User:Jstapko/EngLab/toolcerts/Soldering

Introduction
The soldering iron is used to connect electronic parts together solidly by melting a low melting point metal called solder onto the parts to be soldered. The melted metal combines with the metal of the connected parts and hardens, forming a mechanically strong, low electrical resistance bond.

Warnings

 * DO NOT SOLDER ON LIVE OR PLUGGED IN CIRCUITS!
 * Eye injury risk - As with all HCC power tools, you must wear goggles when operating this tool.
 * Burn Hazard - The soldering iron operates at temperatures in excess of 600°F. To prevent injury from contact with hot parts:
 * Always assume the soldering iron is hot, unless you know positively that it is not.
 * Avoid touching any metal parts of it while soldering.
 * unplug the iron when finished, and leave a note next to it saying that it is hot


 * Lead Exposure Hazard - Solder contains lead, which can cause lead poisoning. To reduce exposure:
 * Avoid breathing fumes from soldering.
 * Solder your joints as quickly as possible, then turn off the iron to minimize fume production.
 * Wash your hands after handling solder or soldering equipment, particularly before eating.


 * Fume/Respiratory hazard - The soldering process generates fumes from fluxes, surface dirt, and solder that can be hazardous if inhaled. To reduce fume exposure:
 * If possible, arrange a fan on the workbench to blow fumes away from the work area
 * Open the outside door, and set up the big fan to exhaust air from the room
 * Experienced users will sometimes hold their breath while soldering the joint, then either duck below the fumes or step away to breath once finished, to take in air with lower fume concentration

Quick Start Guide

 * 1) Start by watching this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f95i88OSWB4 by SparkFun Electronics.
 * 2) Put on safety goggles.
 * 3) If necessary, strip the ends of the wires you are soldering.
 * 4) Clean the parts to be soldered and the solder with isopropyl alcohol (ask a lab aide or professor for the alcohol).
 * 5) If applicable, put heat shrink tubing on the wire now (don't shrink it yet).
 * 6) Clamp the parts to be soldered so they don't move while cooling
 * 7) Plug the iron in and let it heat up.
 * 8) While the soldering iron is heating, open the outside door and turn on the fan.
 * 9) Clean the soldering tip by wiping it on a wet sponge, | as shown here
 * 10) Tin the tip when it is hot by lightly touching the end of the solder to it.
 * 11) You may also want to tin the parts you plan to solder.
 * 12) Apply the soldering iron to heat the joint, as shown in the video
 * 13) Apply solder to the opposite side of the joint, also as shown in the video.
 * 14) Heat the joint the minimum possible time to melt the solder in order to avoid overheating he part. With practice, you should be able to get in and out in about 3 seconds.
 * 15) Don't touch the parts while they are cooling, as doing so will crystallize the joint, making it mechanically weak and electrically high resistance.
 * 16) If applicable, when the joint is completely cool, slide the heat shrink tubing over the joint and shrink it into place with the heat gun.
 * 17) When finished, unplug iron and leave a note that it is hot
 * 18) Clean up the waste you produced and put away materials and tools.
 * NEVER PUT A HOT IRON BACK ON THE SHELF! Leave it on the work bench until it is completely cool.

Safety Goggles
Safety Goggles are required for this tool for reasons including:
 * certain electronic parts, such as electrolytic capacitors, can explode if overheated
 * if you inadvertently work on a live circuit board, power can be conducted through the soldering iron chip, causing many small parts to explode simultaneously
 * while soldering, small droplets of liquid solder can be scattered and get into your eye

Goggles are located in a yellow hanging tray (French Bin), next to the door between CL 158 and CL 159.

Heat Shrink Tubing
Sometimes solder joints should be covered with heat shrink tubing to prevent shorts. Heat shrink tubing is a neat, clean, reliable alternative to options such as electrical tape. If it is needed, the basic procedure is to:
 * 1) Select the proper diameter. (depends on part size and shrinkage ratio of tubing)
 * 2) Cut to length.
 * 3) Slip the piece of heat shrink over the wires 'before soldering.
 * 4) Move the heat shrink as far as possible from the soldering area to prevent it from shrinking prematurely.
 * 5) When the solder joint is cool, move the heat shrink tubing over the joint and warm it with a heat gun to shrink it into place.

You may find CountyComm's Heat Shrink Tubing tutorial video helpful.

HCC's heat shrink tubing and heat guns are supposed to be on shelf CL 159 S6 L4, above and to the right of the soldering workbench, directly above the printer.

Clamping Parts
If the solder joint is moved while the solder is liquid, before it has cooled, the joint crystallizes, resulting in:
 * weak or broken mechanical connection
 * high electrical resistance
 * possibly an intermittent connection

To prevent this, HCC has several clamping devices, including:
 * helping hands
 * Pan/Tilt Vise

The pan/tilt vise and helping hands belong on CL 159 S5 L5, above and to the right of the soldering area

Also, sometimes it helps to stick wires in to hold them in position while soldering. The solderless breadboards are on CL 159 S5 L4.

A washer can be used with the helping hands to improve clamping stability, as shown here

Tip Selection
As shown in the above video, you should use the largest tip that will fit your joint area, so that the tip changes temperature as little as possible for a given amount of energy transferred to the work.

Flux
Flux is needed to remove oxides from parts during the soldering process. HCC's options include:
 * flux pens (on soldering pegboard, by printer)
 * rosin, or flux fore solder

For almost all soldering, you will use Rosin, ro flux core, solder. This is on spools hanging on the soldering supplies pegboard, on the wall near the soldering area. The flux pens are for surface mount component soldering and certain work on printed circuit boards.

Solder Selection
For most joints, you will use 60/40 solder. If you are experiencing problems with crystallization of the joint as it cools, try 63/37, "eutectic" solder. For large joints, such as joining heavy gauge pieces of wire, use large diameter solder so that you don't use a large portion of a roll for the joint. For smaller joints, you may want more control over how much solder you apply. Using smaller diameter solder means that there is less solder per unit length, so a given amount of hand motion applies less solder, or better control.

Soldering Iron Selection
Most of HCC's irons are very low power. For most soldering, you should use the most powerful available, which is 33 watt. For certain applications involving very small, or very heat sensitive, parts, you may want to use a lower wattage iron, such as 23 watt. The power rating is generally written or etched on the ring of metal around the heating element, where it attaches to the handle. (might want to add a pic here)

Clean/Tin the Tip
As Michael Hobson explains, the tip should be cleaned first with a paper towel, then with a wet sponge. According to Hobson, if the sponge is used alone, solder clogs the sponge, while if the paper towel is used alone, oxides will cling to the surface instead of being broken up and removed. Be careful not to burn your fingers while wiping with a towel. Sponges are either with the soldering iron stands, or on the pegboard on the wall next to the soldering area/printer.

The tip should be tinned as quickly as possible after cleaning, to reduce the amount of time that oxides have to form on the newly cleaned tip. An alternative way to tin the tip is to dip it, while hot,in the tin of tip cleaning compound, which should be on the soldering pegboard.

Fume Abatement
Make sure you have read and comply with the warnings about fumes in the warnings section, above. Open the outside door and turn on the big fan to draw fumes out of the room. (add pic of big fan in position here)

While soldering

 * You may want to use heat sink clip to prevent parts from overheating.
 * Sometimes, adding a tiny bit of solder directly to the iron tip helps to transfer heat and get melting started.
 * Pay close attention to the first tutorial video in the quick start guide, most of what you need to know is covered there.
 * Use the shortest possible heat application time. Hotter tip for shorter time is better than long, slow heat.  You should be able to do most joints in 3 seconds or less. Get in, Get out!
 * If you have problems, check other You Tube videos, or "Additional Resources," below.

Smoke Production

 * don't make smoke if at all possible
 * if you do make smoke, open the big door and blow it out with the fan
 * smoke can get into the alarm, set it off, and require evacuation of campus - Very Bad
 * even if the alarm does not go off, smoke can be drawn into the building's ventilation system, and could adversely affect people in distant parts of the school

Wrapup/Cleanup
Don't move any part of the joint while it is cooling, or the solder joint will crystallize and not work. Unplug your soldering iron as soon as you are finished soldering. Put all tools and materials you used away, with the possible exception of the iron. Clean up your mess, such as solder droplets or wire insulation. The exception is irons, which should be left, unplugged, in their stand, on the workbench with a note indicating they are hot. If they completely cool before you leave, put them back on the soldering iron shelf. (CL 159 S6 L5) DO NOT, FOR ANY REASON, put hot soldering irons back on the shelf. Leave them in their stand, on the counter.

Videos

 * "How and WHY to Solder Correctly" CuriousInventor's basic soldering video
 * Pace Worldwide Basic Soldering, Lesson 1 excellent, very thorough video on how soldering works.
 * Dave Jones of EEVBlog on soldering part 1 part 2
 * How to Solder Stranded Wires Demonstrates use of Western Union splice in soldering, and use of heat shrink tubing.
 * CountyComm Heat Shrink Tubing Shows how to install heat shrink tubing
 * Exper Level Soldering Tutorial #1 Demonstrates NASA lavel soldering techniques, such as proper cleaning of the iron and cleaning the solder, not just the joint

Links

 * Makezine's page on making a NASA standard Western Union splice
 * Using a washer to improve Helping Hands performance (Makezine)
 * Adafruit's guide to troubleshooting solder joint problems
 * "How to Use Heat Shrink Tubing" eBay's heat-shrink tubeing guide
 * "Accelerator apps: Heat-shrink tubing" How particle accelerators are used to produce the chemical interactions needed to make heat shrink tubing

This Page Needs

 * re arrangement to make it compliant with the formatting standard for tool wikis
 * a warning to not solder on live circuits
 * a rule about not putting hot soldering irons on the shelf
 * photo of soldering iron at top
 * links to photos of pan/tilt vise and helping hands in "Quick Start Guide"
 * a photo of the soldering iron power rating in the "soldering iron selection" section
 * a photo of the big fan in the "fume abatement" section
 * links to additional resources, mostly you tube videos
 * more quiz questions
 * a detailed procedures section, which should or could cover:
 * tip selection
 * soldering iron power
 * 60/40 vs. 63:37 solder
 * types of flux
 * desoldering/parts salvaging
 * useing heat sink on fragile components
 * don't put hot irons on the shelf
 * don't put hot irons on flammable surfaces


 * a link to a heat shrink tutorial video
 * a link to the heat gun wiki page
 * possibly links to term defintions in the introductions

Quiz
{What piece of safety equipment must be worn when using the soldering iron (and all other HCC power tools, too)? -rubber gloves +goggles -leather gloves -steel toed boots {What part or parts of the soldering iron can burn you (check all that apply)? +the tip -the cord +the heating element -the handle +any metal part
 * type=""}
 * type="[]"}

{What steps can you take to reduce your risk of fume inhalation? -solder in a way that makes no fumes +set up a mini fan on the workbench -wear a HEPA filter mask +open the outside door and ventilate the room with the big fan +try to avoid breathing air from the immediate vicinity of the soldering work
 * type="[]"}

{How should you deal with smoke? +solder the joint as quickly as possible, then unplug the iron to minimize smoke -a little smoke is ok +if you make visible amounts of smoke, stop what you're doing, open the outside door, and blow it out with the big fan
 * type="[]"}

{What should you do to reduce your exposure to lead? +follow procedures for fume removal, above -nothing, lead is harmless +wash your hands as soon as finished soldering, particularly before eating -use silver solder instead of lead solder
 * type="[]}

{what must you do to prevent injuring others with the soldering iron? +unplug the soldering iron when you are finished -nothing in particular, they should know to use caution around soldering irons +leave a note saying the iron is hot, even after it's unplugged
 * type="[]"}


 * 1) wear goggles
 * 2) Don't burn yourself
 * 3) avoid or minimize smoke
 * 4) don't breathe fumes
 * 5) wash hands after using solder
 * 6) leave soldering iron off when done