On 3/6/21 6:44 PM, Stephen Adolph wrote:
Brian suggested on Facebook to watch a video on drag soldering and am I
ever glad I did.
I learned that I have been using the wrong tip to solder with!
I went out yesterday and bought a wide flat tip for my iron, and I tried
to do drag soldering exactly like I saw on youtube.
Wow what a difference!
I built about 18 or so REX#/REXCPM today with 100% first pass yield, and
much less assembly time. very cool.
What I found was really interesting was that as you sweep the iron along
the row of pins, you set up a "wave" of solder that reflows across the
entire pin and pad.
Wish I had figured this out ***LONG AGO***!!!! Great tip Brian.
Steve
I'm 51 this year, and I had a ham license when I was 9 or 10 and was
soldering well before that even, and I only just got an actual
temperature controlled station and discovered the drag technique myself
a couple years ago. So, I say exactly the same thing as what you just did.
I use a medium size 45 degree bevel tip on my Hakko FX-888D
Not sure if it's the 2mm or 3mm without going to look.
Probably this one
https://hakkousa.com/catalog/product/view/id/9922/category/3/
That tip is bizzarrely good for everything. It's both wide & flat, and
narrow & sharp, whichever you need just by rotating the iron to flip the
bevel up vertical or laying flat. You can get in and touch an individual
soic or qfn leg, or effectively heat up wick enough to clean out
filled vias even without suction.
It's great for dragging for a couple different reasons. The flat surface
is large enough to bridge across several legs at once. The 45 degree
angle keeps the iron more vertical than if you were trying to lay the
side of a conical tip across multiple legs, but you can't lay it flat
because of all the other components on the board. The oval shape doesn't
snag on legs as you drag across them sideaways, so you don't bend even
fine weak TSOP legs even though you are dragging across them sideways.
I don't know why that isn't the default shape for all irons, even cheap
$10 junkers.
I got a bunch of different tips when I got the 888D, but I never use
anything but that one.
--
bkw
