Hi Wayne: Fred has good comments, of course.
You'll be fine with the RA solder. The 'trick' is to avoid dumping too much solder on the joint. My personal 'standard' solder is 60/40 0.031 solder like yours. I do keep some 0.015 around for fine SMD work but I've never found it necessary (or an advantage) to use the finer stuff for leaded components. Personally, I solder as I go. I put a component in position, double check it for the correct part/value/location (funny how components can jump into the wrong pads or the color codes on a resistor seem to change from the time you pick it up until the time you are ready to solder), and then after reassuring myself it's the right part in the right spot, I solder that part in and clip the leads. Then I check it off in the book and go onto the next part. Yes, through-hole plating is tough to remove all the solder from. The "solder sucker" is great there but I've also used wick very successfully. The "trick" with the solder wick is to add flux. I have a bottle of GC liquid solder flux (P/N 10-4202) that I dip the end of the wick into just before using it. It works a champ, wicking all the solder out of the pad in seconds. I'd recommend getting a bottle of the flux. It's handy in places where you have some oxide on a terminal too. I don't recall when I got my bottle - at least 5 years ago - it's only 2 ounces and I've used less than 10% of it so far, Hi! Fred's comments about the temperature of your iron are "right on". The most dangerous thing you can do is to use a too-cool iron. That will damage components and lift traces because you'll end up "baking" them too long. Like Fred, I tend to use a tip temperature of 750F for most soldering. I push it up to 800F or so when working with braid, to offset the "heat sink" action of the braid. I have a Hakko 936 so changing temperatures is a simple matter of turning a knob on the station. Like Fred said, take your time. The K2 is no more complicated than the simplest kit you can imagine. You just keep doing the same things more often - more parts, more solder joints. Tackle it one step at a time and it'll go together smoothly. 73 Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Wayne Conrad Sent: Friday, April 15, 2011 2:17 PM To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] [K2] 60W temperature controlled iron; unknown brand of solder Hi again, Fred. Thanks for your thoughts. On 04/15/2011 01:48 PM, Fred Jensen wrote: (snip) > I don't know what RA Flux is. 0.025 may be a little big unless you've > had a lot of soldering experience. I used Alpha 63/37 "Energized > Rosin," 0.015 dia because I had a 1 lb roll. RA is, I guess, "rosin activated." I think there is also RMA, "rosin mildly activated." And that's the extent of what I know about those acronyms. Wow, 0.025 is a little big? Elecraft recommends 0.031 or finer, and I thought I was doing good getting one size smaller. I have some soldering experience, but nothing on this scale, and the last PCB I soldered was in nineteen seventy something when 1/16" solder was pretty fine and you didn't need a magnifying glass to read the part numbers. Of course, my eyes were better back when the parts were bigger. That doesn't seem quite right. I've got the 20W dummy load kit; I'm going to assemble it first as a "warm up" before tackling the K2. > Go slow, check each part against the reference designator, value, > location on the board, and orientation at least twice. You will install > several parts and then solder them all. I count connections on a piece > of paper as I install, and then count each one as I solder it. I didn't > have any unsoldered connections. > I like your idea of counting the connections and making to solder that many. I'll do that. I'm also going to double-check the part numbers as I install each part, and for those I can measure (R and C), meter 'em to make sure. I've got a big incentive to make no goofs: My parts store is out of stock on the Soldapult tools. All I've got is desoldering braid, and I'm no genius with that stuff. The Soldapult works like a charm. Or at least it did back when I last used one. Trying it on a plated-through board would be a new experience. Best Regards, Wayne Conrad ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
