RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

This is what I use



Works great, haven't had any trouble with it.

Somewhat ironic. Sold by Great British Tools. Won't ship to the United Kingdom!

So is this good? I am a solder newb.

Maccrage wrote:So is this good? I am a solder newb.

Standard 60/40 Rosin core.. yup. That will do very nicely.. Excellent diameter as well.. The thinner the better. Like very fine wire..

You are good to go. Happy soldering!

Awesome. I may have been a Navy Radioman, but we were users. Left the repair side to the ETs. And I never needed solder more than 3 times building models. Now I find I need it almost daily, and I have no idea what I'm doing.

Son of a gun-ner wrote:Will these do Mista. . . . Only 0.7mm thick

Yes. It is perfect Sir..

Standard 60/40 Rosin Core. Perfect. and the diameter or thickness is excellent for this type of work.. Like I said earlier, this is the perfect thickness to use on electronics such as tanks where you have delicate and small connections.

The thinner the solder, the faster the melting point will be.. Takes less time to heat up than a real thick solder..

And speed is of the essence here.. You don't want to heat the solder pads or traces any more than you need to..

So the solder you guys have shown me, is an excellent choice for your needs.

I highly recommend that you keep a roll of this stuff in storage at all times for "just in case" events like this when you need it..

If at all possible, after you solder the connection you need to do, use a small magnifying glass to double check the work..

Make sure you do not "bridge" 2 connections accidentally.. What I mean by that, is make sure there is no tiny solder blob that touches 2 solder pads together.. Make sure each solder connection is separate..

Here's a quick way to tell if your using good old 60/40 "lead" based solder..

The lead free junk out there will dry to a dull finish.. Lead based solder will dry with a nice silver shine to it.. Kind of like a gloss look.. Lead free will look like a blob of dull grey.. No silver shine..

Hope this helps.

Here are 2 of the soldering stations I actually use in my shop here..

However, you don't need all that fancy shmancy crap like what I have.. Any decent $20-$30 soldering iron will do the job..

So don't worry if you don't have the best most expensive stuff out there.. You don't need it..

The only reason I have this stuff is because I design and build electronics as a side job..

I design mother boards for companies like ASUS.. I actually had a hand in designing the M5A97 R2.0 Motherboard for ASUS back a few years ago..

So for me, I have to have soldering stations like this.. But you do not need it..

Here are both of mine..

This one is for my everyday crap, as I call it..

https://www.xtronicusa.com/4-IN-1-X-TRO ... -p15959845

And this one is used when I need something more to do a job..

https://www.xtronicusa.com/X-TRONIC-500 ... -p25881615


Both of these units are overkill for the average home user.. This is made more for the industrial/commercial side of things..

I just thought you guys would want to see some of my toys since you guys get into electronics and stuff like that..

capt midnight wrote:Yes, the thin solder is the way to go. I picked up a fairly inexpensive digital soldering station that I use for everything from soldering circuit boards to copper and brass for fenders, schurzen, and such.

I have found out that I have better luck with soldering wires, LED's, and circuit boards at a higher temperature. It seems to solder faster without pumping a large amount of heat into the work.

Bill

You are 100% correct Bill..

Heat is the enemy here.. To much heat can and will damage components on the board.. So like I said in an earlier post, the way to go is "get in and out" as fast as possible here.. I typically use a setting of 380C-400C for my work.. Other people might find that 350C-380C works best. Depends on the work and the amount of solder on the original connection.. And of course, different irons will have different heat characteristics..

Then of course, you get into the newer SMT parts.. (Surface Mount Technology) Which again, requires a different treatment..

It can be a learning curve for new people.. But anybody can do this stuff.. It isn't rocket science.. With enough practice, anyone can do it.. There are plenty of YouTube video's out there to learn with..

And, most of the people involved with this hobby already have the brains and skill set to become an expert in soldering technique..

Soldering, what flux to buy? My RS branded flux pen has run out, had a wide tip .Was not very good for small parts, going for liquid in tin/bottle any recommendations ?

ronnie42 wrote:Soldering, what flux to buy? My RS branded flux pen has run out, had a wide tip .Was not very good for small parts, going for liquid in tin/bottle any recommendations ?

One of the reasons I like the multicore solder that I posted the link for so much is because you don't need flux. It melts extremely fast and it's great for electronics. I've been using it for about 5 years and I've never had a single problem.