Newbie at soldering.

[BORTZ]

Man, late to the party as usual.

Im IPC certified for up to class 2 commercial soldering (see spoiler). Took a class or whatever last fall. I just wanted to interject and say that if you have an older (shizier) soldering iron like an old HAKKO or GEMNI or what have you, sometimes keeping solder on the tip while not using it actually reduces the oxidation of the tip while hot and not in use. Now thats only if your soldering iron is under 500C. Generally speaking, flux the shiz out of anything you solder, and make sure you get the liquid flux. The waxy stuff is garbage and/or i just havent had any luck with it. Flux allows you to solder quicker and requires minimal time with the tip pressed against the wire/pad/component as possible.

Also be a man and dont use that pussy "lead free" shiz.

 

[sandytf]

Low wattage unregulated soldering irons are dangerous, especially the 15W/30W models commonly found in hobby stores and at RadioShack. The lower wattage results in a larger temperature drop when the soldering iron tip is applied to something to be heated. The larger the temperature drop, the longer the soldering iron needs to be applied. Touching a soldering iron to a single point slowly heats up the entire surrounding area, potentially damaging sensitive nearby components. A regulated higher wattage soldering iron will not exhibit as large of a temperature drop and will quickly heat up the desired area before damage can occur to the neighboring components (or the component itself if you are soldering to a lead).

Most current electronics are now ROHS compliant which means they don't contain lead. These devices use lead-free (and sometimes silver solder) which melts at a different temperature. Lead-free solder is generally more difficult to use and doesn't have the same wetting properties. Troublesome solder joints can sometimes be removed by "mixing" lead solder with the lead-free solder.

Both desoldering braid and solder suckers are important tools, but each serves a different purpose. Desoldering braid is ideal for small to medium amounts of solder while a solder sucker is better suited for large volumes. However, a solder sucker can sometime be more effective at freeing a through-hole component lead (a wire that goes through the board). Also, sometimes additional solder needs to be added to effectively remove difficult to reach solder. Be very careful when using a solder sucker, however. After only a couple of uses, the device fills with small pieces of solder which can fall out of the tip during use. If these solder pieces are not removed from the item being soldered, shorts can result.