Soldering....

[tAdiGh]

is it that hard... i was always afraid of soldering thinking i might melt the circuit board..what i want to do is recable my ksc-75s

can you give me a suggestion on:
what cable to use
how to solder and techniques
proper solder tools


thank you

 

[KinesongPayaso]

i just learned by playing around with gizmos around the house

broken remote, i'd break it apart, check the connections
appliances not working, open it up, check the connections

the only way you can mess up a solder is if you:
create a bubble.. a big blob of the melted wire that doesnt really make a connection
or, bridge 2 different connections together


all I use are:
that suction thing... to suck out an old solder, that went wrong, or needs to be replaced
protective eye wear
stable stand for the soldering iron

some people skip to heating the lead or something
but I tend to heat the wire first, so that when it comes into contact with the warmed up lead, i get a cleaner product

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldering

 

[rb67]

No worries on melting the circuit board

It won't melt, only the plastic housing of your ksc's and the insulation on wire would.

For a first time, I would stick to a 24 awg or 28 awg wire, most likely 28awg. I find stiff wire tough to work with.

Tools: a decent soldering iron, this has been covered in many threads. If you only want to stick to recabling your headphones, a fine point weller would do just fine. You might want to consider a soldering station if you plan on starting DIY.
You'll need solder, wire cutters, tweezers, and desolder braid or pump. I prefer braid as I find it easier to work with. Other people prefer pumps. To clean my tip, I simply use a wet sponge, but you may want to invest in some brass wool.

Tangent has an EXCELLENT video series that covers all your questions better than I ever could.
Look here:
http://tangentsoft.net/elec/movies/

 

[mono]

Get a reasonable soldering iron and practice a few times on a scrap/junk circuit board, whatever you have available.

Keep the iron tip clean, put a clamp/heatsink/etc on any parts that can hold one, and turn the iron up a "little" so it heats the metal quicker before conducting that heat to the plastic pin or socket holder.

If you don't get it soldered on good within a small single-digit # of seconds, do not keep heating it. Remove iron and let parts cool so you don't heat until all the plastic holding the metal bits has melted. Re-evaluate why it wasn't heating enough on the previous try and make corrections if necessary.

 

[Zenja]

I just watched tangent's videos and read a few things on the internet and when I started doing it it was a breeze. I made some interconnects and soldering wasn't a problem.