That's a critical point you made Mark: never solder with a "dry" tip. It must be wet with a little solder. The wiping is to remove excess solder and any burned rosin or other debris, not to dry the tip off completely.
That's one of the reasons it's so important to use the right size tip on the iron. It's not just a matter of the tip reaching the joint without touching other parts, but a big tip will take too much solder to "wet" it, and when you heat the joint that solder may flood a small solder pad, but without the rosin needed for a well-flowed joint. The right size tip allows a small drop for good transfer, then more fresh solder is added with rosin to complete the joint. I use Don's technique for checking my iron temperature too: between 2 and 3 seconds for good solder flow over the joint. When I've worked on gear in the field (ships, etc.) I'm often in a situation where I'm working on delicate PCBs, even replacing SMDs at times, without a soldering station. I use my butane powered "Port-A-Sol" pen iron. It's hot enough to burn a hole in a PCB or de-bond traces almost instantly, but it has a fuel-flow control that adjusts the temperature and has selectable tips. For fine work I install a 1.5mm tip and crank down the heat, setting it to produce good solder flow between 2 and 3 seconds after applying the tip to the work. I've never damaged a PCB or component with it following that rule. Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- I agree with all Tom has stated, but to add a bit more(I didn't see mention of this), after cleaning the tip well I will dab just a touch of solder to the right before touching the joint to establish a "bridge." This helps the transfer of heat quickly to the joint so that you're not applying heat too long to that high quality but fragile circuit board. Too much heat for too long is a disaster to any pcb. My $.02 73, Mark Baugh W5EZY Grenada MS _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
