How to Solder, beginners guide

Soldering is a useful skill, even if you dont use it. Its like knowing how to drive a forklift. Yeah, you may never want to do it, but its nice knowing you can.

First of all, you will need a quality soldering iron or gun. Soldering irons are long and look something like a screwdriver, have a plastic handle with a long rod sticking out of it. Soldering guns look more like a hot glue gun. Pistol grip with a long rod sticking off of it or sometimes a metal wire that makes a horseshoe shape comming off the end of it. In the automotive/mobile electronics field you will want a soldering iron. Having both is just something "extra" Since i perform my job outside sometimes, or in places where A/C power isnt an option, i chose a Matco butane model. T110k and PPSK are both great choices. A can of butane costs 2$ and lasts me weeks. These get really hot really fast and have adjustable heat output and specialty tips that come with them.

Next is to choose a good solder. We can debate all day about lead free/leaded solder... this is your own choice. Lead/Tin solder melts faster, but does contain lead which has health risks. Leadfree/Tin solder is usually much more solid (as in, harder to bend/stiff) and takes longer to heat up, but has no health risks (that i know of). Either way, you want to choose a solder that has a "rosin core".

Now you want to take your soldering iron out. If its new, fill it up/plug it in and away you go. If its an old one, you will want to heat the tip up slightly (not even enough to melt solder) and take a wet sponge and clean the crap out of the tip. If anything is burnt onto the tip, such as wire insulation, this will work against you and the tip should be replaced.

With your iron plugged in and just hot enough to melt solder (not too hot) you want to "tinn" the tip of it. Take the solder and apply a small ammount of solder to the tip of it. Not enough so the solder drips off, but enough to cover the tip.

Tinning the tip does 2 things, and should be done before you make a connection, and before you put your iron away for a while. Doing this before you make your connection helps to heat the wire up faster, by making a complete "iron tip to wire" connection. Doing this when your done ensures that the tip will stay clean and stop it from getting scratched and make the tip last alot longer.

Next you need to prep your wire. If your making a repair to an old connection, or something that wasnt done correctly, you will want to use a little bit of flux paste on it to clean it up and make it ready for solder.

Doing remote starters for example, you dont have to "cut" the ignition wires to make your connection. I wont reveal how i do it, but will say there is a tool you can use to strip the wire without ever cutting it. Most people use a sharp knife or razor blade and strip back about an 1 1/2inch of insulation. Here, you can use an awl and poke through the bare wire, being careful not to damage the wire. Next you will slide your R/S wire through the "eye" of the exsisting wire and wrap it around. You must be careful not to slide through too much bare wire but must use enough so the wire, while wrapped around it can hang there freely and not move AT ALL. Use a pair of needle nose pliers to squeeze it down tight.(also gives you 2 sides that are flatter than the others)

Now, you are ready to apply heat. If its a 10-12gauge wire, it will require a little more heat than if it was a 14-16gauge wire(which takes seconds to heat up).

Tinn the tip of the iron. Hold it to the bare wire for a few seconds. Touch your solder to the opposite side of the wire (the other flat spot), and after the wire gets hot enough, the solder will SLOWLY start to melt into the wire. This is easily seen because the solder that is slowly melting  will quickly cover the wires.

After the wire is completely covered in solder, your ready to remove the heat.

Let the joint cool for several seconds. If your joint is "GOOD"  you will be able to see every strand of the wire, twisting and turning. The joint will also be very shiny, and free of "globs". If the joint is bad, it will look more grey/blue and be very dull.

Your basic solder joint is complete.

Tips:

If using a portable butane model, leave the iron on "low" the entire time, it will go much faster and you wont have to wait for it to get hot ever.

If using either matco model above, take the little steel tray inside the car with you so you can rest the iron in it when your not using it and not burn anything in the car. If your particular model doesent have a tray, you can fabricate one yourself. I used a metal sunglasses case and simply snipped an opening out of the end for the handle to rest in. I also made a holder out of a few coat hangers that i hang off of the brake pedal for use in vehicles with small floorboards.

Feel free to add anything else..or make it sticky whatever

Good luck!

Awesome guide!!  Thank you very much!

--mindctrl

Thanx for the info. As they say you learn something new everyday.

 The butane soldering irons are nice, and the hot exhaust is handy for shrinking the heat shrink, but a trick I use sometimes is powering my 35 watt electric soldering iron with an inverter.. You can pick up a 350 watt inverter at BJ's or Sam's Club for less than $30. Handy for doing remote work where you need some A/C power, and no outlets to be found.

 Regards,

 Jim

Yea this is  a good guide too bad I use my Snap On torch that does the job in a few seconds.

male end of a butt connector? Butt connectors are females, if your dealing with a "male" its not a butt connector.

Regardless of what situation you are in, solder = higher quality, more conductive, longer lasting joint period. The ONLY connectors i have in my collection anymore are ring terminals and spade connectors. Hell i retired my crimping tool because i dont even crimp the ring/spade connectors, i solder them.

So you want to take 2 seperate wires, connect them together, and make 1 solid strait peice of wire out of it? Strip back both ends, connect the 2 wires together, either by wrapping it, or by fanning our the strands and forming a "handshake" with the wires. Solder them together, and cover it and you will only be able to tell something is there by seeing what you covered it with.

Covering. Heatshrink would be your best friend. In situations where you dont actully cut the wire, 3M/Scotch Super 33+ tape is most excellent. Either way, if you use quality tape, or quality heatshrink, in combination with solder, The joint will be a permenant as you need it to be and last forever.

Why solder over butt connectors? Because over time butt connectors tend to corrode, sometimes dont make great contact, look like crap, whatever... plus you dont have to buy anything but a roll of solder every now and then

I've got a question:  I've done soldering over the years and it's nothing new, but I've forgotten some of the basics.  Perhaps you could refresh my memory.  If I decided to solder my speaker connections instead of standard crimp connectors , would I fry the voice coil?  Do I need to heat sink, and if so, where?

The reason why I ask is becuase I fried a 12" sub of mine 8 years ago when trying to solder the wire from the vc back on to the connector.

bryceyaworsky, whenever I have room, I use hemostats on either side of my the solder connection to be made to act as heat sinks, thusly protecting any nearby heat sensitive components. another tip is when working on tightly packed circuit boards, use box cutter blades to act as shields by laying them between the solder point and sensitiveparts (chip legs, etc)

also, you can buy tinning compound, very cheap in a solid form contained in a small tin. it doubles as a tinner, and a tip cleaner. when doing a lot of soldering, or for extended times, use a wet sponge (wet with water), occasionally wiping the tip over it to keep it clean. It will temporarily cool the tip but keeping it clean will result in far less headaches and faster solder times.

an awesome tool is the vacu-suck (lol, made that name up) used to remove old solder. simply depress the plunger which remains c**ked and ready. heat up the solder to be removed and then hold the sucker's tip directly over. press the button and bam, the liquid solder is sucked into the unit for easy disposal later. no batteries or external power needed, yay!

flux-paste.. USE IT! you will fall in love but it is a good idea to remove any excess after through soldering

Great guide  -  thanks bud

How many watts are the soldering irons?  You should be using at least a 100/140 watt.  What kind of solder are you using?

To the folks asking about solder iron watts and not being able to heat large gauge wires. For most of the soldering I perform, 15-30 watts is enough. The problem with not being able to heat a large gauge wire is probable a small tip on your soldering iron. The tip should match the job. Small tip for say a lead on a transistor, 1/4 watt resistor, 24 awg wire. The larger the wire or component, the larger the tip should be. For tinning 16 - 10 awg I have a wedged tip thats about 3/16" wide.

tombrooklyn wrote:

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I was trying to find that Matco soldering gun.   www.matcotools.net doesn't seem to work.  Is it working for anyone else?     TomBk

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I think it's very unsafe to solder if you have to be underneath your work. Soldered connections are good, but no installation is worth taking molten solder in the face.

In cases like this, it's better to get the wires down where you can work with them or work without being directly under what's being soldered.

just my .02 on that.

markcars, I like to use the chrome aligator clips for that kind of stuff. I find them very helpful, the chrome doesn't tin very well, so typically you can feed all the solder you want and still remove the clip without trouble. I've only had one stick once, but there was lots of heat and extra flux involved.

Soldering appears to be a mess for me. I plan to use plugs. What do you folks recommend?

I have access to wire for indoor buildings. Wires appear to be a bit stiffer. Can I use it?

Soldering appears to be a mess for me. I plan to use plugs. What do you folks recommend?

I have access to wire for indoor buildings. Wires appear to be a bit stiffer. Can I use it?

Soldering is the most permanent install. It's more reliable. Had a customer that insisted on crimped connectors and plugs. He came back twice because a speaker wasn't working. That's what happens when you have an offroad vehicle with tunes and no solder. We went back through and soldered the speaker connections, all 14 of them. I always guarantee my work, but this customer thought they knew better, this correction cost him extra. Solder first, Ask questions later! If you are refering to crimp connectors, the crimp itself is more consistent from one crimp to the next. Soldering requires a little more consistancy and skill. If you are using plugs and recepticles, the wires connecting to them may require soldering or crimp pins.

Stereo wire has many small strands. Electrical current flows on the outside edges of each strand, there's capacitive/inductive qualities, and a hole bunch more technical guru stuff. The more small strands, the better. There are application exceptions. Solid core building wire is not appropriate for mobil use. The quality (impurities/oxygen content) and flexibility (vibration in all vehicles) just aren't there. You may have noticed the existing wires in your vehicle are all multi-stranded. Take a look at a stereo wiring kit at your local dealers shop. If the wire in the building is for telephones and you're running a remote amp control, that might be okay. In other words don't use it!

Current travels (on the) outside (surface of) the copper in AC.. current travels inside the copper with DC..

https://www.bcae1.com/trnsfrmr.htm

 Just something to make your head hurt even more..

 Jim

how would I solder to a connector, like say for my battery terminal connector.  would I just use the same method of soldering two wires together?  Should I crimp the connector and then solder?

Nice tutorial!

Soldering's not always the way though! got three mark 3 escorts rallying this year with my wires on them, due to the pressure these motors are under the very first one i did i soldered everything, don't want a rally car with 'wired by CHK' written on the side breaking down in front of crowds cos a wire came loose! BIG mistake!!!

these vehicles have very firm suspension, they're racing over rough tracks at 100 mph +, when you solder a wire you create a rigid section of flex, not good, when that wire flexes normally there is no point where it is totally rigid, crimp connectors having a tapered lead in, and also only connecting by pressure rather than being connected to each and every strand of the flex do not seem to create this weak point.

in cases where vibration is an issue i would always(almost always) crimp! the almost is important, butt connectors, severe conditions, no, those joints have to be soldered, or the complete wire replaced, but for spades or rings i use crimps, not the fully insulated type, use the naked ones, strip too much wire and slide it all the way through, crimp as usual then fold the excess back over on itself and insulate with tape.

not dissing soldering in any way, i use it a lot, but not always!!!

In all honesty im flattered that this topic is not only still stickied.. but still active. Been away quite a while and hope you all are doing good!

To the last poster regarding these race vehicles: Im very curious to know general locations of where you had connections fail. In general, if the solder job is done correctly, you end up with a joint that is not only permenant, but consumes far less space than a crimp cap or butt connection. I know with my solder jobs (ovbiously depending on size of wire) the actuall unmoveable portion of the joint is probably half the contact area of a butt connector.

To Flynntech: The most unsafe part of the entire job is simply how hot the tip of the iron gets. In a strange way i get the feeling you are talking about hot solder dripping down onto you? If so, this is not the case if done correctly. If you do as i said before, heat the workpeice up 1st, then let the wire "suck" the solder into it, as long as the workpeice is hot enough, you can unravel an entire spool of solder into the wire and it will continue to "stick" to the wire. Where the hot messy and dangerous drippage comes in is where people heat the solder NOT the workpeice.

Drey: I believe you question was addressed by someone else but please let me elaborate, or try to. The tin component in solder is what makes it so conductive. When you heat the connection and apply the solder, the tin connects the peices and forms a permenant bond. If done correctly, the solder will form a perfect bridge between the peices and give you a lossless connection. Simply using crimp caps or butt connectors doesent form this "lossless" bridge, creating a weak point in the system.

TY: It really all depends on what type of connector you are using. Alot of battery terminal ends sold aftermarket are simply large copper ring terminals without the plastic coating. - How I usually do them is: hold the terminal end in a vice or a pair of pliers. I use my Matco soldering iron without the tip in it. This gives me a mini blowtorch. Heat the connector for a good long time, enough so you can melt solder inside it plus time to get the wire inside it. I usually melt about 8-12inches of standard solder into it, place the battery cable in the end of it and let it cool. You end up with a perfect connection every time.

I still see it all the time. Anywhere i go where someone is soldering improperly. Its rather amusing watching someone heat solder up and letting it "drip" onto their workpeice... then claim they are a pro and do it on every job.

In general, select an iron that is appropriate for your type work. I used a Snapon soldering gun that got hot enough to start glowing.. im talking "dont get close to it cuz the pistol grip will burn you!" In an automotive aplication, this is overkill.

Still cant express how touched I am by this.. Thank you all for your great comments and questions and look foward to seeing you on the boards more often!!

<>Probably the most popular manually applied solder for electronics is rosin core 60% tin / 40% lead (Sn60Pb40).  It has a melting point between 361°F and 374°F.  It is suitable for all surface logging electronics, and for downhole tools that will not be run much over 300°F (solder begins to weaken below its melting point, so it is best to stay well below the melting point for an actual maximum working temperature).  But I have never liked the Sn60Pb40 solder alloy; I prefer eutectic solders.

<>In metallurgy, there is a special kind of alloy referred to as "eutectic".  Eutectic alloys exhibit no plastic range upon melting, and the melting point is lower than that of any other alloy composed of the same constituents in different proportions.  63% tin / 37% lead (Sn63Pb37) is the eutectic alloy of tin and lead and has a specific melting point of 361°F (no melting point range as with Sn60Pb40).  Sn63Pb37 is used extensively in printed circuit board (PCB) assembly applications (wave soldering), and I think it is easier to use in hand soldering applications as well.  Try some 63/37 and I bet you never go back to 60/40.  .025 /.028 inch (about 22 AWG) or .032 inch (about 20 AWG) are good compromise solder wire diameters.

Hi Xracerx,

What is a "plastic range?"

TomBk

tombrooklyn wrote:

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Hi Xracerx,

What is a "plastic range?"

TomBk

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A eutectic alloy melts to become a free running liquid at a single temperature which is lower than the melting point of any of its component elements. The lowest melting point eutectic cadmium alloy fuses at 46.81' C and also contains bismuth, lead, indium and tin. The rapid fusing characteristics of these and the near-eutectic alloys are useful in many temperature sensitive applications. The non-eutectic alloys melt over a range of temperatures and have a 'pasty' range in which they can be easily worked and shaped as solders, fillers and brazes.

I'm about to buy a cordless iron and i'm trying to figure out what one to get.

Has anyone seen the ColdHeat cordless elecrtic soldering iron? Used it? Opinions?

And what about the afore mentioned Butane ones. What do you like best for a cordless iron?

I have a wired one overpowerd to almost 240watts or something. I burn through a tip in 10 seconds if i keep it on, but it sinks the solder right into the wire. But ive been doing more and more work tucked into tight spaces in cars soldering above my head and its just not the best place to lug a big iron with a cord.

Awesome guide by the way

I use the Butane Snap-On version "I think they are all made by the same company" I love it for Solder, Heat Shink, and lighting weed when I get pissed off

I never used the cold heat version. I want to see one work before I buy one.

Has anyone tried the soldering Iron that is sold on tv? It's that one that comes with strippers and is SUPPOSED to work great. Probably another cheap t.v. thing, but I was just wondering.

Austin

       I got the butane solderer, after returning back the ColdHeat that didn't do crap for me.  In my opinion Butane is the best way to go : It's portable, light , easy to handle, adjustable heat and less messy.I'm also surprised at the refill need for the unit , it lasts surprisingly long.          

     About the cancer warning...all soldering tools will have it, as you are working with chemicals+heat.     It's same butane gas that fills up your lighter and no one ever had a problem with that.

So for me - I preffer the butane unit, for the ease of use and the performance.

* Funny thing : the label says that the thing is harmful for the people of  CA , i live in NY - so i guess it wouldn't affect me. ......right.

All this talk about soldering and no pictures!!!!

When soldering you need to make sure the final result is nice and shiney, all the way through. Apply heat to both wires and apply the solder to the WIRE, NOT the iron.

Also, when possible, make sure you have a solid mechanical connection before trying to solder.  This basically means wrap one wire around the other wire tightly so that it is snug before its even soldered.  This is practical in 90% of car soldering, but when it comes to some tach wires you have to settle for whatever you can manage.

Another important thing to try and do is keep all the strands of the wire together.  If the strands get spread out when you solder them they will leave single strands standing straight up.  This isn't that big of a deal, but it hurts like heck when you stab yourself with a single copper strand (especially if its hot still).  Also, these single strands will poke through the electrical tape and could potentially short out.

The above joint was made by me (I don't generally take pictures of other peoples soldering...) and was made by a butane iron I picked up at www.PartsExpress.com.  In my old age I've gotten away  from my Craftsman soldering gun that I cherished as a professional installer because, simply enough, the butane is quicker, easier, and doesn't have to be plugged in.  I don't solder enough to go through a lot of butane, so it works out.

Oh, another important thing is to use the correct heat for the project at hand.  I have a buddy who tried to solder a mod chip on his Playstation using a 30 watt iron (~950 degrees or so).  For most wire (16 ga and smaller) I try to stay around 650 degrees, IF you can control the temp.  My 'nice' iron is a Pace ST45N that features digitally controlled temperature.  You select the temp you want and it maintains it, pretty cool for a soldering iron!

Once you get the hang of soldering you'll quickly see the benefits and will never want to go back to butt connectors.

Remember, when you're done with the joint that shiney solder is good, dull solder is bad!