Shaky handed soldering

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greypoet
 
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Joined: Thu Mar 21, 2013 1:23 pm

Shaky handed soldering

Post by greypoet »

Is there a soldering tool with the grip VERY close to the tip? I shake some and when using a normal soldering iron, the range of the tip can be about half an inch. Unless someone makes SMD components in the 3X size, I may have a problem.
Thanks, jim

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2011 11:42 am

Re: Shaky handed soldering

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Unfortunately, soldering irons all pretty much have the same dimensions.

If you're doing SMD, you might want to make stencils and use a reflow oven for soldering SMD.
Here's a tutorial on making stencils:
http://rayshobby.net/blog/?p=1246

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Shaky handed soldering

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

A trick I use when soldering SMT parts, or when soldering in tight spaces: get a piece of phone wire 3-4" long, strip about 1-1/2" of insulation off one end, and crimp the smallest loop you can into the end.

What you get is an auxiliary soldering iron tip with an SMT-sized solder reservoir.

Touch the tip of your actual iron to the wire about 1/2" back from the end and heat the copper. If you press the loop against the end of your solder roll, you'll pick up just about the right amount of solder to make an SMT joint. Pull the iron away and let the wire cool, dip the blob of solder in flux, then place the blob against the pad you want to solder. Touch the iron to the wire to heat it up again and the solder will melt. If you've positioned things correctly, the molten solder will seep onto the pad and the component. When you pull the loop away, enough solder will stay with the pad and part to make a good joint.

the big advantage is that you can position everything cold, and then nothing actually touching the joint moves when you apply the heat. The contact point between the wire and the iron isn't critical, and you'll get a feel for how the heat behaves after you've done it for a while.

greypoet
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Mar 21, 2013 1:23 pm

Re: Shaky handed soldering

Post by greypoet »

That sounds interesting and doable. I'll give it a try. Thanks!

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