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StewMac's "Do's And Don'ts" For Soldering!

Timmsie95

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I know there are a lot of you who are diving into soldering thinking it takes a genius to do right, and it is too difficult, or you're worried you'll mess up.
It really isn't that hard, as long as you follow the rules.
This StewMac Article has a few good tricks for getting good results for soldering.
Probably the best advice in the article is DON'T BLOW ON YOUR SOLDER JOINTS. You may feel like it is cooling it faster, but you'll create a cold solder joint.
Also, don't apply heat to your components for too long, or you could damage your components. (Use Cagey's solder lug technique for grounding, rather than the back of the pot!)
Use alligator clip heat sinks where you can, so you don't damage capacitors, resistors, etc.

You can do it!  :icon_thumright:

This may seem obvious to a lot of you, but I've had people ask me about it and they ask questions that seem like a no brainer to me.
 
Personally I'm not too keen on using pencil soldering irons on guitar wiring. I have a pretty fancy soldering/desoldering rig for working on synths and other electronics, but for guitar wiring I like something that's capable of transferring more heat in a shorter timeframe. So I fall back to my 50-year old Wen Model 199 which does just that.
And they leave out what should be rule #1 by my book: One end of the soldering iron is uncomfortably hot. Keep that in mind at all times, also when the iron rolls of your bench and you make a grab for it.
 
ByteFrenzy said:
And they leave out what should be rule #1 by my book: One end of the soldering iron is uncomfortably hot. Keep that in mind at all times, also when the iron rolls of your bench and you make a grab for it.

I learnt the hard way not to catch a dropped soldering iron.

That's my 'don't' when it comes to soldering!
 
It also helps to not put your coffee close to your iron holder. I got a nice spiral burn on my knuckles... touched the coil when i reached for the coffee.  :doh:
 
Oh... and it's NOT normal for the tip of a soldering iron to emit light. If it does, pull the plug. The temperature sensor has quit. Didn't happen to me but a bloke on a synth forum posted the pic. Glowing orange. It was... ehm... enlightening...
 
Also try not to pronounce it like "sodered it", it sounds like you've had an*l sex with the poor guitar.

:redflag:
 
from Dave's World of Fun Stuff Facebook page

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:icon_thumright:

 
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