A good soldering iron and decent size tip but not set too hot. You need lots of reserve heat but not high temp that just burns the flux too soon.
Use new wire, not oxidized old junk, and pre-tin the ends.
Solder in a well ventilated room, avoid breathing the fumes.
Wash your hands thoroughly when done. Don’t touch food, dishes, or just about anything other than your soldering stuff before you wash up.
Practice, practice, practice.
If it takes more than a second or two then something was not set up right or you have the wrong iron, tip, setting, solder, flux, or something.
Wipe the tip after each time…copper “sponge” or slightly damp regular sponge…and immediately tin the tip with a bit of solder to keep the tip from oxidizing.
Never leave the iron on when not actively using it.
Buy lots of extra tips and replace each as soon as it won’t stay “wet” with solder anymore.
While they are shiny it is clear you are still not getting them totally hot enough and adding enough solder. The top surface should be smooth and shiny ideally. With he ceramic tools you can compress the wire strands below the surface of the solder which is why yours look rough even if fully reflowed.
The one on the far left (the connector that’s in the vice grips) that was the best one. I added lots of solder in the cup and just twisted the strands tight and it didn’t unwind. I felt it sink in and the solder rose over the wire. That was the recent one I did before I stopped, I might’ve added some solder on top, don’t remember
The question is how well you will make sure every single joint comes out because if your system has 32 solder joints that is 32 failure points where all of them are critial.
My advice is get a really good soldering iron and pay some good money for solder… this is no place to skimp… I just did this one to practice my joints… I think I finally got them to a level that I’m happy with…
Then start playing with adjusting temperature… you don’t want it too hot or too cold… too hot you will burn your flux and tip and sheathing. To cold and you get bad welds.
if there is a cold breeze coming in a window it can make you need to turn the iron up to flow bigger joints. I try to not have anything making me have to add more heat than I should.
for anyone new looking to get into soldering the 2-in-1 hot air soldering stations are great if the room is too cold just blow some hot air on the metal.
Def lookin like a cold joint although it’s better than some of your earlier attempts. A couple of things that help me get nice, shiney joints are to a) make sure the solder is fully liquified (which I’m aure you’ve been told before and are endeavouring to do) before u remove ur iron and b) try not to jostle or disturb the solder when taking your iron away from the joint. If the wire moves at all or really if the solder pool is disturbed in any way, even by a gust of cold air, it can make a big difference in how shiny it comes out.
Yup since then I’ve made better joints, and started on the real thing. Forgot to post on this thread how they look now because life’s been a bit crazy recently
