I hate soldering - Hacker News

Posted by James72689 4 days ago

131 points | 126 commentspage 3

jhbadger 14 hours ago|

Whatever happened to wire wrapping? That used to be a viable alternative.

duskwuff 3 hours ago||

It only works for thru-hole parts and the special wire-wrap sockets you needed to do it properly got expensive (and are no longer in production).

stavros 14 hours ago||

I have used wire wrapping, and it's a good alternative to through-hole, but SMD is just miles better

PunchyHamster 14 hours ago||

As long as it isn't soldering connectors, I like it.

Connectors tho... PITA

sowbug 15 hours ago||

Watching skillful SMT soldering on YouTube fascinates me in a way that helps me understand the ASMR videos that the kids watch these days.

Pr0ject217 15 hours ago|

Recommendations?

sowbug 14 hours ago|||

No particular channels or videos come to mind, but here are a couple good ones (with timestamps to skip the intro fluff):

https://youtu.be/0LSG5uIdqJc?t=190s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUyetZ5RtPs&t=40s

omgtehlion 14 hours ago||

I would not call 2nd video "skillful", that SOIC was molested, not soldered :(

sowbug 14 hours ago||

Fair enough, perhaps I'm easily impressed. :)

Joel_Mckay 4 hours ago|||

With the exception of a hot air rework tool, a soldering iron should complete a nice fillet within 3 seconds. Adjustable temperature kits tend to hide the skills needed to work with the thermal mass of the iron itself.

Soldering with an iron:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvl_KYif9zA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RXugDd0xik

Drag soldering with a hoof tip iron:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUyetZ5RtPs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyele3CIs-U

Hot air techniques (mid size QFN, soic, and other SMD):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v58m-S35s24

Recommended equipment:

WE1010EDU for fine and medium work (remember the 3 second fillet rule)

https://www.amazon.com/Weller-WE1010EDU-Soldering-Education-...

A set of hoof and screwdriver tips:

https://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Weller-WE1010-Soldering-ETSET...

Flux and solder wick for cleaning pad areas on PCB:

https://www.amazon.com/Lesnow-Desoldering-Electronics-Disass...

CREWORKS 858D cheap hot air tool for basic SMD rework:

https://www.amazon.com/CO-Z-Soldering-Temperature-Desolderin...

1. never use metal wool to clean the iron tip coating

2. Before use, clean by dragging a hot iron across water dampened sponge (or paper) to smear off oxidized material.

3. Never use Bismuth solder, it was invented by fools for fools. Also, indium contamination can make you go bald.

4. Your iron should choose one (and only one) of the following

i. Sn63/Pb37 No-Clean eutectic solder for low temperature industrial machinery

ii. RoHS compliant SAC305 Lead-Free No-Clean Solder

5. No Clean means the flux core in the solder may be left on the work. However, it is recommended to clean it off with 99% IPA.

6. Fume extraction blows crud outdoors, and charcoal filters just makes crud smell nice.

7. Practice PCB kits are cheap, and getting 2 in case you cook something by inserting it backwards may be wise.

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/soldered-electron...

Best of luck =3

BenjiWiebe 1 hour ago||

Why not use brass wool? I've used it for a long time and not noticed any problems. My soldering iron tip looks and works great.

Joel_Mckay 48 minutes ago||

Brass wool is often just copper plated steel, and will damage the plating. Thus, pin holes in the tips iron, nickel, or chrome plating begin to pit the copper core.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/brass-sponge-has-rui...

Anecdotally, all wool seems to accumulate abrasive crud, various amalgamated solder waste, melted plastics, and trimmed bits of steel etc.

Best of luck =3

analog31 14 hours ago||

I've used pretty good soldering stations at work and at home. But I needed to set up a new station at my workplace, and asked our best technician to recommend a new unit. He recommended Hakko FX-971, and I got one despite the price (to my employer), with 3 sizes of tips.

It was a true splurge, but I love it. Warm-up in 15 seconds, and the tips are integrated with the heaters so there's no thermal contact to worry about. Tiny and big tips both work great. You can change tips while they're hot.

At home I have a typical Weller station, and it's OK for the electronics side business that I run, but nothing like that Hakko.

... and I love soldering.

brendamn 5 hours ago||

I enjoy soldering. I enjoy using solder paste, being a human pick and place machine, and then putting boards in the oven. I enjoy building physical devices.

But then I had a hardware startup and learnt something about myself.

I enjoy building one or two of something. I absolutely hate building anything more than that.

tamimio 15 hours ago||

I disagree, it’s a joy actually, shame that jobs that involve soldering don’t pay well, yes, even embedded engineers aren’t paid that well plus soldering is less than 10% of the work.

billfor 15 hours ago||

I hate to say I love the fumes - that rosin smell is unique. Did many soldering projects in an enclosed area back when I was a kid. Everyone worked that way years ago. I wonder if the fumes kill more people than being neurotic about the fumes.

jazzyjackson 14 hours ago||

I had a friend that taught with leaded solder and say 'you can wash your hands, but you can't wash your lungs', and considered the fumes from lead-free solder as more exotic and cancerous than burning rosin. Lead free is regulated to prevent the metal from getting into the environment on a large scale, there's not health regulations around what gets burned off when hitting lead-free solder with a soldering gun at the wrong temperature. It's meant to be cooked in an oven with ventilation away from humans.

userbinator 6 hours ago|||

It probably varies; some people are allegic to rosin, some develop an allergy from long-term exposure, and others seem to effectively be immune to it.

foobarian 14 hours ago|||

Yeah I grew up with it too. Also the smell of cigarettes and coffee typical of so many communist government offices brings back pleasant memories.

PunchyHamster 14 hours ago||

lead-free solder fluxes tho... they are fucking vile stench

articsputnik 5 hours ago|

Nice poem.

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