For a lot of us, soldering just seems to come naturally. But if we’re being honest, none of us was born with a soldering iron in our hand — ouch! — and if we’re good at soldering now, it’s only thanks to good habits and long practice. But what if you’re a company that lives and dies by the quality of the solder joints your employees produce? How do you get them to embrace the dark art of soldering?
If you’re Tektronix in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the answer is simple: make in-depth training videos that teach people to solder the Tek way. The first video below, from 1977, is aimed at workers on the assembly line and as such concentrates mainly on the practical aspects of making solid solder joints on PCBs and mainly with through-hole components. The video does have a bit of theory on soldering chemistry and the difference between eutectic alloys and other tin-lead mixes, as well as a little about the proper use of silver-bearing solders. But most of the time is spent discussing the primary tool of the trade: the iron. Even though the film is dated and looks like a multi-generation dupe from VHS, it still has a lot of valuable tips; we’ve been soldering for decades and somehow never realized that cleaning a tip on a wet sponge is so effective because the sudden temperature change helps release oxides and burned flux. The more you know.
The second video below is aimed more at the Tek repair and rework technicians. It reiterates a lot of the material from the first video, but then veers off into repair-specific topics, like effective desoldering. Pro tip: Don’t use the “Heat and Shake” method of desoldering, and wear those safety glasses. There’s also a lot of detail on how to avoid damaging the PCB during repairs, and how to fix them if you do manage to lift a trace. They put a fair amount of emphasis on the importance of making repairs look good, especially with bodge wires, which should be placed on the back of the board so they’re not so obvious. It makes sense; Tek boards from the era are works of art, and you don’t want to mess with that.
Love to see old videos like this especially when the practices still apply today.
I can attest to the value of safety glasses. I’ve had several close calls, and one tiny eye burn. In an ideal world, I’d wear them for all solder jobs, not just when I expected something to happen, but I haven’t quite convinced myself to do that yet. Instead it’s a lot of “doing something dumb, better close my eyes.”
I probably need to make the glasses more accessible from my primary workstation.
Protip: wear them all of the time. Get some so comfortable the you forget to take them off when you walk out. Really.
Also: Zeiss lens wipes
safety squint 🫣😁
Works every time
works every time 50% of the time
I have a simple enoguh solution to this: Do you wear prescription glasses? if so, get glasses that are made of Trivex, a heat resistant impact resistant plastic.
When I was a chemistry geek kid, I used only my prescription glasses – and luck.
As a young adult, I wore contacts, and relied even more heavily on luck.
As a middle-aged adult, I was forced back to glasses (bifocals). And luck.
Now, I use my glasses as bi/trifocals – by peering UNDER them and relying on my nearsightedness for the very closest work. So, yeah, time for some good safety glasses.
I got a burn on my eyelid while wearing safety glasses.. I moved the soldering iron quickly and the solder followed a parabolic arc over the glasses into my eye… Fortuantly eyelid reflexes are fast.
But then of course you can’t just leave the PACE versions unmentioned:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIT4ra6Mo0s&list=PL926EC0F1F93C1837
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKX-GBe_lUI&list=PL958FF32927823D12
So the first time I though it was a coincidence, but this has been the 4th or 5th video recently that I have watched and then seen featured on HaD. I wonder if YouTube has a group of users ear marked for generating views on technical content because they share their suggestions with a 3rd party platform, HaD.
Probably it comes up on user’s feed, then user submit a tip to HAD who picks it up and does a page. O quite often see Youtube video of electronic hacks on my regular feed a day or 2 before it shows up on HAD.
The soldering video popped up a few days ago as it was new and seemed to fit my preferences. As for old video I don’t know how Youtube decides what older video to bring up. Once in a whole a 10+ year old video pops up on my feed.
The almighty algorithm has probably created a category for this site by now and has spotted the accounts of many frequent users completely independently. Direct tracking is almost redundant nowadays, you will get sorted into the same box in independent websites without any kind of cross-site communication needed, just by your habits.
I also get recommended youtoob videos featured on HaD about two weeks to a month in advance, it’s not just you.
i always thought of soldering more as an artisanal skill. the science of soldering is more a matter for manufacturers than hobbyists doing projects.
Yeah, much of this is irrelevant unless you need the cost shavings of mass production. But it’s still interesting to the amateur, and might even give one a couple ideas of how to solder a bit better… Even if the extra efficiency isn’t really necessary
I dunno. I frequent a few console repair subreddits and have had to explain to people that “solder is not glue”, and what surface oxidation is, and how heat transfer works. The fundamentals are important especially when starting out and trying to diagnose a joint that is physically connected but not electrically connected.
I think you do need to distinguish between those hobbyists whose projects work for a year or so and those hobbyists whose projects still work first try after having been stored in a box for 30 years.
This is nice! It’s got all those details I don’t have anyone to ask about in person.
My soldering skills were always worth crap. Once I was contracted by a hotel to interface their new PBX to their front desk system so LD calls from rooms could be automatically charged and the best solution I came with was to emulate a vt100 terminal in the front desk host feeding from a port of the PBX (programmed to send strings out). Turned out there were no ready-made RS232 cables for my solution so I had to make one myself.
I had to bring the wife to do the soldering for me.
I love this
I was trained to solder and had to pass a test before I could work in the lab at a job many years ago. I had always been taught (school, job) to NEVER solder the component side. It didn’t matter it is played through hole, you never did this. I watch this video with mouth agape. I’ve been lied to all this time!
I was also taught you shouldn’t solder from the component side. Reason being that heat likes to go from hot to cold. So soldering the opposite the components would allow the solder to flow from the hot to the colder side. Not sure it makes sense but I solder the opposite (opposite of the component) side.
I didn’t like the ‘thermal shock’ part because they lady was going too far up the barrel. I only hit the sponge with the tip. Wish I had that sponge setup. but the pad I have works well and I still have the same tip I bought in 1985 (and it’s clean).
“you shouldn’t solder from the component side”
The video is a bit confusing indeed. However, we must keep in mind that this an old video, made in a time when metalized hole weren’t standard. Meaning that a double sided PCB (a PCB with traces on both top and bottom) with non metalized holes would need to be soldered on both sides in order for the circuit to be completed (depending on the design some components can be skipped). So with that in mind it is the easiest to start on the top side as this would prevent you preciously placed components to fall out. This can be a bit of a problem for large capacitors or other components that can’t be soldered from the top, meaning that circuit board design needed to be aware of this. Fortunately today, metalized holes are standard and we do not need to worry about it, heck today we use primarily SMD, so the soldering action is even closer to the component, which is OK and doesn’t cause any problems. Assuming you know how to solder, but that goes for everything.
That ‘large capacitor problem’ never really existed, as most or all capacitors at that time were axial anyway. In the tube-era nobody needed radial components, axial was the norm. So capacitors could always be soldered top and bottom.
Radial capacitors came later, as a consequence of the invention of metallized through-holes. Metallized through-holes made it possible to increase the density on the boards by flipping components 90 degrees, or making them radial. Not just capacitors, but also resistors, coils, etc., could now stand upright and save space.
Might be surprised at how many of us have/had an Aunt or Grandmother or our very own Moms, who worked on a factory line and made small parts, ran wiring and/or worked at a soldering station.
My Mom was the person who taught me prep work/cleaning and soldering, way back when I was a pre-teen.
I have an elderly neighbour who I (rudely) assumed didn’t know crap about anything technical. One day she popped over with a plate of scones to find me assembling a batch of small PCBs (mostly SMT with some through hole, so I was just hand soldering everything). She picked up a board, examined it closely, and said I was doing a rubbish job – pointing out several poor joints and sloppy techniques.
Turned out she had spent 30 years on an factory line making boards for radios and dumb terminals, and had experience making looms and cables too.
I don’t let her see my work now unless I’m really proud of it, and I’m sure she’s still just being polite when she says “it’s ok”.
Maybe you should ask her a few lessons and learn from her. I mean, not only would you get free lessons, but you’d get free scones to go with them! You’re missing out on a super deal!
In my family, I am the engineer. My dad taught me soldering at age 10 or 11, I think. My brother had learning difficulties, and wasn’t able to get such high qualifications as I was able to.
But at some point my brother ended up in PCB assembly work in a factory. That was a very high-end factory, and I can’t speak of what they did there ;). He had to get a huge bunch of certifications to be allowed to work there (and he did get them, I’m proud of him for that).
So, now the tables are turned. He knows much, much, much more about soldering than I do (hand soldering, through-hole, smt, reflow oven, hot plate, hot air, whatever there is, he’s got certification for it). And if I am experiencing some difficulties soldering, I just ask him to have a look, or to try it himself and find out what’s wrong.
From my experience, there seem to be an infite amount of details you have to keep in mind when soldering, and he knows all of them. :P
Take your advantage of those people, and make them proud of themselves along the way.
Looking forward to watching the videos.
For some reason, except on quite large or awkward joints, soldering always came fairly naturally to me. Add heat, add solder, remove heat, done. I taught my kids how to solder before they could write their names.
My favorite solder right now is Indium 63/37. Can’t remember where I bought it, but it was like 1/3 the price of Kester and made in the US.
I started soldering as a child with stained glass, so imagine 1/4″ wide solder wire and plunging several inches at a time. Also glass in general is no fun on the skin nor the eyes so proper safety was reinforced.
Nowadays I rarely solder with bare eyes, and use a soldering scope for smt projects so essentially my scope is my glasses. I learned basic solder inspection as an assembler in an electronics manufacturer.
I make Rpi BBQ controllers for people all over the world on my free time and I have recieved other people’s BBQ controllers that they have soldered and I can say, not all people can solder. Sometimes I get a board and wonder if my 7 year old daughter could probably solder better then what I’m looking at.
It takes practice to get it right, preparation is 70% of the final results. Knowing how to bend the leads and cutting them correctly also effects the final solder joint.
Once upon a time … long long ago …
I had trouble when I first start with a 40W(?) Radio Shack soldering iron (wasn’t pre-tinned). Once I learned how to tin the tips I no longer had trouble with soldering. Now I have a very hard time seeing what I solder but I know when it’s flowing correctly and my soldering joints come out good. I always inspect with a magnifying glass. I also always were safety glasses. I’ve caught (tiny) molten flux on my cheeks. I never want that in my eyes.
Gods I miss through-hole components. There was something so relaxing just filling out a board with uniform, concave components.
How is the word solder pronounced? I’ve always pronounced the l. On the videos they say sawder.
Americans tend to say sawder. Brits tend to say sol-der. In my experience.
I’m from the (da) Bronx and I’ve been saying it as sod-der. Never been good at pronouncing things so …
“Iz dis da bus ta Joyzee?”
B^)
That sounds a little more like it’s a German accent. ;-)
I happened to have spent most of my life in Jerzee (but I am from Da Bronx ;-) ). Yes I know it’s weird.
The word is rooted in the Latin word “solidare”, and means “to make solid”. Old French adopted it as, “soldure”. The french dropped a lot of L’s during that period, and made it, “souder”. Then it made its way to Middle English as souden, before being re-Latinized to soulder during the 15th Century. The modern spelling was in use by the early 18th Century.
So for most of history pronouncing the L is correct. I don’t understand why much of the USA doesn’t pronounce it since it was back in British English by the time the colonies were founded.
We Dutch pronounce it “soldear”. A soldering iron is a “soldear-bout”.
I learned soldering 40 years ago. And this week, I still burned my fingers twice. :/