Soldering PCB Boards

Soldering pcb boards
When learning how to solder to a circuit board you will notice that soldering to a PC board can be probematic. Too much heat can make the copper trace lift right off the board substrate,

What is Soldering?

It is defined as the joining of metals by a fusion of alloys which have relatively low melting points, how it works is that you use a metal that has a low melting point to adhere the surfaces to be soldered together.

As you can probably imagine soldering is more like gluing with molten metal than anything else.

The reasons soldering is a must have skill, is because it is used in all types of electrical and electronics work.

What is Cold Solder Joints?

A cold joint is a joint in which the solder does not make good contact with the component lead or printed circuit board pad. Also Cold joints occur when the component lead or solder pad moves before the solder is completely cooled.

So if not done properly you will have a really bad electrical connection which will prevent your circuit from working.

The following tutorial will cover: Printed Circuit Board, and How To Solder,

What is printed circuit board?

You will hear about how a printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, or traces, etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate also referred to as printed wiring board (PWB) or etched wiring board.

How to Solder:

1. Tools and materials, Soldering is the process of using a filler material to join pieces of metal together.

2. Plug in your soldering iron and let it heat up while prepping your materials.

3. Soldering wire, start soldering two pieces of wire together, make sure not to get the wires too hot.

4. Soldering components onto a circuit board , solder the leads onto the bottom of the circuit board where the electrodes push through called through hole component soldering. Adjust temperature on soldering iron and heat the metal contact on the board use the lead to touch the tip of the iron to the crack between the lead and the metal pad on the circuit board.

   (After waiting a couple of seconds, dip the tip of the solder into the joint and place a very small amount of solder at the connection.)

What you will need to get started:

• Equipment
  Surface Preparation
  Component Placement
  Apply Heat
  Apply Solder And Remove Heat
  Cleanup

What is soldering iron and solder?

Soldering irons are the heat source used to melt solder, you will use this for most electronics/printed circuit board work , you will need to have a clean surface, because it is very important if you want a strong, low resistance joint.

All surfaces to be soldered should be cleaned with steel wool and some sort of solvent then bend the leads as necessary and insert the component through the proper holes on the board.

Next, apply a very small amount of solder to the tip of the iron and once the component lead and solder pad has heated up, you are ready to apply solder, then after you have made all the solder joints, you may wish to clean with steel wool or solvent to remove all the left over rosin.

Cutting the leads, once you get your components soldered into the circuit board, you can go back and cut off the excess leads. It is called Surface mounting components onto a circuit board, when you solder components onto a circuit board and take the leads push through holes in the board, which some say is the easiest of the two methods of soldering small components onto boards.

What is Desoldering?

Desoldering, fixing mistakes and extrapolation, you may find that you need to do desoldering which is the process of removing solder at a joint to disconnect two components, wires or materials.

When it comes to wire links between points on the circuit board you will utilize battery clips, as well as wires to parts off the circuit board, including switches, relays, variable resistors and loudspeakers.

As you are probably aware ICs (chips) rosin core solder through hole soldering or soldering iron circuit boards for surface mount soldering solder pc board as well as desoldering circuit boards soldering is what many technicians find as part of the process.

EPE Basic Soldering Guide covers such areas as: Voltage, Wattage, Temperature Control, Soldering Stations, Anti Static Protection, Bits Tips, Spare Parts and Gas-Powered irons needed to assemble any electronic project.