Re: soldering

[Jim Giercyk]

Good info Jerry...

The 'mil spec' technique I was taught to accomplish that manually was to place the part through the board and bend back whichever lead you are "not" about to solder.  This will hold the component in place.  Then nip the lead you are abount to solder so that it is flush with the board, leaving enough exposed to make a good connection with the pad.  The actual amount of solder you need to make the joint is next to nothing, and the component lead should not stick out at all above the pad.  Once that is done you can align and nip the other lead(s) and make a similar joint.  Of course it goes without saying that you must USE GOOD SOLDER and a GOOD IRON.

I saw that demonstrated by a guy who is certified to "solder in space".  He is the fastest solderer I've ever seen.  I have to wonder how many 'blobs' from cold solder joints are currently orbiting the earth....I know, it's classified.

That technique makes for a pretty circuit board, and guarantees there will be no shorted leads.  I thought I would share in case anyone wanted to try it.  Of course, everyone has there own way to solder - that's what makes this fun!  Thanks,

Jim

--- [hidden email] wrote:

From: "Jeremiah McCarthy" <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [Elecraft] soldering
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2006 10:52:45 -0500

Anything that is built for NASA and will fly will most likely have to be conformal coated...Leaving excess lead length might cause the ends to protrude out of the conformal coating, defeating the purpose of the coating...I was not aware of any min-max lead length protrusion in my dealings with NASA....We used minimum solder to save lift-off weight and we always trimmed flush...This does not mean that specs have not been updated since I left Grumman...

Jerry, wa2dkg

Certified NASA, Navy, and Airforce solderer...
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[Stuart Rohre]

My NASA soldering school in the early 60's had us solder the lead first,
then trim near flush, unless it was an earth bound application, and you
would leave a bit to clip on a test lead for testing.  Usually, you would
just clip flush to the top of the fillet, and use test points for testing.

The big thing with my instructor was to have a proper fillet curve,
indicating that the joint was fully wetted and heated.  Those were shiny
joints even without having high tin solder in those days.

Stuart
K5KVH


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