How To Solder Wires Together Soldering Circuit Boards Solder Tutorial Beginners Soldering Metals

#soldering
David Riddle / 818-314-7275

In this 90 minute comprehensive video you will learn all about the many aspects of soldering. Dave will cover the following topics in-depth:
What is tin lead solder?
Tools required for soldering
Flux, oxidization, and soldering metals.
Splicing single wires together.
Splicing standard lamp cord.
Soldering wires to connectors.
Soldering, de-soldering printed circuit boards.

After teaching you about the basics of tin lead solder, Dave will show the many tools that you will need to solder in different types of situations. Dave will show you many types of soldering irons available, and what each soldering iron is for. If you have ever wondered what type of soldering iron or soldering gun to buy for a certain application, this video is for you. Dave will than explain what oxidization is and how to get rid of it by using different types of flux. If you don't understand what oxidization is, Dave is going show you an examples of it that you can actually see, and he will show you how flux removes oxidization. Dave will demonstrate how to splice regular wires and lamp wires. Next time you do home repairs, you will want to watch these two sections. Finally Dave takes us on a deep dive on soldering printed circuit boards, showing you how to solder components onto a PCB and how to remove them. He will also show you the tools required to remove the solder from the PCB. If you want to get into electronics this is the video for you.

If you are a beginner or a seasoned soldering pro Dave guarantees that you will learn something from this video. Please ask questions in the comment section and Dave will answer it and we may address your question in the next video.

Thanks for watching and let us know what kind of video you would like us to make.

0:00 - Intro what you will learn
2:15 - Chapter breakdown
3:12 - What is tin lead soldering?
8:25 - Tools required for soldering
27:30 - Flux, oxidization and soldering metals
42:50 - Splicing single wires
51:00 - Splicing lamp cord
57:06 - Soldering wires to connectors
1:04:30 - Soldering and de-soldering circuit boards
1:28:30 - Conclusion

[adnacraigo]

You have a very good channel that helps people do everyday repairs, maintenance.

[bobwalance]

Dave - This is an excellent overview of the soldering process. One nasty issue of using no-lead solder back when RoHS was first introduced was the appearance of the so-called 'tin whiskers' formations in high-density circuitry. This has been helped with the introduction of other elements (e.g., copper and silver) in the solder alloys. However, in my experience, nothing flows so well or shines and brightly as leaded solder. I have been soldering with lead for over 50 years, and as you know, David, I am completely noorrmal.

[plakor]

I went ahead and followed your advice on type and use of CA glue; purchased the micro tubing and so on. So useful! Thank you.

[timhonan]

I've watched all of your YouTubes so far. I've enjoyed each one and look forward to many more. Thanks from Australia.

[zulkhairihakim]

Hi sir. Your video has taught me many things I thought I already knew. Thank you for sharing your knowledge

[lancefields]

I’m liking your videos so far. Would love to see a deep dive on heat shrink tubing.

[AuntJemimaGames]

I know this isn't really about soldering iron selection, but in my opinion, the Pinecil soldering iron is the best bang for your buck these days.
For under $30, you get an electronically controlled iron that heats up in seconds. It runs on USB-C, has electronic temp settings and an automatic standby mode for safety. Excellent ergonomics, too—it's quite small!

The tips are a bit pricier as they come with an integrated ceramic heating element, but for that functionality you really can't go wrong! Their short tips are the best ones.

I have no financial incentive to shill it, but I have one and really love the iron.

[S.Clause]

Your camera person has such a good eye for where you’re going next

[billmaguire]

Thank you, David. Very informative. I'm going to change my solder. Oh, and you pronounce solder correctly here in the US. Nice Emmy!

[johnbravo]

Camera man you are getting ahead of yourself😆

[goodun]

At about 26:00, the fiberglass bristle brushes are known as "scratch brushes" and they are fantastic for removing the oxide layer from whatever you're about to solder: the terminals of a switch or potentiometer, the foils and pads of a circuit board, a metal chassis where you want to make a ground connection, etc. You can typically buy a cheap set of 3 Asian made scratch brushes for less than $15, usually containing not only the fiberglass brush but also a brass wire brush and a steel wire brush, all enclosed in retractable housings, sort of like a ballpoint pen (twisting the top extends or retracts the bristles). The cheap sets, however, might not have the ability to replace the fiberglass brushes, which do wear out as you use them, and the overall mechanisms aren't built very well. You can buy better quality, German-made scratch brushes which are much higher quality and do allow you to replace worn out fiberglass brushes (buy some spares); the brass or steel brushes are unlikely to wear out, but you may find that you rarely use those and the fiberglass bristle brushes do both the most accurate, fine-grained t cleaning, and yet are least likely to damage anything. Just watch out for bits of thin glass fiber getting stuck in your fingers, From where they can be difficult to locate and extract with tweezers (sometimes a piece of really sticky tape works better). They'll fester in your flesh a bit and bother you for a few days and eventually work their way out, but you might prefer to avoid that by wearing gloves. I used them every day at work for years (audio repair shop) and they're fantastic tools, well worth the occasional hassle of a sore finger while the glass bit works its way

[chakravarthiamithraghav]

Hello.
I hope I get a solution for my problem. I make MDF cabinets. Quite a lot of them infact. After they cure, it all looks good. Even after puttying and priming the surface everything seems perfect. While everything seems perfect I paint it with solvent based PU paint coatings. The end product comes out good, but The problem I am facing is that the joints shows up through coatings it looks like a fine piece of glass art has a deep crack right in joints.

[goodun]

An important caution for newbie's to soldering: *do not use acetone to clean circuit boards*! Use pure alcohol, which is far less toxic, less flammable, and won't make you dizzy like breathing acetone fumes will. Acetone may damage some plastics (including plastic body transistors, diodes and capacitors) and probably will remove the printed labeling from components (it's a common ingredient in paint removers). Acetone is likely carcinogenic, and the fumes are highly explosive; it's far worse for you than working with leaded solder. Rosin flux dissolves easily in alcohol and use of acetone isn't necessary; don't do it! I've been repairing electronics for 55

[goodun]

This video being overly long and getting off into the weeds at times, here is a synopsis that also contains some of my own decades of experience.

To clarify, 60/40 solder changes gradually from a liquid to a solid as it cools and therefore you have to be careful not to disturb the solder joint for several seconds after you take the soldering iron away from it, because if you move the wires or the leads of the part while the solder is still kind of "plastic" you will end up with a so-called "cold" solder joint which appears grainy, rough and dull, and makes for an unreliable electrical and mechanical connection. 63/37 "eutectic" changes almost immediately from liquid to solid as the connection cools and so it's easier to make a reliable connection with less chance of developing a cold solder joint due to movement of the parts while the connection cools. That being said, I have used 6040 solder for decades; these days I mostly use a Kester solder formulation that that also contains 2% silver but this is more expensive and it's not really necessary for most electronics hobbyists. I should caution the hobbyist that when repairing a broken solder joint on an existing piece of equipment one occasionally encounters a scenario where the existing solder works poorly when you attempt to touch up an existing connection with your own solder; you may get what looks to be grainy, cold-soldered connection. This this particularly obvious when the device was made with lead-free solder and you are using leaded solder for the repair work, , in which case you should remove all the old solder from the connection first before resoldering with the solder you are using. It is important to note that lead-free solders require a higher soldering temperature then lead solder does, and the flux contained within lead-free solder are very acidic, corrosive, and electrically conductive, very different from the typically non-conductive, non-corrosive rosin flux used with and contained within 60/40 or similar lead/tin solder. It is important to realize that buying solder blindly off of ebay or Amazon may provide you with an alloy of unknown qualities from Asia that may not work well (and counterfeit labeled garbage products are all too common). Buy only name brand solder from well-known, reputable electronics supply specialists! The same applies to rosin flux. Acid fluxes are necessary for soldering copper water pipe or sheetmetal but are completely wrong for any type of electronics work because they will cause corrosion of the electrical connection eventually and it's almost impossible to remove every last trace of the acid flux. I honestly don't know why a demonstration of soldering sheet metal with a torch was shown here because you will *NEVER* use an open flame for soldering electronics, and you certainly don't want the rosin to catch fire and burn. PS, I learned to "sweat" copper waterpipe over 50 years ago, and never would I attempt to solder copper or brass that is as oxidized and tarnished as the brass strips shown here until.I had cleaned them first with sandpaper and wire brush (or in the case of electronics, with the fiberglass bristle scratch brush). In any and all types of soldering, cleanliness is next to godliness and no matter what flux you use it can never compensate for mechanical cleaning of the parts involved first. This is especially true of soldering electronic components!

I do not recommend use of lead-free solder for hobbyists: It wets and flows poorly, is more subject to breaking down under extremes of heat, cold and vibration, and the flux is so active that any traces of it left behind can cause degradation or corrosion of connections and perhaps electrical conductivity across the fiberglass insulating material. The higher temperatures necessary and the corrosive fluxes contained within will shorten the lifetime of soldering iron tips, and you will probably find the fumes highly acrid and irritating to your nostrils. Rosin flux, on the other hand, is made from pine tree resins (similar to the rosin that violinists and cellists put on their bows) and smells kind of like a Christmas tree when it's heated. Some people might find it mildly irritating and a very few people are allergic to it but I've been working with this stuff for many decades and it doesn't bother me in the slightest. Work in a well ventilated room and use a fan to blow the fumes away and you'll probably experience no discomfort, but if it does bother you then you can buy dedicated devices to suck up the soldering fumes and filter them from the air or exhaust them to the outside. By the way, the melting point of lead solder is about 500° below the boiling point of lead and so the fumes don't really contain any toxic metal to be wary of. You may get some lead oxide film on your hands from handling the solder but it isn't absorbed through the skin; simply wash your hands before you eat, or wear thin rubber gloves if you prefer.

An important distinction should be made between ordinary Rosin paste flux and what is sometimes referred to as "soldering paste"; there is a special mix of powdered solder and flux that is used for soldering "ball grid" or "VGA" microprocessors to circuit boards; the rosin flux shown in the video does not contain powdered solder. Again, I strongly recommend that you buy rosin flux only from reputable electronics supply catalog houses, not from eBay or Amazon, because I have seen acidic fluxes more suitable for soldering sheet metal being marketed to unsuspecting hobbiists. You can also buy liquid flux that has been diluted with alcohol, which is occasionally helpful but it's unnecessarily expensive to buy it in that form; if you really need Rosin flux to be thinner and more liquid, than you can simoly make your own by dissolving some of your paste flux in alcohol.

And a final note about soldering equipment; the best quality tips have a copper core that is plated with steel, because copper is an excellent electrical and thermal conductor, but solder and flux tend to quickly dissolve and oxidize bare copper, and so quality-made tips are plated with steel for longer life. Unfortunately, if you buy your tips on Amazon or ebay they could come from just about anywhere and many are cheap, low-life knockoffs of known name brands. The shape of the tip is also important, and the pointy conical tips supplied with most soldering irons are terrible for most electronics work; watch the soldering of circuit boards in this video, the tip used here is a so-called "chisel" tip, which is a bit of a misnomer because the edge is actually blunted and rounded, but it has 2 flat sides like a chisel does. A chisel tip is good for nearly all circuit board work (except perhaps for working with truly tiny components) and you can solder wires and connectors with it as well. Keep the tip clean and tin it frequently as you work; A damp sponge works okay for tip cleaning, , but I have read that it can create micro fractures and stress cracks in the plating on the tip, and I find that the springy brass wool tip cleaners work even better than the sponge does.

Finally, the key rule to sottering is that wherever possible you should endeavor to make a good mechanical connection before you finalize the electronic connection by adding solder! Twist the wires together in a spiral pattern, or wrap the component lead through the eyelid or terminal and bend it around into a hook or question mark shape, sufficient that it would probably make an okay electrical connection even before you add solder to it. The only proviso here is that you don't want to wrap the component lead so tightly or bend it so close down to the circuit board foils that it would make life difficult for you or another technician if/when that component must be removed (teasing the ckmponent lead with a dental pick to stsrt to unwrap it from the terminal while simultaneously heating it with the soldering iron is no fun, and a vacuum operated desoldering station or desoldering braid may not remove all of the solder). I personally prefer to cut all excess component lead away AFTER soldering the connections, and perhaps leaving a little stub of wire there for the desoldering gun to sit on, or that you can grab with needle nose pliers when you remove the part. Don't bend component leads flat down to the circuit board foils because you won't like it when it's time to remove the part!

[homeprologs]

Good video. See mine too for better soldering method

[s.e.wagger]

The "L" is not silent. Please pronounce it correctly or spell it as "sodder". We speak English as American / Canadian are not languages!!!

[VECORlt]

Do you always fluff yourself up in the beginning of the video?

[ninomaiorano]

His video is very informative, but perhaps a little too long. You’re gonna lose viewers who are impatient so maybe break down your videos for different categories

[brianbrooks]

All that experience but can’t pronounce solder