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LAB 04- Introduction to Soldering
Lab Manual:
Lab 04 - Intro to Soldering.docx
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Overview
The focus of this lab was to practice soldering and become familiar with lab equipment and safety procedures. In this lab the main goal was to learn why we solder components, how to tin them, how to solder lap joints, and how to solder on PCB boards.
Why solder?
We solder components together for two main goals. These are to ensure a strong physical connection and provide a highly conductive electrical connection. To do this we use solder, a metal alloy of tin and lead to join two components together. Rosin may also be used and is most commonly found within the solder itself as the core but can be added on to enhance the “stickiness” further.
Above is some solder that was used during the lab.
Tinning
Tinning is comprised of coating the tip of a wire with solder to ensure a good binding with other components and a good electrical connection. First you must strip the wire to expose the copper within. There are a couple methods to solder with varying success, however, this is dependent on each individual. What worked for me is next you heat up the wire using the soldering iron and place the solder onto the wire or the soldering iron that is touching the wire. This results in the solder melting and coating the wire. If you put too much solder on then the wire will look as if it has a glob of metal on the tip and not a shiny silver, see the image below.
Continuing, if you heat the solder too much you risk burning it and the metal loosing the shine and some conductivity. See image below for part of the tinning process.
Lap Joints
Lap joints are used to join two wires together that have been tinned. This is done by overlapping the two wires so they are flush against each other and the solder is shiny with no fractures/dull spots. To solder lap joints you first have to have the wires overlapping, seen in the image below.
Next, you hold the solder iron to the wires to be able to transfer the melted solder onto them. Bring the solder onto the iron and make sure to not use too much solder that when you pull away you are left with a peak and not too little that there isn’t enough to hold the two wires together.
Hopefully you have enough solder that they are bonded together and you have shiny smooth solder similar to the image below.
This lap joint is not perfect, however, it is extremely close to being one. The wires themselves are not perfectly flush and a little bit of the insulation is melted with the solder. This is a good example of what the solder itself should look like, however.
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