I need to wire something up, and I have not soldered in 15 years.
Medium wiring, 5 to 24v. Compared to the past : my soldering iron actually has a temp display and i’m using some kind of siringe instead of fat. Any Tips?
I need to wire something up, and I have not soldered in 15 years.
Medium wiring, 5 to 24v. Compared to the past : my soldering iron actually has a temp display and i’m using some kind of siringe instead of fat. Any Tips?
Removed by mod
I do have a flux pen. What temp would I set the iron at? 350-Celcius seemed to work fine.
Depends on the type of solder you have, some melt fine at 350, some need a little bit extra, I think lead free melt at higher temps. Play around with the solder you have, it’s pretty cheap and you can clean it off.
Yes, lead-free is more of a pain to work with in my experience. If the device/wire is already tinned with lead free, it can be doped with leaded solder from the iron to make it behave a little bit more nicely.
350 is good if you’re working on wires, 400 for connecting to boards (only touch the metal and touch it like it’s tissue paper, or just touch the leads since they won’t take damage), 430 for larger parts, 450 and a heat gun only if you know what you’re doing (the line between heating the board enough to attach the part and watching every other part fall off is most easily found by watching all the parts fall off). no-clean flux is a good choice for diy projects, but if something needs to last more than 20 years the flux will cause shorts.
you’re probably going to want to add flux to whatever surface you’re trying to connect, hover your iron over the spot while adding solder to your iron, then force the ball of solder over the connection. you might need to do this multiple times as wire can absorb a lot of solder. have something hold the wires in place as far from where you’re heating if you can, otherwise try to twist the exposed metal together, or twist a single strand of wire around them to keep them connected. you also can’t solder aluminum (at your skill level) so holding it together with tweesers could be an option.
can you describe the parts you’re going to connect? soldering might not be the only option.
Your last sentence nailed it. We need to know what they are trying to solder. Wire to wire… Maybe wire nuts or a bomb splice. Wire to pad or lead, that changes everything.