Try it again, but heat the work until you see some smoke (possibly about 15 seconds) then apply the solder to the work. Your soldering will improve with practice and it is much easier with 60/40 lead-based solder; I prefer it.
Did you ever see such a messed up situation in your whole life, son?
I think I may be getting the hang of it now. Definitely much easier with this soldering station than other irons I've used. Nice to know it's up to temp.
I managed to desolder a connection, suck it up with solder wick and resolder it. I've got some other tips for it on the way which I'm hoping will be easier than the pointy one.
Need to find out about cleaning/tinning it too. The stand has a sponge in it to wipe the tip on.
Finished project. Mostly happy with the soldering apart from one or two where the contact point isn't fully covered in solder. And the motor mounts, struggled to get them to solder and don't like the way it's held in place.
Unfortunately one of the motors doesn't work so it just goes round in circles. Not sure it too much heat from the iron damaged the motor but I can see the brushes on the motor are in the wrong place and can't move them :(
Perfect! Solder still looks liquid, indicative of a good joint. A dry-looking, grainy joint is a cold solder joint and will fail, shiny and wet-looking = success! Excellent!
Did you ever see such a messed up situation in your whole life, son?
The motors are hard to solder in place because the motor housing is heavier gauge metal. Heat the housing first so solder will melt on it, then place it next to the mount surface and heat them together, adding solder to the light side. Should do the trick.
Is there a way to reverse the polarity to that DC motor? I doubt the heat hurt the motor, it may be just defective. Did you test it first?
Did you ever see such a messed up situation in your whole life, son?
:D I am surprised how easy it was actually. I had read plenty of times that soldering is easy so not sure if it was the technique, iron or a combination of both but it was far easier than I was expecting from previous attempts.
I didn't think to try the motors before fixing them. Maybe I could get another and swap it over.
Well met all of teh. This year was all about William so we have spent most of it making and playing with lego. I did get a new graphic novel (hedge knight by George r martin) and a newish pratchett non fiction book. Some money for my new gaming pc (anyone want to buy a GTX 670 for £100?) and a star wars mug.
In Taunton for a few days at the mo, went on a steam train yesterday and fossil hunting on a beach somewhere.
This holiday is going way to quickly for my liking.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year to one and all forumites and family's
