please critique my soldering

As I posted before, my soldering experience was limited to PCB work, and I found it to be an entirely different experience altogether to work on turrets. Looking at these photos, what are your thoughts? This is my first build, so I want to develop the right techniques at the beginning.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7087/7322290684_2de59394e0.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/79889912@N03/7322290684/)
IMG_0738 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/79889912@N03/7322290684/) by jwarkentin83 (http://www.flickr.com/people/79889912@N03/)

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7226/7322292488_3357b70c92.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/79889912@N03/7322292488/)
IMG_0736 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/79889912@N03/7322292488/) by jwarkentin83 (http://www.flickr.com/people/79889912@N03/)

Feel free to rip it apart, as I have my solder sucker at the ready :)

Can't see any photos......?

Oh sorry, now I can :oops:

Sorry, had some problem with the IMG tag. They should be up now...

A little fuzzy pictures but does not look bad.

It looks pretty tidy. My only comments would be to let the solder flow so you get a nice smooth blob and try to keep the flecks and bits of solder off the board. Good to see that you're keeping your resistors pointing in the same direction (where possible). It seems unimportant but helps years down the line when someone has to diagnose and identify components. It also looks like you care....

It looks pretty tidy. My only comments would be to let the solder flow so you get a nice smooth blob and try to keep the flecks and bits of solder off the board. Good to see that you're keeping your resistors pointing in the same direction (where possible). It seems unimportant but helps years down the line when someone has to diagnose and identify components. It also looks like you care....

Thank you for your kind comments - I'm glad you noticed the component direction! I made sure every label was facing up, so it would allow for easy reference down the road. I'm one of those people that will take 4x as long to do a project like this because I obsess over things looking as neat as possible.

For my next project (hopefully a 5E3!) I'll put a layer of masking tape on the board during the soldering process, so I can avoid what happened here.

Thank you for your kind comments - I'm glad you noticed the component direction! I made sure every label was facing up, so it would allow for easy reference down the road. I'm one of those people that will take 4x as long to do a project like this because I obsess over things looking as neat as possible.

For my next project (hopefully a 5E3!) I'll put a layer of masking tape on the board during the soldering process, so I can avoid what happened here.

Looking good! A few of the joints look shiny, but a bit 'blobby' on top, which might indicate that the wires are soldered, but not quite enough temp went to the turret. As Pinewood said, a bit more flow. For most of those components, it would probably be easier to wrap the turret 270-300 degrees and snip. It easier to get the temp up around the turret compared to inside.

Re the masking tape, don't do that! :shock: You'd have a terrible time getting it off later... I know about that. :oops: I haven't figured out an alternative yet, but nothing adhesive. I usually just clean things up with a Q-tip afterward.

Have fun! It's gonna sound great!:grin:

A fine job. I concur with the wrap method. Wrap the component lead around the turret so that it makes 3/4 of a turn around the turret. (Military Spec, BTW).

3/4 gives both sufficient physical grip AND the ability to desolder and remove a component in the future.

Wrap whatever components you can as you populate the board.

Get one of those cheap hand-free clamping devices so you can turn the board with the edge up.

With the edge up - facing you -

You can go down the line and solder all the connections.

Then, Repeat - Do the other side (edge) the same way.

Next. Cut your wire to 3.5 inches and strip a fat 1/4 inch of insulation.

Place the board flat. Bend the wire so that the edge of the insulation is off the lip of the turret when the wire is placed into the hole.

Now solder all the wires to the tops of the turrets.

You may solder the wires to the bottom holes if you prefer.

Get one of those cheap hand-free clamping devices so you can turn the board with the edge up.


You mean I do not have to hold the board in one hand, iron in the other, and the solder in between my teeth?

You mean I do not have to hold the board in one hand, iron in the other, and the solder in between my teeth?

Hehe! You know that trick, too! :grin:

You need a hotter iron and/or better solder. I'm guessing hotter iron, as the solder looks good as far as it goes.

The solder needs to flow to the joint, and your work shows that the joint was *almost* hot enough for this to happen.

Get one of those cheap hand-free clamping devices so you can turn the board with the edge up.

My daughter only held my amp board once....:oops:




I didn't leave any scars or permanent marks.

Criticism often bites. Take it constructively. Your work is light years better than some I have witnessed from more than a few beginners - including myself. Once you see the solder flow and lock down in that magical way as it should, you will know that you have arrived. Snatch the pebble.

Nothing too wrong with your soldering but a few points I can pass along is the professional results you get from using liquid flux for electronics Buy a small bottle of it and Also a plastic squeeze bottle with syringe tip. I can't stress enough how much faster and sweeter the heats transfers and the solder flows twice as good as not using it. Also I got away from 60/40 solder and went to 63/37 as it "sets up" almost instantly after pulling the iron away from point of contact. You don't ever see a plumber soldering anything without using flux and it's no different for electronics either. The flux makes a huge difference and makes soldering night a day rather than not using it. Once you try it you'll know what I mean once completed take a Q tip with isopropyl alcohol and wipe all traces of flux and Make Sure you let it dry before powering the amp up as it can cause a short from things being wet. My 2 cents.

You guys are all great! I was worried about the temperature - I'm using a Weller WLC100, which has that potentiometer "control" (doesn't really change much, it seems), and I turned it down to 3 (goes up to 5) because the top of the turret was turning brown and "boiling" when I was applying the solder, which indicated my temp was too high, or so I thought. I'm guessing flux will help this.

I learned to solder with lead free solder building a DC power supply in the first term of Electrical Engineering, so this is my first summer electronics project :) I thought leaded solder would be easier to work with, but I'm having a harder time with this. Maybe because my iron is way cheaper than the one we had in the school labs ($400 Weller models)

I tested all of the joints for continuity, and they're all good - but I'm a perfectionist, and I think I'll employ my solder sucker tomorrow, turn the heat up on the iron and re-solder.

Thanks again for all the valuable suggestions, and thank you hackworth for your Boot Hill 5F1 kit! I just ordered some transformers for it today, looking forward to completing this.

Nothing too wrong with your soldering but a few points I can pass along is the professional results you get from using liquid flux for electronics Buy a small bottle of it and Also a plastic squeeze bottle with syringe tip. I can't stress enough how much faster and sweeter the heats transfers and the solder flows twice as good as not using it. Also I got away from 60/40 solder and went to 63/37 as it "sets up" almost instantly after pulling the iron away from point of contact. You don't ever see a plumber soldering anything without using flux and it's no different for electronics either. The flux makes a huge difference and makes soldering night a day rather than not using it. Once you try it you'll know what I mean once completed take a Q tip with isopropyl alcohol and wipe all traces of flux and Make Sure you let it dry before powering the amp up as it can cause a short from things being wet. My 2 cents.

I'll make sure and pick up the flux, isopropyl, and 63/37 solder on my next parts run. One weird thing I noticed when I used flux on a practice PCB board was it seemed to "boil" when I applied heat to it, and after a couple days, it left a giant green stain. Is that because I didn't clean it with the isopropyl afterwords?

Since everyone's chiming in.
This is what I use. I think same as yours. It's happy just above 3. Too high and the tip oxidizes quickly and you'll waste a ton of solder.
I use those same boards and don't use flux.
Steps: wipe, apply a touch of solder, heat the joint a few secs, add solder. It should flow between the two. Don't cook your parts, if worried use a heatsink. Good luck!

Get one of those cheap hand-free clamping devices so you can turn the board with the edge up.

This was my fancy hands free device.

Since everyone's chiming in.
This is what I use. I think same as yours. It's happy just above 3. Too high and the tip oxidizes quickly and you'll waste a ton of solder.
I use those same boards and don't use flux.
Steps: wipe, apply a touch of solder, heat the joint a few secs, add solder. It should flow between the two. Don't cook your parts, if worried use a heatsink. Good luck!

Yeah, that's the same iron as I have. I'll try adjusting it to just above 3 and see how it goes (I had it just below 3 before)