The Rules of Soldering

 
The Rules of Soldering
  • Take care not to press TOO HEAVILY on the pads, otherwise the pads will lift up and will be very difficult to repair.

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  • Moving components BEFORE the solder has solidified may again either LIFT the copper tracks or cause a DRY JOINT explained previously.

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  • Apply the soldering iron tip and solder to the joint SIMULTANEOUSLY and keep there until the solder flows correctly over the joint.
  • Remove the soldering iron tip IMMEDIATELY after the smoke from the flux within the solder disappears approximately 2 seconds after the solder melts.

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  • Only use SILVER-LOADED SOLDER for SMT joints (2% Silver)

 
Tin Plating
  • Don’t Tin Plate your PCB UNLESS the plating solution is NEW!

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  • The solution can become heavily contaminated from being used just a few times. These contaminants make it MUCH MORE DIFFICULT to solder.

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  • This rule is ESSENTIAL particularly for SMT PCBs.
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    Prototype PCBs DON'T NEED Tin Plating anyway.
    They still remain clean looking YEARS LATER.

    They WON'T go GREEN unless exposed
    to severe climatic conditions.

    The PCB Image BELOW is over
    2 Years Old and STILL clean!