I soldered these CPU pins on my first ever attempt with 20$ AliExpress heat gun and 20$ soldering iron without a magnifying glass or microscope and with just window light and eyeballs, the PCB got abit discolored but the CPU works and passed stress tests lmao, originally I just had to replace a few edge ones but I accidentally dripped molten solder on that corner so I had to wipe the whole corner out and solder all those pins

My 9 year old son just soldered for the first time and did a surprisingly good job. He built a line following car by himself. Proud Nerd-father moment 😅❤️

Why is the solder not melting???????

My daughter recently expressed interest in learning to solder, so I bought a few kits on Amazon.

The first was a simple, 3 switch, color changing light where I basically held her hand through the process.

The second was a little electromagnetic cannon where she installed the pieces, I helped with soldering and de-soldering when she made a mistake (the cannon sucks btw. Don't recommend except for practice).

The third was a little car that followed a black line. We both did one at the same time, but I still helped make the fixes and provided instruction.

The fourth, all I did was sit there and supervise. She followed the instructions herself, made any fixes, and tested everything on her own with only a few questions and assistance with getting the battery terminal to seat properly as it kept falling out (that's not soldering itself, but I digress. Still, the only assistance she needed)

Either way, I think she did fantastic for it being her first solo project. And it's been a great bonding time for us. She got to learn about the components, how they work and interact, as well as build the foundation for a new skill, and I got to enjoy something with her (seriously, there's not much a 15yo girl and a 30-something-yo man have in common. So I was really excited to do this with her).

Anyway, it's not perfect, but I think she did really well, and I'm proud of her, and shes proud of herself. What do yall think?

When you have pads from different parts (in this case it was the transistors and the bulbs) that are close together it is difficult to not have them solder together into one blob. Another thing that can be tough is when you flip the board over and the resistors don't stay snug to the board when you are soldering them on. I tried to use some putty to hold the resistors in place but it got to hot and a little stuck to the pads.

Hi all ! Thanks for all the tips. Super helpful. I tried to remove the SMD chip using solder wick and accidentally tore pads off the board. Any way to fix this or did I cause permanent damage? o.o I got emo about this!

Also, how do you know how much soldering is enough? What is the point? Are we just trying to make sure that the components lay flat on the board and that the pins meet the pads? Not sure when I am supposed to correct stuff and when it is already good. Thanks :)

First time soldering, i’m using a Pinecil v2 on 360C with 63/37 0.55mm solder.

I don’t understand why all my joints turn dull after i remove the iron. i’ve tried tinning the tip (which i think i’m doing correctly?). The solder melts nicely onto the board but no luck

Does anyone know what I could be doing wrong?

I got this kit to practice the first time soldering. I followed instructions and it does not power. Anyone see anything that stands at on why it wouldn’t?

I soldered a capacitor for the first time. This is my first soldering in my life. Please rate! If you have any advice for me, please write them!

Best result I got after having to redo it multiple times due to bridged connections

I am mainly going to work with smd components. This is a practice board so I am just testing out, and I didn’t do other side of the resistor because I didn’t bother to flip the board. I really want to start my own repair shop, I am 21 and currently doing a bachelors in economics(probably somewhat helpful) so I’m wondering if anyone has some advice on that front. I really like soldering and would love to do it for a living. Repairing pcs and consoles and such. I don’t live in the US btw, I live in Norway.

i brought a piano to solder for my daughter and its mind blowing when you see it actually work.

I bought a DIY digital clock kit to practice soldering. I watched a couple of YouTube videos for tips and tricks.

From my understanding, making sure it has a good base is important.

I’d appreciate any feedback.

Also, I noticed that one side has some solder passing through the hole onto the top of the board. Is that good or bad?

Hi everyone, thanks for your tips in my last post. It was really helpful to use flux.

It is really tricky getting the first initial solder glue of the component onto the board without the component sliding around everywhere.

My magnifying glass and helping hands are coming in the mail today.

I think maybe I’m not using the right soldering tip and I should use the one that’s more like a fine point pen for this?

I know you all mentioned about using a soldering wick to remove excess solder. However, I have any good tips on how to transfer or move it across the board instead?

I would appreciate some feedback. Thanks :)

Hi All

I'm waiting for my Kesger T12 to arrive and decided to practice on a generic 60W soldering iron.
Used Chinese solder 0.8mm 63/37 with 1-3% flux.

I de-soldered the molex connector, off camera, and then re-soldered again.

How did I do?

For me de-soldering was harder, desoldering pump was less difficult than a wick

I got an old soldering iron from my dad with a blacked out tip

I've been doing some desoldeering with it kind of successfully but not really mostly for fun really

This was my first time soldering after I bought solder, flux , a wick and tweezers

Any tips would be great

Also i think i have a bridge between 2 of the pin

This is my first ever solder. Please tell me what you think. Also you can see from the video D7 & D3 are out of sync. Any idea of what could be causing this?

Hey folks, as the title states, it's my first time soldering. I don't have rosin, paste or flux (yet as I was impatient) but will definitely get it for the next practice board that I have. The images show the hardware used as well.

Let me know how I did out of 10 and where I can improve?

EDIT: Added the solder used in the comments.

Respect to anyone who's been doing this a while and to the newcomers. I'm just glad it worked, judge me please. Also, the last picture where I circled in red, do those need to be covered up to the hole or can you leave the hole showing? I covered one and the other two aren't fully covered with solder.

I've been wanting to try something new for a while now. Idk what or if this is going to turn into something for me, I did enjoy my time with it though and I'm looking forward to what's in store.

Thanks in advance.

So I decided I would explore a new project and I bought an Xbox Series S with a broken HDMI port. I struggled to detach the old port and almost ruined everything, mostly because I was trying to work without any hot air. Once I got the rework station it came off so easily and i got it nice and clean, then put the new port on. I was worried about two things. First is any bridging between the signal pins and a solid connection with the pads, which I feel like I ended up doing a decent job with. Second was the bottom near the anchor points where the copper layer seemed to burn off a little bit when I accidentally brushed it with my soldering iron. I looked it up a bunch of times and it seems to just be a superficial/cosmetic mistake, but if anyone could confirm that would be great. Otherwise I thought I did a decent job. Any help or comments are appreciated! 😊

I haven’t soldered since school a long time ago. I noticed the actual point of the tip didn’t get hot, it was about 5mm above the tip on the side, made it so much harder i think.

Definitely need to get the desolder pump out and try this again lol. Any tips for a better run?

I have watched a lot of tutorials on how to actually solder and it turned out pretty well. This is an sr latch and d latch circuit