How bad are my soldering tools?

[Tomcatciller]

Hello

Right from the start the big question is my solder equipment. After I totally wrecked a Motherboard, I need an advice how useful my stuff are. In the past my soldering irons did a very good job soldering many many wires together to upgrade my car wire harness. But at the moment I tried to solder on circuit boards it fails.

In the near future I will try to repair/solder a Samsung 2233RZ circuit board, to make this LCD with "2s to blanck" behaviour work again. As far as I red in this topic, it will be most likely the inverter transformer "TM-0915" to be replaced. The question is, is my equipment sufficient to do this properly?

To the pictures;

• I have 4 soldering irons (from top to button; 15W / 25 W / 30 W / 80 W)

• I have a simple a multimeter.
  

  If you have a manual ranging multimeter, set it to 200 (two hundred) ohms. Touch the black and red probe together. It should read 0.3 or 0.4 ohms. If it is higher than 1.0 ohm, there is something wrong with your multimeter.

  -> I tested it and it works.

• I have 2x desolder wick 2,5 mm.

• I have 2x types of soldering grease.

• I have 4 types of solder; (2x electronic solder flux filled 1mm [green], and 2 other solder types I dont know [S-Pb60Sn40])

Greets

TCC

[Jooo]

Re: How bad are my soldering tools?

Depends on what you do with them.
For random soldering they are probably ok and if you practise on dead motherboards it will become easier. Soldering wires together is pretty much possible with any iron. I wouldn't use that last iron on motherboards though.
However if you plan to work daily you need better equipment.
I had to use a cheapo Dealextreme 6 dollar iron for a week because the better soldering station broke, to replace laptop motherboard power jacks, it was possible but not very enjoyable.
Even the handle got very hot.
Those solders are ok, though I would get some 0.8mm or 0.9mm solder also.
I wouldn't trust that multimeter very much. Again, it's probably ok for random use, but if you plan to work daily on fixing electronics, get something better. I wouldn't try to measure mains voltage with that.

[retiredcaps]

Re: How bad are my soldering tools?

Part of the problem with your soldering irons is the conical tip. They don't transfer heat very well. Try a 1.6, 2.4 or even 3.2mm chisel tip for desoldering.

Your tips should also be coated with solder when they are not in use to prevent oxidation.

[mariushm]

Re: How bad are my soldering tools?

They're all bad... but they work for simple soldering, not for boards with large surfaces of copper which suck up the heat.

These soldering irons are not regulated, meaning they have a simple heating element inside connected directly to the mains and there's no feedback mechanism to adjust the heat.
They heating element needs 5-15 minutes to heat up to the normal temperature it works at and then the moment you put the iron on something, the metal sucks the heat and the temperature goes down and the iron will need a few seconds to minutes to recover. So with these irons, you're supposed to actually touch and solder for just seconds at a time.
With motherboards and stuff with lots of copper that suck up the heat, it would help to use a air gun (or a hair dryer if you don't have the funds) to warm up the pcb before you try soldering, in an attempt to reduce the temperature difference.

The fourth soldering iron looks like it has a too corroded tip, I would just throw it in the trash. The top three soldering irons may still work.


Those solder wicks look like they're not covered in flux, so they would probably work much better if you put put some of that solder paste on them before using it (pull out a bit of solder wick, put it on top of solder cream, put the iron on top so the copper and paste warms up, then solder cream should suck up into the copper braid)

As for the solder wire, they look OK, 60/40 is a good solder for beginners, but I don't see any mention if it has flux inside the solder wire. Well, just the green one says flux filled but it doesn't say the percent of flux.

Flux matters A LOT and the problem is those cheap solder irons are so hot when idling that the solder cream is almost useless because the majority of it burns up before it reaches the board... and the flux in the solder wire may be too little to help.

Also, th tips of those 2 solder irons at the bottom look corroded, so there may be oxides on the tip surface that prevent the tip from making proper contact to the metals that are supposed to be heated.

If you want to fix stuff in the future, I highly encourage you to buy a soldering station, which allows you to adjust the temperature and are much better at keeping the tip at the proper temperature.

Here's some cheap ones that should work much better than those unregulated irons:

http://de.farnell.com/tenma/21-10115...esd/dp/2062627

http://www.amazon.de/AOYUE-936-L%C3%...808710&sr=1-50

Instead of staying too hot when idle and oxidizing the tips, instead of always running at 400-450c, you can set the station at 250-280c (60/40 solder melts at 180c, so you need about 230-250c to solder properly wires and small components, at least), or 300-350c when soldering stuff with lots of copper like motherboards.

These stations actually monitor the tip temperature and the moment they notice the tip temp going down (for example when you put it on motherboard) they will pump more energy into the tip and will keep the temperature close to that level. Those cheap irons will just cool down and need seconds to minutes to warm up again to the temperature needed.

[ben7]

Re: How bad are my soldering tools?

I still don't use a regulated soldering iron. Just a 25W weller
So, haha!

I congratulate you for the flux, it is a lifesaver for oxidized solder joints and the like. Usually the silver-colored wire used on computer PSUs is hard to solder to, but a bit of flux and the solder wicks right onto the wire

[eccerr0r]

Re: How bad are my soldering tools?

That looks like another Mastech OEM meter...

If it really is, it's a 1Mohm input impedance, fairly low, but it's still better than many analog meters. And because of its cheap input coupling for AC it's only good for mains voltage pretty much... as long as the insulation holds up.

Speaking of 200 ohm scales, I have another Mastech meter that if I hold the probes tight enough together, will hit 0.0 ohms. A Tenma meter I have wouldn't go below 0.3 ohms. My analog meter in Rx1 gets pretty close to 0.0 ohms... but that's because you have to zero it each time

[Kiriakos GR]

Re: How bad are my soldering tools?

In the past my soldering irons did a very good job soldering many many wires together to upgrade my car wire harness. But at the moment I tried to solder on circuit boards it fails.

Yes those circuit boards they do require much costly soldering tools, which if you do not work professionally you can not justify their price.

It is wiser to skip the idea of modding this MB and save your self from spending around 300 Euro for specialized soldering tools.

[Tomcatciller]

Re: How bad are my soldering tools?

Hello Guys,

thx for answering. I don´t want to take this too serious. Its just a hobby and not a job. 2-3 Repairs per year, maybe.

I just ask a friend if he can borrow some of his tools for my next project, fix a "2s to blanck" 2233RZ monitor.

He just gave me this. Are these better tools?

Greets

TCC

[mariushm]

Re: How bad are my soldering tools?

That soldering iron is just slightly better than those "fire sticks".

It still doesn't have temperature feedback, so it's not smart enough to push a lot of power into the heating element to recover the tip temperature when it goes down suddenly.

But at least it's better mainly because it should heat up faster than those cheap irons and you can set the average temperature using that knob.
I'd just set the knob somewhere on the first RED region and leave it there, that should be good for monitors.
Solder looks good. You could use some extra flux though, it always helps and isn't expensive.

[digge]

Re: How bad are my soldering tools?

The last iron you posted is the same one i used to use (keep it around as a spare). Tbh its a really good iron for its price. Definitely far from a professional iron but does a descent job. If memory serves me right its a 50W iron, so its a bit low on the power side if you want to do big groudplanes and stuff like that.

Like others said before, do watch out for a worn tip. A good tip does wonders to the solder quality. I think i got a pack of 5 different tips for something like 5$ for that iron.

[Tomcatciller]

Re: How bad are my soldering tools?

Like others said before, do watch out for a worn tip. A good tip does wonders to the solder quality. I think i got a pack of 5 different tips for something like 5$ for that iron.

Can you please give me some picture or links of such items. So I can search such tips on german shops.

Greets

TCC

[digge]

Re: How bad are my soldering tools?

Look for the make and model of your unit to make sure its the same, might just look very similar, but i believe the ones i got was these. http://www.electrokit.com/lodspetsar...p2-vtss4.44882 Not 100% sure though so make a good google investigation before you buy. Need to be the right ones or they wont fit in the iron.

On the other hand the tip you have on there doesn't look in super bad shape, so try the one you have there before going out and buying stuff, maybe try on some spare scrap board and see how it works.

[lti]

Re: How bad are my soldering tools?

I have that blue soldering iron. I don't know if it is actually any better than the soldering irons in the first post, but it isn't very good. It takes a long time to melt solder, even on a single-sided circuit board like that power supply. That is probably a combination of the lack of temperature feedback mentioned above and the conical tip. The plating started flaking off the tip yesterday when I was repairing my monitor. Also, the handle gets too hot to touch past the rubber grip, and the grip is only slightly cooler. An old 25W Weller works a lot better.

[Kiriakos GR]

Re: How bad are my soldering tools?

Are these better tools?

I will try to make it simple for you, imagine that one motherboard is 5 copper foils its one at the top of the other and glued together.

When you need to heat one spot all five layers need to be heated too.
Therefore you need five simple soldering irons working together, OR just one but really powerful with adjustable temperature.
The cheapest of those cost 100Euro and the best 400Euro.

The pictured one is good for single layer PCB when your cheap ones are able to solder just cables.

[mariushm]

Re: How bad are my soldering tools?

Motherboards have lots of layers.. 6 to 10.

Monitors don't need and don't have such complex boards.. the power supply in a monitor is usually single or double sided pcb, so soldering or removing parts is much easier compared to motherboard pcbs.
The boards with the "brains" of the monitor are usually double sided or 4 layer boards.. a bit harder to solder and desolder parts, but still relatively easy.

Anyway, Kiriakos is a bit exaggerating... you don't HAVE to use 400+ euro tools. You can heat up the pcb in advance using something as simple as a hairdryer to make soldering and desoldering easier... than you can use a good quality soldering iron with temperature control to do the work.

I've had no problems desoldering surface mounted ICs from motherboards without even preheating the board.
I have a Hakko 936 bought from eBay for about 50$ and I simply added flux and solder over the pins and tab of the part, boosted the iron to 400c then simply kept the iron on the solder for a couple of minutes moving back and forth between the tab and the pins. With proper heat transfer, it just takes a bit of time for parts to come off.

[lti]

Re: How bad are my soldering tools?

The pictured one is good for single layer PCB when your cheap ones are able to solder just cables.

It isn't really good for anything, and it's only $15. The other soldering irons in the first post might actually be better.

Try the blue adjustable temperature one. If it doesn't work very well, try the 25W and 30W soldering irons. Don't use the other two on the monitor. You should get a real soldering station if you are going to do a lot of repairs, as a lot of other people have mentioned.

[senz_90]

Re: How bad are my soldering tools?

could someone tell me what is the function of soldering grease exactly like this photo posted by the threader..? i know my friend told that use for keep the soldering tip dont failed.. but i just dont have a good reason when i using it.. it just give a smoke that stinky and i thought didn't useful instead my wet sponge to clean the tip.. i know this question ridiculous but i just wanna make it clear.. i have one on my side soldering iron..

i think the soldering iron sufficient to repairing many device that usually using by technician on my town is soldering gun in pistol shape.. and we could change the temperature by press the button easily..

[mariushm]

Re: How bad are my soldering tools?

When a metal is left by itself for some time, it oxidizes and the oxides on the surface act like a shield, blocking heat. It's like having a thin sheet of paper or plastic between the solder and your solder iron tip - the solder iron will still heat up the solder through the "sheet" but much slower... you want to remove this "sheet" between the solder and solder iron.

That "grease" is flux in a paste form.

The flux is an acid but doesn't do anything by default, only when it's heated up by the solder iron and becomes liquid it activates and attacks the surfaces.

It attacks the oxides on the surface of the solder and breaks it down or moves it away from the area you want to solder, so now the tip gets in direct contact with the solder and the heat transfers very well between the tip and the surface.

Watch the "Solder & Flux" video below (and if you have time, I highly recommend you watch the other parts in the series)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIT4r...3C1837&index=1

ps. Most solder wires have a flux inside them in the form of a solid substance... the flux is designed to go liquid and pour on the surface at lower temperatures compared to the actual solder, let's say the flux inside the solder activates at about 100c and the solder itself melts at 180-190c. So the flux has a few ms of time to attack the surface and clean it.
But often the amount of flux inside the wire is not enough to properly clean the oxides, that's why it never hurts to use extra flux.

[senz_90]

Re: How bad are my soldering tools?

When a metal is left by itself for some time, it oxidizes and the oxides on the surface act like a shield, blocking heat. It's like having a thin sheet of paper or plastic between the solder and your solder iron tip - the solder iron will still heat up the solder through the "sheet" but much slower... you want to remove this "sheet" between the solder and solder iron.

That "grease" is flux in a paste form.

The flux is an acid but doesn't do anything by default, only when it's heated up by the solder iron and becomes liquid it activates and attacks the surfaces.

It attacks the oxides on the surface of the solder and breaks it down or moves it away from the area you want to solder, so now the tip gets in direct contact with the solder and the heat transfers very well between the tip and the surface.

Watch the "Solder & Flux" video below (and if you have time, I highly recommend you watch the other parts in the series)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIT4r...3C1837&index=1

ps. Most solder wires have a flux inside them in the form of a solid substance... the flux is designed to go liquid and pour on the surface at lower temperatures compared to the actual solder, let's say the flux inside the solder activates at about 100c and the solder itself melts at 180-190c. So the flux has a few ms of time to attack the surface and clean it.
But often the amount of flux inside the wire is not enough to properly clean the oxides, that's why it never hurts to use extra flux.

thank you very much for explanation clearly. that' s open my mind how is that grease work..thanks for your kind give a time to explain very clearly. i have to watch the video after have a free time...

[Kiriakos GR]

Re: How bad are my soldering tools?

It isn't really good for anything, and it's only $15. The other soldering irons in the first post might actually be better.

My estimation had to do about the better design and tip quality.

Generally speaking it is wiser to select soldering Iron and solder by choosing them by the temperature which the iron actually gets in the tip, and solder regarding it melting temperature.

In summary we getting down to price again.
If you like to see a good movie you need to pay the ticket in full.