Is soldering hard?

[gride]

I mean the simple soldering of two 16 awg wires. I've been practicing on an old tsunami pump. I bought a crappy little 30w iron, and for the life of me i can't seem to get it right. It's like i make semi-cold joints every time. any tips would be appreciated, but it seems pretty straight forward. I think i'm going to get a little torch...solder and creme brulee.

[TRBenj]

The wires youre soldering must be CLEAN. Flux is also required to get the solder to flow.

[BrennanK]

I find that quality tools and solder really makes the difference. For me I put some heat shrink on my wire then clean them. Then I twist them together and cover them in flux. Then I bump the tip of the gun with the solder and it flows wrapping around my wires. I then use the gun tip to smooth out solder bumps. Then pull the heat shrink back over and shrink it.

I have multi-die electrical crimper too. I have found my self getting the all weather butt splices and using those more often. They even have built in heat shrink. Much cleaner and easier. IMO

[Sell]

Heat the wire from underneath until the solder will melt & flow through the wire from the top. You can clean & basically flux the wire using hydrochloric acid if required.

[scottb7]

highly recommend. i am 46 and on 2nd one of these....first one lasted about 30 years (from age 10 til like 40)

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Weller-10...4#.Ulc1EVCDmm5

[MLA]

What kind of solder are you using? Theres solder (acid core) for sweating in pipes and repairing radiators and solder (rosin core) for electrical. I prefer to use a thin (small gauge) solder for electrical. It melts much faster and flows better then thick (large gauge) solder. As noted above, you want the iron to heat the joint to the point it melts the solder. You'll get a cold joint if you melt the solder on iron and let if flow onto the joint.

[AirTool]

highly recommend. i am 46 and on 2nd one of these....first one lasted about 30 years (from age 10 til like 40)

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Weller-10...4#.Ulc1EVCDmm5

Wow - I bet that one cost less in actual dollars than the one my dad bought in the 60s or 70s.

Thank you China. What would we do without you?

[AirTool]

consolidated thoughts:

clean wire
proper solder
heat the "work" *not* the wire (yes...melting solder is fun)
Push the solder wire onto the hot end and it will flow into the work
(I usually heat the wire from underneath - and lay down the solder on top)

Set up a heat sink to prevent melting your insulation by having a friend hold your wire with some needle nose pliers right before the insulation. The heat will flow into the pliers which will act as a fin and prevent melting your insulation if (when) you get your wires too hot.