What is Soldering: Definition and 36 Discussions

Soldering (AmE: , BrE: ) is a process in which two or more items are joined together by melting and putting a filler metal (solder) into the joint, the filler metal having a lower melting point than the adjoining metal. Unlike welding, soldering does not involve melting the work pieces. In brazing, the work piece metal also does not melt, but the filler metal is one that melts at a higher temperature than in soldering. In the past, nearly all solders contained lead, but environmental and health concerns have increasingly dictated use of lead-free alloys for electronics and plumbing purposes.

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  1. StellarisVoid

    I need a functioning Soldering Iron....

    Hello, I have made a few circuits before, and I attempted to transfer it onto stripboards. I am not sure what the problem is, but it went terrible. I was using a Holife Soldering Iron (I don't know the model) and some lead-free solder I got from Bitsbox that is supposed to melt really well at...
  2. A

    Fixing a Broken Soldering Iron: Repairing vs. Battery-Powered Options

    1 Is it possible to repair a Soldering iron which is not working? 2 Can we design and construct a Soldering iron working on Batteries instead of AC mains supply?
  3. D

    Soldering station fume hood design

    Good day all, I am currently building a fume hood for a soldering station which will exhaust air to the outside world via filtration. As I would like to maintain constant negative pressure inside the hood, even in the event of back-draft from outside due to inclement weather, or one too many...
  4. kolleamm

    Electrical Efficient Soldering for LED Chips: Exploring Options and Services Available

    Hi, We are currently working on a project that uses LED chips. Each chip has 4 contacts that need wires soldered onto them. The chip is about 1" x 1", with the contacts being fairly small. What would be the most practical way to accomplish this? Does anybody know any reliable companies that...
  5. J

    Electrical Can I use a 220V Soldering Iron in the US?

    Will 220 volt 50 Hz solder element work in USA?
  6. Wrichik Basu

    Comparing different soldering irons

    In a recent thread of mine, a conclusion was reached that the 25W soldering iron that I own currently, won't go too far. It can successfully solder THT and SMD components on a PCB, but it fails when soldering wires rated for AC 15A 220V. I was advised by many to buy a second-hand Weller, but...
  7. Wrichik Basu

    Troubleshooting Soldering: My Experience with a 25W Iron

    I have a 25W soldering iron. I am trying to learn this art from Youtube. From the videos, it seems that soldering is not much difficult. But in practice, it just doesn't work out for me. For example, consider this video among a few thousands on this topic. You can see how easily the solder...
  8. S

    Plumbing Soldering brass fittings to copper

    When soldering a brass fitting (e.g. https://www.pexuniverse.com/1-pex-x-3-4-pex-brass-pex-copper-fitting-adapter-lead-free-brass ) to copper (e.g. a 3/4 inch copper coupling) I think there is a danger that copper gets hot enough to melt the solder, but the brass fitting (being more massive)...
  9. G

    Wood/Glass/Metal Soldering Steel Shotgun Top Rib: Tips Before Spot Welding

    ... Shotgun top rib back on to barrels. I’ve sanded it bright, degreased and fluxed with RMA flux. The 50/50 tin/lead solder just won’t run into the joint, no matter how hot I get the steel. Any tips before I spot weld it?
  10. T

    May I use (is it safe) a 30 year old soldering iron?

    I am very new to electronics and only use it as a hobby. My father bought the soldering iron, but never used it. Manufactured in East Germany (DDR). It came with some kind of a "dark cream" and a white thingy - I do not know what are those for. I have started to look at videos on Youtube "how to...
  11. R

    Length of a 60/40 soldering lead that is 1lb and 0.8mm dia?

    what is the Length of a 60/40 soldering lead that is 0.453kg and 0.8mm in diameter? i could not find the volume of the thing so is there any other way to go around this? i could also not find the density of the 60/40 solder. so yeah I am asking here if anybody knows thank you
  12. J

    Making a 12-24v DC variable power supply

    Homework Statement So, for a school project I have to make a resistance soldering iron. As far as I know, this requires a high current going through high resistance wire (such as stainless steel in my case). I need to make this run from a standard 120v 15A wall outlet. I have figured out so far...
  13. IsVictor

    Watts to heat in soldering iron tip

    Hello, I have problem. I'm haveing my soldering iron tips oxidize very fast. I need to know what wattage to use to get melting point of solder. I think I'm overheating my tips. The melting point of the solder I have is 221C (430F). Is there a formula to calculate temperature from wattage input...
  14. C

    Soldering High Voltage Capacitors

    Hi guys! I am fairly new to the forums so thank you for having me here :) I just wanted to ask some of you guys here who have a better knowledge about high voltage capacitors than me. I am creating a lightning impulse voltage generator as my final year project and have been provided with most...
  15. S

    Soldering PSI Rating: Connecting Air Tank & Valve

    How much PSI can solder take if used on 1/4" threads to connect a air tank and a valve. I think without the solder it will leak air because the threads aren't perfect and i am using a CO2 tank
  16. kolleamm

    Soldering small pins on IC to a board

    I need some guidance on how to solder those tiny IC pins to their electronics board. I have seen some videos on YouTube where they basically slide the iron across the pins and they all solder perfectly without any bridging between them. How is this possible? Is there a capillary force involved...
  17. Salvador

    Soldering iron, need higher voltage

    hey folks, so here's the deal, I have a isolation transformer that I use for my self wound irons.one of them is working good , heats up nicely and i solder with it all the time, the other one is an old iron , its bigger i want to use it were bigger parts need to be soldered. heres the problem...
  18. J

    I saw something unexplainable while soldering

    I am looking for physical explanations for an event I observed. I am a beginner in soldering, bought some chapo solder iron, random solder tip and a soldering material with "Sn", "Pb" and "Cu" it seems. It's called "Elektronik Löndraht". Now, when I was soldering tiny 2mm spaced circuit...
  19. M

    Troubleshooting a 350 Ohm Strain Gauge Installation

    Hello, I was wondering if anyone can help me out with this one. I am installing a 350 ohm strain gauge as shown in attached figure. I am expecting to see 350ohm value between terminal 1 and 2. I have checked the values for the following terminals. 1) 5 & 6 = 350ohm (PASS) 2) 3 & 4= 350ohm...
  20. G

    Question about the pic soldering

    I am learning SMD soldering. Probably need to solder a pic microcontroller with lot of pins. I found this tutorial. https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/101 Not sure if any of you try out that method before. Thank you.
  21. adoion

    IC Sensitivity to Temperature and Flux Conductivity

    How sensitive are ICs to temperature? I recently replaced a digital signal processor IC (IC:cxd3098aq) Sony made on a PlayStation 2 and while doing so I heated the chip first to remove it, then I re-balled all the pads and then put the new chip on the pads applied some flux in the form of paste...
  22. M

    ? about Soldering Iron Tip Care

    I have a Weller WTCP station (antique) that I just bought new tips for. I read in some tip reviews that the new "lead-free" technology has ruined the lifespan of tips. Does anyone have any tricks or hints to lengthen the lifespan of these new tips? Any process that can improve the tip? Any...
  23. H

    Vibration of a diaphragm pump in a soldering hot air station

    All, I am an engineer that occasionally needs to modify or rework circuit boards. I have a hot air rework station that uses a diaphragm pump to push air through a heating element. The result is air up to 550 degrees celcius. I can effectively rework most circuit boards. Unfortunately the...
  24. M

    Where can I find reliable resources to learn SMD soldering techniques?

    I'm not sure if I'm in the right place or not, but this seemed like the closest match to the question. Can anybody give me some suggestions on how/where to learn to solder surface mount components well? I know there are lots of youtube/etc videos on the topic, but I don't want to pick up bad...
  25. K

    How can I prevent my soldering iron from turning black and smoking?

    Hi guys, I bought a soldering iron the other day and I was doing some soldering for quite a while (It was one maybe 10-15 mins) and then the metal before the tip started to turn black and smoke was coming out of it, Is there anyway to prevent this as let's face it, it's a lot less than ideal...
  26. P

    How can I fix my soldering iron that won't heat up?

    Hi all, i have ordered a 30W/230V soldering iron for doing some hobby projects online. First instance when i tried to use soldering iron i found the time it took to get heated up was very huge, some how i managed. After some several uses now when i am trying to use it is not getting heated. I...
  27. S

    Connecting Wires: Questions on Soldering & Tapping into an Add-a-Circuit

    Hey guys, i have a few basic soldering and wire connecting questions and would like you guys' help since I am not familiar with wiring. Basically I have 2 wires that I want to tap into the "add-a-circuit" pictured below. What kind of connector is the one in blue? If I want to tap 2 wires into...
  28. S

    Will soldering be an effective method for constructing a microwave resonator?

    So I'm about to construct a TE102 microwave resonator from folded copper sheeting. I'm planning to fold a U shape and join it to the last side with silver solder. Is this going to work well? I'm planning on making good physical contact through accurate folding, and then securing the pieces...
  29. J

    Where Can I Find Practice Kits for Surface Mount Drag Soldering?

    Do you guys know where I can buy some dummy parts and boards that I can practice drag soldering with? I would like to give it a try, but I don't want to ruin expensive working components.
  30. J

    Which Weller Soldering Station to Buy? WESD51, WD1001, or WD1002

    I want to buy a soldering station. Fry's has three different Weller stations all for the same price; the WESD51, WD1001, and the WD1002. Can you tell me which one you would prefer and why? http://www.frys.com/product/4865190?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG"...
  31. H

    Changing resistance on soldering iron

    So being curious, I opened up my cheapo radioshack battery powered soldering iron and to my surprise there was basically just a resistor and a contact switch which connected to the batteries and the soldering tip. Does this seem correct or am I mistaken. My purpose for opening it is because...
  32. B

    Soldering Copper Pipes: Is Heat Direction a Factor?

    I have been told that to solder properly the source of heat is to be directed at the bottom of object to be soldered (6 o'clock), Particularly, During a soldering operation to join two copper pipes.When I asked why that is, I was told it was due to convection distributing the heat around the...
  33. 0

    How can I solder and glue extremely small components?

    Today I have soldered my first 0603 metric smd device to wires under the microscope. This is extremely tedious. 0.04 mm dia wire is readily available, and I know for devices like magnetic heads in hard disks, these things are being done commercially. How do they do it? How do they solder and...
  34. P

    Soldering Inconel and ceramics

    i am doing some research for my university involving soldering an Inconel to a ceramic. i am new to soldering in general, and I am new to this lab. the inconel is nickle-chromium (dont know the composition) and i think the ceramic is Ti-oxide/Zn-oxide/Zirconium-oxide or something. basically...
  35. J

    Soldering tap points onto a coil

    Hello All, I'm making a long coil for some experiments and I want to put some tap points onto the coil without actually cutting the wire. I was wondering if anyone knows of a simple way to do it? The coil is made out of insulated 22 gauge wire (regular not mag wire) wrapped on a core that...
  36. G

    Choosing the Right Soldering Wire Material: Advice & Tips

    Soldering Wire?? What kind of material is used for making a soldering wire?? I mean, what should be the properties of the material?? Can anyone help me out for this??
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