Soldering Help Q & A's

[BrianG]

That should be fine. The idea behind a chisel tip is so you can make more contact with the area to solder to enable a better transfer of heat, and a larger tip will hold more heat longer. When you solder, especially larger wires, the wire tends to act like a heatsink and pull the heat from the tip until it is too cool to solder. A larger tip will help prevent this.

A 40w iron is plenty. Just make sure you let it sit for about 10-15 minutes after turning it on to let it get as hot as it will get. After soldering something, let it sit again for another 5 minutes to let it build the heat back up. If it takes more than 10 seconds to solder your pieces together, or if the iron "sticks" to the item being soldered, then your iron isn't hot enough. Tin each piece you want to solder and they will bond faster, more thoroughly, and much easier.

Some people tend to heat the solder and drop it on the wires. This makes a very poor solder joint. The idea is to hold the solder to the joint, heat the items being soldered, and let the solder flow into the joint.

Also, it is important to perform the initial tinning of the tip on a new iron. You want to make sure there is a good initial coat of solder on the tip, otherwise the oxidation that will form will be a barrier to heat. Don't be afraid to use quite a bit of solder on this step. Don't forget to wet the sponge too - it will help clear off any impurities on the tip. Once you are done soldering, clean the tip on the sponge and try not to let it run for a long long time without use. That will just allow more oxidation to form on it.

I would recommend practicing on some spare wire and connectors to get the hang of it. I think you'd rather learn from mistakes on scraps then on your expensive equipment.

Sorry for being long-winded. :)