Soldering help

gooner_47

gooner_47

gooner_47

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Joined
9 Mar 2005
Posts
162
So I watched a few tutorials, thought "that looks easy!", tried doing the same with my £10 Draper soldering kit and failed miserably.

Firstly couldn't seem to tin the tip, it just blackened. Then when I tried to solder what I wanted to solder, I held the tip underneath the speaker wire, touched the solder to the top of the wire (expecting it to melt around it) and nothing happened. I ended up having to touch the solder directly onto the tip and try and drip it onto the wire. End result - a very messy looking job.

To top it off, this morning I've looked at the tip and half of it on one side has just disintegrated :/

I've a feeling the old saying "buy cheap, but twice" has probably been my downfall here but I'd like some advice as to exactly where I went wrong if it was me.

The bit that confused me the most was why the solder didn't melt when it touched the speaker wire. Was the iron not hot enough? Was it because the lead-free solder that came in the lot has a higher melting point?

Yours confusedly, Luke.
 
I used the solder that came with the kit, so I suspect it's not really up to much.

I had a wet sponge that I was using to clean the tip.

I'll try buying some proper solder, any recommendations on brand? I'll also need to change the tip on the iron as this one is half gone :/
 
Thanks for all the replies.

As for fine wet and dry on the tip - that won't do much good as literally half of the tip has simply disintegrated.

I watched the YouTube vids and apparently the irons that plug straight into the mains without temp control (I.e. The one I have) are rubbish.

I'll buy some 60/40 and give that a go. Hopefully that solder will actually melt when it touches the speaker wire, because the other stuff didn't.
 
This is the kit I got, which had good reviews on Amazon (for the most part). I should have read the 1 star reviews first....

No I don't have tip cleaner, only what's in that kit.
 
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