Soldering...
 

Ok.. i've never soldered before.. anyone wanna do a quick PROPER write up?

Re:Soldering...
 

well, i use the $7 soldering iron from radio-shack. it does a good job. it's easy, just let the bitch heat up, make about a 8" "stretch" of solder, and put the tip of the gun on the wires/whatever your soldering and after a few seconds, put the solder on it. some people use flux, it makes a nicer solder, but i dont use it. (you would put the flux on the solder before melting it-just use a little bit) you gotta be careful though, that ---- gets hot. its easy, just takes a little practice. kinda fun once you get it down. i solder all of my connections that I can.... ;)

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so i heat up the two bare wires and when they're hot dab the solder wire on it and that'll melt the wire and then cool and thats it? cool!

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yeah, it's simple, just get the gun hot and melt the solder with it where you need it. just practice on something of no value.

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No0bs make the mistake of feeding solder INTO the iron as opposed to the part you're soldering. You want to apply the solder to the part, close to the iron's tip, but not on it. Then, let capillary action do the rest. Maybe I could do a video....

-Tim

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What is it that you plan to solder? Depending on the application, you'll get different advice from me.

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Hah hah Mike! Just after you bought some ecu plugs from me you post a how to solder thread. You crack me up. You crazy canadians do things backward.

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i love soldering it is fun. just watch out for skin and hot parts. yeah blistering is not fun.

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heat up the iron.
if it`s been used. get a wet rag and drag the iron tip on it so it scrubs off all the crap/old solder on it
let it heats up again if u had too much fun with the rag.
twist up the two wires that`s getting weld
use the very tip of the iron, touch one side of the twisted wire. wait for like 2 second, stick the solder into the wire where it ALMOST touches the tip of the iron. then ---- start melt onto the bare wire, move the iron alone with the solder until u weld up the whole thing.

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Then again...this is HMT, so you have to ask how much HP it will produce and if the wing will make the soldering faster.

-Tim

Re:Soldering...
 

ohh yeah, i forgot about wiping off the nast old solder on your tip. some people use an old wet rag, i use a sponge. i dont know why, i just do.



everything everyone has said is exactly how to do it.

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wipe off the old solder? ---- I just sand it down the next run :P

Re:Soldering...
 

that is all pretty much how to do it, use a thinner guage solder for PCB's then you do for open wires.

BTW for open wires, DO NOT, wrap solder around two twisted up wires and use a ciggarette lighter to heat it up. ;)

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lol and heat shrink.. just the rubber wrap crap and a hair dryer?

and yes, this is for a obd0-obd1 harness.

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no, for heat shrink I actually do go buy heat shrink tube, and use a cigarette lighter to heat it up.

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i dont know if i trust you and your cigarette lighter tatics... :P

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the solder one was a joke, the heat shrink one I'm serious, it works just fine.

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i use a lighter too, i just put the shrink wrap a good maybe 6 inches above the flame and it shrinks, if you put it too close it shrinks, get distorted and looks like ass if put too long. Or you could run the wrap through the fire back and forth quickly, this works too.


Oh and I just remembered another way I do it, I use the heat from the soldering iron to 'shrink' it. I just discovered this the last time i was soldering and it worked pretty damn good. And you don't expose too much heat to the surround delicates, if there are any.

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bingo

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ok.. do i twist the wires together then solder that or just lay them acorss and solder that?

c'mon DETAILS.. DETAILS! ;D

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i cut the presoldered obd0-obd1 wire i had from my car if u want it 10shipped

that way u just connect the wire of the same color together

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lay solder on the tip of each wire by itself. then bend the wire tip into a hook shape. link the two hooks together and squeeze down.make sure you put the heat shrink on one side of the connection before you solder them together. then lay solder on both together. move the heat shrink ontop of the connection, heat it w/ your lighter. and you're done!!!

Re:Soldering...
 

A few tips: some people like to put a dab of solder on the iron first. what this does is when you touch the iron to the wire, the liquid solder allows the iron to have more surface area to conduct heat to the wire. this is called "tinning the iron"

i recommend using solder with lead in it, it melts quicker and flows better. when soldering add solder by touching the wire to the PART NOT THE IRON. that's the most important part.

another thing especially when soldering thin wires. don't put so much solder that it runs up the wire. if you allow the solder to run up the wire like an inch, guess what happens when you bent that piece of the wire? it's brittle and it snaps.

finally make sure there is good mechanical contact between the parts you want joined. that means clean (oil and solder don't mix) and pressed together as much as possible.

as for the iron i recommend a good pen. the best that radio shack has to offer is probably the cheapest iron that you should be willing to buy (radio shack is crap). if you want to solder 12 or 14 gauge wire you need at least a 40watt iron.

if you don't want to go through the hassle of using shrink wrap, you can buy a liquid electrical tape. it's like paint but dries like rubber, pretty cool.

is that enough "c'mon DETAILS.. DETAILS" for ya?

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No, i dont see pics or video anywhere :P

haha ya thanks guys!

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Also, If this is something you plan to do more than a couple times, I'd reccmmend getting a temp controlled soldering iron. It's make the biggest difference of any piece of equipment I've used. I bought one from CircuitSpecialists for $42 shipped and is very good for the price. I can chip an ECU in about 20 mins and it looks factory when I'm done. I use a big ass jewelers magnifier to solder under though, but you can do it without it. It just makes it much easier to see the pads and to get a consistant amount of solder on each.