Ideas for TBHS

The material being soldered has to be hot.  Try getting a bottle of flux.  Clean what you are trying to solder with a pen eraser.

ok thank you don helping me. i will try this and i would like to know what flux is?

Flux is stuff intended to capture oxides prior to operations such as welding and soldering.  If you are using ordinary electronics solder, there is a central core that is made of rosin flux.  Acid flux is for working with stuff like galv for plumbers.  We use rosin core in electronics so it won't cause an oxidation problem later.  If you are using too much solder, it is because you are after the flux.  Pre-cleaning implies less flux use.  If your solder is 'balling up,' your work isn't hot enough.  We want the solder to be more attracted to the work than itself.  So we inspect the meniscus.  A good solder joint is shiny and doesn't have excessive solder.

ok now i understand what flux is. thanks of the tips!

Another tip is to avoid ballistic cutters.  Reaction principle.  When you trim the lead off of a component the wire flies off.  Use nippers that don't do that, or squeeze hard with your needlenose between the cutter and the component.  Never hurts to use a heatsink between the solder pen and the component where you are able to when soldering.  Flux is sticky, so you want to clean it off after it has served its purpose.  I use a little steel brush and ethanol.  Not city (Chicago) ethanol, wicked strong suburban ethanol!

Another tip:  If you need something probe-like to hold down a smd component while you get the first edge, use a toothpick or something else with a high specific heat so that you do not draw heat through the component while soldering it in.

ok thanks again for the tip it really helps!

If the material is extruded from the side of the iron tip the workpiece could be heated and could allow the the solder to bond properly.

Okay, how do we dispense the solder?  I'm likin' the idea now.

If you have ever seen a MIG welder AKA a wire welder you will see that they have a spool of wire either on the handle or inside the welders casing which is turned with an electric motor, we could use that same method except with solder wire. Also a feature on the welders there is a switch on the handle that extrudes the wire that activates the motor that turns the spool would also be required to solder properly.

I think that solder is much softer, so much so that it may not be amenable to this technique, but I'd be interested in witnessing any experiments.