[BULK] - [Elecraft] Poor soldering (was: Does build quality affect performance?)

[james at kurtadler.com]

I think for people new to building and soldering the Elecraft article 
on the website is definitely a good one on getting started. Reading 
over that carefully is a good avenue to start. Still want to practice 
some before you start a K1 or K2? Get a mini module kit and start 
there.. that will get you used to soldering and if you really really 
really screw it up, at worst it's only 20 or 30 dollars gone. 

Perhaps the only sort of enhancement to the soldering instructional 
information would be some small video clips showing a good joint and 
some bad joints being made - this way someone can actually see the 
process and watch how the solder is fed, how much etc. The difference 
between reading about it and actually watching it done makes a big 
difference. I learned years ago by watching my elmer solder the first 
few connections of a keyer kit. When he let me take the iron, I already 
had a pretty good idea of the 'motions' of soldering. 

Also, you don't have to spend a fortune on an iron. Before I tackled 
the K2 as my first real serious kit, I dug around on ebay and found an 
inexpensive used weller soldering station with a tcp 700 tip. It was 
pretty beat up, ugly, with a few burns here and there but it worked 
fine. I think I paid a whopping $40 including shipping for the whole 
setup and it works great. As reccommended by Elecraft, it certainly 
makes a big difference in kit-building. After that I threw out most of 
my cheap-o $7 soldering pencils except for maybe one or two that I keep 
in a toolbox. Lastly, there are a number of places you can find some 
good kester solder out there. I've still barely made a dent in the roll 
that I have. 

Just some food for thought.. 

73,

James KB2FCV
www.kb2fcv.com

----- Original Message -----
From: Craig Rairdin <craigr at laridian.com>
Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 11:36 am
Subject: [BULK] - [Elecraft] Poor soldering (was: Does build quality 
affect performance?)

> > However, since the biggest problem that beginners seem to have 
> is 
> > poor soldering, sometimes a beginner's rig may have poor joints 
> > that don't cause problems immediately.
> 
> With that in mind, what are the most common soldering problems? 
> Could we
> head off errors by discussing them here or beefing up the material 
> on the
> Elecraft Web site on this topic?
> 
> Is it:
> 
> * Iron too hot/cold
> * Wrong tip
> * Too much heat applied (damaging part or pad)
> * Bad technique
> * Wrong solder
> * Too much/little solder
> 
> Or something else?
> 
> Depending on what the symptoms of the problems are, this would 
> also help new
> owners choose a builder and help purchasers of used units inspect 
> the work
> before buying.
> 
> When I decided to build a K1 I spent a lot of time reading the 
> material on
> the Elecraft Web site, then I bought a suitable solder station 
> rather than
> resurrect my old Radio Shack iron. Both my K1 & K2 turned out 
> great with no
> problems in checkout, alignment, or everyday operation, but you 
> have me
> worried that I might have screwed up in ways I haven't discovered 
> yet. :-)
> 
> Craig
> NZ0R
> K1 #1966
> K2/100 #4941
> 
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