untitled

Soldering extras ....................................................................................

Your soldering iron and solder are the main tools you need to make soldered

joints. However, a few accessories will make your soldering life easier. These

include

Sponge:You use a damp (not dripping) sponge to wipe the tip of your

soldering iron clean before soldering each component.

Tip cleaner:If you don’t keep the iron’s tip clean, it might actually repel

solder — making it bead up and staying away from where you want it to

go. When the tip is too grungy to be cleaned by simply wiping it on the

damp sponge, use a tip cleaner paste to chemically clean it.

Solder wick:Sometimes you have to desolder a bad joint and then resol-

der it. To help remove the bad solder, you can use a solder wick,which is

a flat, braided piece of copper that soaks up solder.

Third-hand clamp:There are fancy clamps you can buy called third-hand

clamps to hold components while you solder them. Personally, we just

use a vice and an alligator clip; they do just fine!

Figure 4-14:
Soldering to
flat contact
pads.

Chapter 4: Running Down the Skills You Need 75