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  • Author Author: cstanton
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When/How did you Learn to Solder?

I learned by watching, and then trial and error, I suspect some of you may have had a more professional approach?

 

This poll is featured in the recent Round-Up and Review - Projects, News and Polls!  - so check it out!

 

  • Worked it out.

     

    When my brother and I were little, we'd play around in my Dad's shop where he had an old Weller soldering gun - one of those high wattage dudes.  We'd make little bb's.

     

    Once I started driving, I soldered wires for my car stereo equipment.  I didn't really get comfortable with it until I took on the R2D2 project where I had to soldering a million LEDs for his dome lights.  Then, the biggest challenge came just 4 years ago, when I made an Apple I style custom computer.  It was miserable and took a week of evenings to do.  That one removed all feeling of anxiety left in me.

     

     

     

    -Sean

  • I chose "still working it out", I'm 56 and still haven't tackled my first surface mount work. I built many a Radio Shack kit in my pre-teen and teen years. When I was in 6th or 7th grade my dad dragged home a TV chassis with no high voltage components in it, gave it to me and let me use his big Weller soldering gun to tear into it. I took it apart bit by bit and sorted out all the pieces for some future project I'm not sure I ever got around to making. It kept me busy for a good summer week!

     

    Rick

  • Pretty much all of the above.  I started out watching and learning and reading old Heath manuals.  However, I was fortunate to take a class on soldering for work several years later where I refined my skills. 

  • School. Vrij Technich Instituur Mariendaal Diest klas 1E

    Age 14-15

    First on a wooden plank with many nails in a matrix.

    And electrical wiring that we had to strip first without any copper scratching - then straighten and curb in 90° angles.

    For months...

     

    edit: other practical things we learned, because needed in our individual final year project:

    - make PCBs - draw, develop under UV, etch, drill

    - build aluminium housing - saw, drill, bend, punch, assemble

    - assemble transformer cores from loose lamels and wind both primary and secondary

    - build a precision shunt resistor from wire

    - work with different types of cable - coax, shielded, stranded, single core, ...

  • When I got to tech school, I new how to solder, but they took us through a class where they made sure we all used the same process and procedures.

    After that, we had to fix anything we broke in class. They supplied the replacement parts, but we had to take the broken components off and put the new ones on.

     

    DAB

  • I was fortunate enough to have worked for a company when we did all of our own design and manufacturing - PCBs, assemblies, cabling, systems, software, and even ICs.  We had our own through hole and SMT soldering lines for production.  I learned a lot about soldering by watching my PCBs being repaired by our rework personnel.  The stuff that they could do was amazing image !!

  • They didn't teach us how to solder in engineering, but I had a great summer job where I was tutored in the fine art of soldering. There is always more to learn though, and over the years dealing with manufacturing specialists I have learned a lot more. Even leaned a few tricks off YouTube.

    Information sometimes comes from places you don't expect.

    Here are soldering standards from NASA:

    https://nepp.nasa.gov/docuploads/06AA01BA-FC7E-4094-AE829CE371A7B05D/NASA-STD-8739.3.pdf