Last night was my 12yo brother’s first time soldering, I got the 63100s bullet connectors replaced and his school project is ready.
His first ever solder joint, pretty close to entirely on his own.
His first ever solder joint, pretty close to entirely on his own.
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Looking a little cold, want tips or just sharing?
What is that qs8 powering anyway?
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All tips welcomed! Its a black xt90 for battery harness. Was using the m12 Milwaukee soldering tool.
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Looks like the heat got pulled off a little too early OR this is lead free solder without enough flux. Do you use paste flux or just the flux core solder without extra?
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For my g300, I Dremeled the crimp into a cup and soldered 
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Come arrest me, I’m all yours 
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No flux. It was the expensive electrical stuff from home depot with flux core. So more heat and flux? That mr60 motor connector was a battle i had to file that down.
Get some good paste flux, no clean up flux i like best but i still clean it off. Whatever is in a syringe is probably ok - i don’t actually know if there is a better brand than the rando junk i got. I don’t put much on the wire but i definitely mak sure to get a good amount on the connector.
Also switch to leaded solder, nothing at home depo or lowes is any good. I don’t know how they got it so wrong but it just sucks compared to a good any 63/37 leaded solder. It’s not an exaggeration, the harris or weller stuff just doesn’t work well no matter how good your technique is.
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Get yourself some electronic solder, you’re going to struggle to get good joints using Home Depot crap. Never seen actual electronics solder at Home Depot tho, curious what your roll looks like.
Consider below;
I use unleaded solder for everything I do, and have never had issues. Slightly more finicky, maybe? But never something that can’t be overcome with better technique.
These are the rolls that I use, pretty much just Amazon specials. They’ve all been great.
Then again, the guy that won esk8con this year @HAIRYMANJACK uses leaded solder, so maybe that’s the secret…
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Leaded 63/37 is the way.
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So here is home depot electrical stuff. Chunky 1.6mm flux core lead free, melted like butter and held strong enough. Almost more of a crimp. Never used it before Vegas but $38 is expensive.
This is what i used before. Its 1.5mm flux core came with a cheap iron and i have no idea what its made of. Its smoky and not the easiest but with some flux it goes into the wire and gets a weld eventually.
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That electrical silver stuff in my experience is only good for covering crimps, and even then not very good. It wicks into wires terribly and takes a ton of heat to tin any surfaces.
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Exactly! i had to smash the wire, melt that over it and that was my connection.
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Unfortunately the Home Depot harris stuff is both more expensive and nearly useless. Might be good for stained glass but to get it to work i use my largest tip set to 800c and drown it in good flux and the final results are temporary at best. The joints are poor and all the adjacent parts are overheated and the temp it flows right at seem to be beyond what most connectors can stand.
I can’t even find a temp chart for that other kemper solder as nothing i find references a 50% Sn (tin) lead free solder for electronics. The closest i could find was a high bismuth solder with 600-800c temps - without the actual content percentages that means nothing - could be anything
If you want to stay with lead free solder, look at the stuff @tuckjohn posted above and the alloy % and get something with the same content which is mostly tin with a smidge of copper and silver. I think the higher silver content makes it stick better without oxides interfering, but most of my silver bearing solder experience is based around brazing dissimilar materials for hvac equipment. Probably not applicable, im no metallurgist - just a banana for scale 
Leaded alloy i like is Sn63/Pb37. The lead exposure concerns are real though, not from fumes but from handling and waste. No smoking or eating when soldering and keep your workspace clean and it’s a manageable problem.
The solder you have will never work for eskate without a lot of cussing and half success. It just isn’t the correct alloy or isn’t actually a solder alloy for electronics and electrical circuits.
Im sure it works now, and you obviously found a way 
but i think if you change alloys it will make your life easier and make the connections more reliable. The way that the wire comes out of the joint looking clean and solder free makes me think that the joint is just mechanically held in place by the solder and not actually joined. That could make it fail in weird ways.
Just a picture but with the solder you have and the temps it needs to reach to wet it should have heated an inch of wire to temp and wicked way back unless you have a monster hot iron and magic hands.
Also good solder is like 10 bucks online. I always like the cheap good solutions… because im cheap
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So much cussing, burned fingers, everything. but ya it worked for now. Ill get some of that 63 37 and try not to eat it.
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That’s basically the stuffI got.
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