve contaminants, including oxide film.
Both rosin and fluxes work well, but fluxes are easier to use - you can dip a brush into the solution and quickly process the wires. You need to put a conductor in rosin, then heat it with a soldering iron so that the molten substance envelops the entire surface of the metal. The disadvantage of using fluxes is that if they remain on the wires (and they do), they gradually corrode the adjacent sheath. To prevent this from happening, all soldering areas must be treated - the remaining flux must be washed off with alcohol.
Solders and fluxes for soldering copper wires with a soldering iron
Rosin is considered a universal remedy, and fluxes can be selected depending on the metal you are going to solder. In the case of wires, this is copper or aluminum. For copper and aluminum wires, use LTI-120 flux or borax.
A homemade flux made from rosin and denatured alcohol (1 to 5) works very well, and it’s also easy to make with your own hands. Add rosin to the alcohol (preferably dust or very small pieces of it) and shake until dissolved.
Then this composition can be used to treat conductors and strands before soldering.
Solders for soldering copper wires with a soldering iron use POS 60, POS 50 or POS 40 - tin-lead. For aluminum, zinc-based compounds are more suitable. The most common are TsO-12 and P250A (made of tin and zinc), grade A (zinc and tin with the addition of copper), TsA-15 (zinc with aluminum).
Convenient to use solder with rosin
It is very convenient to use solders that contain rosin (POS 61). In this case, there is no need to pre-treat each conductor in rosin separately. But for high-quality soldering, you must have a powerful soldering iron - 80-100 W, which can quickly heat the soldering area to the required temperatures.
Auxiliary materials
In order to properly solder wires with a soldering iron, you also need:
- Stand. It may be completely made of metal or have metal holders for a soldering iron attached to a wooden/plastic stand. It is also convenient if you have a small metal box for rosin.
It’s more convenient to solder with a soldering iron with a homemade or factory-made stand - not very important
This is how you need to sharpen the soldering iron tip
Pliers - to hold the wires
Alcohol may be required to wash off the flux, and electrical tape or heat-shrinkable tubes of various diameters for insulation. These are all the materials and tools without which soldering wires with a soldering iron is impossible.
Soldering process with an electric soldering iron
The entire technology of soldering wires with a soldering iron can be divided into several successive stages. All of them are repeated in a certain sequence:
- Training of conductors. When soldering wires, they are freed from insulation. After this, the oxide film is removed from them mechanically. You can use a small piece of fine-grit sandpaper. The metal should shine and be light.
- Tinning. Heat the soldering iron to the melting temperature of the rosin (it begins to actively melt when touched). Take a conductor, bring it to a piece of rosin, heat it with a soldering iron so that the entire stripped part of the wire is immersed in rosin. Then take a drop of solder onto the soldering iron tip and spread it over the treated part of the conductor. The solder spreads quickly, covering the wire with a thin layer. To make it distributed faster and more evenly, the wire is turned slightly. After tinning, copper conductors lose their redness and become silvery. This is how all wires that need to be soldered are processed.
That's all. In the same way, you can solder two or more wires, you can solder a wire to some contact pad (for example, when soldering headphones, you can solder the wire to a plug or to a pad on a headphone), etc.
After you have finished soldering the wires with a soldering iron and they have cooled down, the connection must be insulated. You can wrap electrical tape, put it on, and then heat up the heat shrink tube. When it comes to electrical wiring, it is usually recommended to first screw on a few turns of electrical tape, and then put a heat-shrinkable tube on top, which is heated.
Differences in technology when using flux
If active flux is used rather than rosin, the tinning process changes. The cleaned conductor is lubricated with the compound, and then heated with a soldering iron with a small amount of solder. Further everything is as described.
Soldering twists with flux - faster and easier
There are also differences when soldering twists with flux. In this case, you can not tin each wire, but twist it, then treat it with flux and immediately start soldering. The conductors don’t even need to be cleaned—the active compounds corrode the oxide film. But instead, you will have to wipe the soldering areas with alcohol to wash away the remnants of chemically aggressive substances.
Features of soldering stranded wires
The soldering technology described above is suitable for monocores. If the wire is multi-core, there are nuances: before tinning, the wires are untwisted so that everything can be dipped in rosin. When applying solder, you need to make sure that each wire is covered with a thin layer of solder. After cooling, the wires are twisted into one bundle again, then you can solder with a soldering iron as described above - dipping the tip into solder, heating the soldering area and applying tin.
When tinning, multi-core wires must be “fluffed”
Is it possible to solder copper wire to aluminum
Aluminum cannot be combined directly with other chemically active metals. Since copper is a chemically active material, copper and aluminum are not joined or soldered. The point is too different thermal conductivity and different current conductivity.
When current passes, aluminum heats up more and expands more. Copper heats up and expands much less.
Constant expansion/constriction to varying degrees leads to the fact that even the best contact is broken, a non-conducting film is formed, and everything stops working. That's why copper and aluminum are not soldered.
If there is such a need to connect copper and aluminum conductors, make a bolted connection. Take a bolt with a suitable nut and three washers. At the ends of the connected wires, rings are formed according to the size of the bolt. Take a bolt, put on one washer, then a conductor, another washer - the next conductor, a third washer on top and secure everything with a nut.
Source: https://MyTooling.ru/instrumenty/chto-nuzhno-dlja-pajki-plat
How to properly solder a wire to a board? — Metals, equipment, instructions
Let's look at it in detail: how to solder wires, what kind of solder to use, choose the right soldering iron and much more in this article.
One of the most reliable methods of connecting wires is soldering. Soldering is a non-separable type of connection. It provides very low contact transient. At the same time, solder joints have high mechanical strength.
For soldering, alloys with a relatively low melting point, called solders, are used. Technically, the soldering process consists of wetting the surface of the connected conductors with molten solder.
After the solder hardens, the metal of the conductor is firmly connected to the alloy, forming a contact with good electrical parameters. In most cases, tin-lead solders POS-40, POS-60 are used for soldering conductors (the numbers indicate the percentage of tin content).
Low melting point solders may contain bismuth, cadmium, zinc, antimony or other metals.
There are a variety of tools and materials available in the market today to make solder joints. The minimum set for soldering wires may consist of a soldering iron, solder and flux.
If it is necessary to perform a large number of solderings of insulated wires, it is a good idea to have a special tool for stripping insulation and wire cutters. If such operations are performed infrequently, a sharp knife, such as a stationery or surgical scalpel, is suitable for removing insulation.
Sandpaper can be used to remove insulation from enameled wires.
Wire Soldering Tools
The main tool for soldering wires is a soldering iron. Currently, stores offer a wide range of electric soldering irons of varying power. A soldering iron for wires often used in everyday life can have a power of 40 - 60 W.
For soldering electronic components, thin conductors or printed circuit boards, soldering irons with a power of 15–25 W are most often used. If you need to solder large cross-section wires, you may need a soldering iron with a power of 100 - 150 W or more. For soldering massive metal objects, soldering irons with external heating are used.
Such soldering irons have a tip in the form of a massive copper “hatchet” and are equipped with a handle. The tip is heated in the flame of a gas stove burner, with a blowtorch or gas burner.
In addition to electric ones, the industry produces gas soldering irons. In them, the tip is heated using a gas burner. Structurally, gas soldering irons consist of a can of reduced gas, a gas burner and a tip made in the form of a nozzle. Gas soldering irons are convenient to use in places where there is no electricity.
Many manufacturers produce soldering irons with tips that have a special coating. Such coatings “hold” solder well and do not fade for a long time. If your new soldering iron has a copper tip, it needs to be prepared for use, that is, thoroughly tinned.
To do this, the working surface of the soldering iron tip should be thoroughly cleaned with a fine file or sandpaper to a characteristic “copper” shine. Then use the tip of a heating soldering iron to melt a little rosin. Afterwards, solder is applied to the soldering iron tip and distributed evenly over the entire surface.
Even distribution of solder can be achieved by rubbing the tip on a wooden block.
We have already mentioned that to solder wires you will need a knife and wire cutters. In principle, there are no special requirements for these tools. It is only important that the tool is sharply sharpened, and that the cutting edges of the wire cutters fit snugly against each other.
Consumables
In recent years, wire or tubular solder has been mainly used for soldering wires. Both wire and tubular solder can be delivered directly to the soldering site without applying it to the soldering iron tip. This allows you to accurately dose the amount of solder. Tubular solder is also good because the tube contains flux (rosin), the presence of which significantly improves the quality of soldering.
Fluxes are used to clean soldered surfaces from metal oxides. When soldering copper wires, gum rosin is often used as a flux. For soldering other non-ferrous metals, such as aluminum, alloys or steel, various active fluxes are used.
The purpose of a particular flux and the method of its use are usually indicated on the packaging. It should be noted that many active fluxes work well only in a strictly defined temperature range. And yet, most active fluxes after soldering need to be washed off with solvents, as they can continue to “work”.
This can lead to corrosion of the solder joint.
In previous years, when active fluxes were extremely rare on sale, craftsmen used aspirin, boric or citric acid to tinning “complex” materials. Often these readily available "fluxes" did the job quite well.
Important! When soldering, fluxes and solders can release harmful substances, which, if inhaled through the respiratory system, can be harmful to health. Therefore, soldering should be done under a hood or at least in a well-ventilated area.
How to solder wires correctly
Learning how to properly solder wires with a soldering iron is not difficult. The soldering process is not particularly difficult. The insulation is removed from the wires, stripped to a shine and carefully tinned, after applying flux to them.
Then the wires are mechanically connected to each other in one of the possible ways. Afterwards, flux is applied to the “twist” again, and this area is carefully soldered, making sure that the solder spreads evenly over the entire surface.
Below is a table showing the main types of solder wire connections.
In general, the quality of soldering can be judged by the type of solder. It should shine and be evenly distributed over the soldering area.
After soldering is completed and the flux residue has been removed, the soldering area is insulated. To do this, you can use electrical tape, vinyl or cotton. You can also use a small piece of heat-shrink tubing of a suitable diameter to insulate the soldering area. The tube is placed on the solder joint and heated. For heating, you can use a soldering iron or gas lighter.
Having gained some skill in soldering simple wires, you can try to perform a more complex task. For example, repair broken headphones.
How to solder headphone wires
Typically, headphones fail due to broken wires near or inside the plug. If the location of the damage is accurately determined, then repairing the headphones is quite simple. The plug with the damaged section of the wire is cut off. The wires are carefully separated. They are soldered to a detachable plug purchased at a radio parts store according to the following diagram.
Since the headphone wires are quite thin, tinning the wires and soldering them to the plug must be done quickly. Otherwise, the insulation on the wires will melt greatly. To avoid melting the wires, you can solder the headphone wires using solder with a low melting point, such as Rose's alloy or Wood's alloy. When using such alloys, the soldering iron is heated to the melting temperature of the solder and then unplugged.
How to properly harden an ax?
In this article we talked about soldering wires using a soldering iron. However, in extreme conditions, you can solder wires without a soldering iron. One of the methods of soldering without using a soldering iron could be like this. The wires are twisted and flux is applied to them. A little thin wire solder is wound around the soldering area. Then the soldering area is heated with a gas torch or lighter, ensuring that the solder spreads evenly.
Source: https://spb-metalloobrabotka.com/kak-pravilno-pripayat-provod-k-plate/
