printed circuit board soldering is a skill that every handy person needs to master. The good news is that it's not a difficult skill to master, but it does take close attention to detail and a lot of practice. When it comes to printed circuit board soldering, practice really does make perfect. Unlike the days of point-to-point wiring methods, printed circuit boards replace the point-to-point wires with thin strips of copper traces bonded to a phonemic or fiberglass base. The biggest danger when soldering printed circuit boards is the application of too much heat to the board, which causes the copper traces to lift up off the board.
Instructions
1 Clean and tin the soldering tip. Turn on the soldering station or plug in the soldering iron and allow to heat up completely. Clean the soldering tip by wiping it on the wet soldering sponge and then apply a thin coating of rosin core solder to the freshly cleaned tip. It's important to tin the tip immediately before tip oxidation has a chance to set in. A properly tinned tip will appear a bright silvery color. A properly tinned tip is essential to good soldering practices because it will conduct heat faster and more effectively. A fast heat transfer will help you avoid applying too much heat to the printed circuit board.
2 Clean the soldering pads, the circle part of the circuit board trace that has the hole in it, with the burnishing tool before attempting to solder a component lead to it. Although the rosin core flux in rosin core solder will clean the pad, it's best to physically clean the pad first. A properly prepped pad appears a bright copper color. A clean pad is required for proper solder adhesion and a good solder joint. A good solder joint, like a properly tinned soldering iron tip, will appear a bright silvery color. A dull gray color indicates a "cold solder joint" and needs to be redone. Cold solder joints presents a high resistance to the flow of electric current and you want to keep this resistance to a minimum.
3 Cut several pieces of copper wire, 5 or 6 inches long, and remove ¼ inch of insulation from their ends. Practice soldering the wires to your practice printed circuit board. When soldering, apply the soldering iron tip to one side of the joint and the solder to the opposite side. The heat will draw the solder through and around the connection. Never apply the solder to the soldering iron tip.
4 Practice soldering resistors to the board. Use the needle nose pliers to make right-angle bends in the resistor's leads and place them through the holes in the board. Solder in place the same way as in step three above. Once soldered in place, clip the leads even with the solder cone.
5 Practice removing components from a printed circuit board. Place the solder wick in contact with the soldered joint and apply the soldering iron tip to the soldering wick. The heat will travel through the wick to the joint and the molten solder will be drawn up into the wick by capillary action. The wick will remove the majority of the solder from the board. Lift the component free of the board.
6 Using the de-soldering pump and the proper pick tool from the soldering tool kit, clean the remaining solder from the hole in the soldering pad. Heat the remaining solder with the soldering iron and then release the trigger on the pump as soon as the solder is molten.
