The use and maintenance of the necessary skills of the soldering iron
In daily life, you may not have the opportunity to come into contact with a soldering iron, but for technologists who like to DIY, they will use it from time to time. If you are also interested in DIY, then using a soldering iron for soldering must be mastered Skill Oh! ZEALER | FIX Today I will talk to you about the use and maintenance of the soldering iron.
Use
Different soldering irons have different characteristics. Some friends like electrical appliances, so a handy external heating electric soldering iron (higher power, suitable for larger solder joints or hardware welding) is essential; some Friends usually like to toss some simple digital products. An internal heating electric soldering iron (low power, fast heating, suitable for ordinary solder joints) is enough; if you want more playability, a The adjustable constant temperature electric soldering iron is your best choice (the temperature can be adjusted and can stabilize the temperature, there are two kinds of single handle temperature adjustment type and soldering station). It should be noted that the above internal heating type and external heating type usually do not have a power switch, and they will be heated when plugged in, and they must be turned off to cool down.
As the saying goes, a good horse needs a good saddle. Then the soldering iron head is the saddle of the horse (soldering iron). The selection of the soldering iron tip should be determined according to the contact surface of the object to be welded. For example, for ordinary plug-in components, we mostly use horseshoe heads (large contact surface); small SMD components can be pointed or curved (soldering dense components); for conventional chips, cutter heads can be used (convenient for drag welding); Of course, the more advanced DIY method is to polish your own unique shape of the soldering iron tip according to your own needs. We will introduce the details later.
As for the newly bought soldering iron, we can't use it right away. We need to tin the new soldering iron for the first time. Plug in the power supply, and apply rosin to the tip of the soldering iron while the temperature is gradually rising; when the rosin smokes and the tip of the soldering iron starts to melt the solder, tin the tip of the soldering iron with a tin wire, so that the tin can fully cover the entire soldering iron mouth, so that the tip of the soldering iron can be coated with a layer of solder to achieve a bright surface.
After the first tinning is done, we still need to use some auxiliary solders, such as solder (tin wire), flux (auxiliary soldering, such as rosin, etc.), sponge (used to clean the tip of the soldering iron, add water to use) , tin suction device or tin suction belt (for desoldering to remove excess tin), etc.
Next, we will pre-process the welded pair. The first is to solder the components. If it is a new component, this step can be omitted (if the pins are oxidized, it must be pre-tinned). If it is an old component that has been desoldered, the old tin on the old component needs to be removed. , smooth the pins, which is also convenient for insertion into the holes of the circuit board for soldering. Then the soldering part of the circuit board is processed. In fact, it is quite simple, just ensure that the soldering part is clean and free from oxidation. You can wipe the soldering surface of the circuit board with a rubber to make the soldering pad bright and then the soldering state can be achieved.
First insert the component into the soldering hole, dip the tip of the soldering iron in rosin (rosin is a flux, which can remove the oxide layer on the soldering surface, increase the fluidity of tin, and effectively avoid dry soldering, thereby improving the soldering quality), and then stick the soldering iron on Place the component pins and pads, and then send the tin wire to the contact point. At this time, the tin will automatically fill up the entire pad. At this time, remove the tin first, and then lift the electric soldering iron to wait for the solder joints to solidify ……that's it.
The standard solder joint requirement is to be round, plump and beautiful, without burrs and without false welding. During the soldering process, many small partners will not be able to control the amount of tin added, resulting in too much tin added and too large solder joints. At this time, we have to remove the excess tin. We can use a tin suction device (using suction to suck away the melted tin), or a tin suction belt (using copper wire to suck tin). If it is a tool, we can also add more rosin to increase the fluidity of the solder, and use a soldering iron to remove the tin on the solder joint bit by bit (add rosin to melt the solder joint, and then wipe the tin on the tip of the soldering iron with a sponge , add rosin to melt tin, repeat the above operation, and the excess tin on the solder joint can be removed)
Maintenance
1. The soldering iron core is a heating device that converts electrical energy into heat energy, just like an electric heating wire. We can do one thing for its maintenance: don’t turn on the electricity for a long time to heat it without burning it, and turn off the power in time when it is not in use. This prolongs the life of the soldering iron core.
2. The soldering iron tip is a medium that releases the heat of the soldering iron core. It conducts heat while being in contact with air, so it is very easy to oxidize. Our maintenance on the tip of the soldering iron is to prevent oxidation.
So how to deal with the oxidized soldering iron tip? Earlier we also briefly talked about the first tinning of a new soldering iron, but the operation is almost the same. In order to protect the soldering iron, we'd better use an old soldering iron handle or fix the soldering iron tip with a fixture, carefully polish the soldering iron tip with a file or sandpaper, remove the oxide layer, and grind out a certain surface that can be tinned. For the soldering iron tip with serious oxidation, first use a file to grind out a suitable shape (you can grind out some useful shapes yourself at this time), and then use sandpaper or a small file to smooth it in the final stage. Then you can turn on the power and re-tin. When a freshly ground soldering iron is energized, the heating temperature is not hot enough to melt tin, but it is easy to oxidize. At this time, you can put the tip of the soldering iron into the solder paste, which can effectively prevent oxidation. When the tip of the soldering iron is hot enough, you can dip some rosin first.
