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goal for 2023: use a conical solder tip and enjoy it

Jan Cumps

You have to challenge your habits. I have always soldered with chisel and sloped/bevel round tips.
Many irons come with a conical tip. A lot of people solder happily with it.

image

I have several, to use with an iron that I like. But I don't like soldering with the conical tips. I am not good at it.
That's going to change this year. I'm going to try and always use these tips when appropriate, and learn to love them.
The real goal is to become better at soldering with the conical versions than I am now with chisel and sloped types. And to enjoy the adaption path.

I'll keep you posted.

Parents

  • I've been tempted by this thread to try a chisel tip.  Up to this point, I've only had conical.  My favorite one is the slightly offset tip (900M-T-IS).

  • in reply to kmikemoo

    Seems that my post convinced more people to abandon conical than to learn it Sweat smile

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    I've not read the NASA standards, but it would be surprising if they allow component leads to be snipped on a PCB after the component is soldered. (merely from what I observed in mil-product hand assembly).  I know nothing about metallurgy/chemistry, so I'm speculating it is shock and corrosion related. But the conformal coating comment does seem to align with the corrosion theory (at the junction of the exposed copper/plating/solder perhaps, but I have no idea). 

  • in reply to shabaz

    Here is what is done in avionics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vynb_HdEIDU . Whatever you do currently, it will not be good enough for these standards. (and yes, the cut before soldering)

  • in reply to Jan Cumps

    You could be right, but instinctively if I see exposed copper on the end of a component, I tend to solder over it. Just habit.

  • in reply to shabaz

    'Properly' kind of depends on which standards you are working to though.

    Also it doesn't help that some of those standards are expensive to get hold of and certification even more expensive...

  • in reply to hlipka

    I saw this video series today too :). When Chris asked me to point to the Nasa videos I saw, I tried to find them back, but couldn't (maybe copyright issues?). But I found these and enjoyed watching them. There's one that takes 6 minutes to solder 1 wire into 1 connector pin <3.

    Edit:
    this one: https://youtu.be/yzkuWORme2w
    and you have to watch this one first :) : https://youtu.be/BiVkI4IooH4

  • in reply to hlipka

    That's a nice trick, not seen that before:

    image

  • in reply to Jan Cumps

    The video I had linked to takes about 12 minutes for one resistor. The amount of cleaning they do is kind of excessive, but the I think in avionics (or anything else where lives depend on it) you just do not take chances. This also explains why such devices are quite expensive - they just live up to a different standard that what I do at home...

  • in reply to Jan Cumps

    It might be out of date now though... 

    "NASA has adopted IPC J-STD-001FS for all Programs and Projects, effective on October 17, 2011.  The NASA standards for soldering, NASA-STD-8739.2 and NASA-STD-8739.3, are cancelled as of October 17, 2011."

    https://nepp.nasa.gov/index.cfm/22093

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    We could rephase to "more properly " I guess : ) There are some things that seem to be common to all the standards, but some people take shortcuts like combing all the leads down like hair first, for all the components, and then soldering and then cropping. I think I saw it in an Adafruit or Sparkfun video. It might save half an hour on a project at most I guess.

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    See you in an hour (of powerpoint. no soldering action)

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  • in reply to beacon_dave

    See you in an hour (of powerpoint. no soldering action)

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