Soldering IC's to perf board...

dominic_909 · Joined: Apr 14, 2009 Posts: 13 Location: toronto

I'm having trouble getting all the pins of my IC sockets soldered while using perf board without having them jumped to eachother. I'm using 0.08 gauge solder.

Can you guys let me know if what I'm doing wrong?

Uncle Krunkus · Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2009 4:23 am Post subject:

It sounds like you're applying too much solder.
What wattage is the soldering iron?
What size is the tip of the soldering iron?
It should be conical with a tip of about 1mm.
Keep the iron parallel to the copper strips on the board, and heat the lead and the copper strip at the same time, leaning slightly towards the copper strip. Give them both a slight chance to heat up (1-2sec), then flow solder until it covers the hole, webbing between the copper and the lead. Don't add anymore solder than that. You don't want a blob of solder, the shape of the lead should still be visible at it's peak.
Good soldering takes practice, but there's nothing magical about it.
While practicing,
*Try different heating times before adding solder.
*Try adding the solder to the heated lead
*The heated copper
*Straight to the iron
Get to know what effect these practices have. That will give you a "feel" for what you want the solder to do and why it sometimes won't co-operate.
And of course, ask more questions. Very Happy

Scott Stites · Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2009 7:47 am Post subject:

One thing I've found to be a great help is to shine up the pads with steel wool before soldering. The copper forms a layer of oxidation that is not friendly to solder; going over the pads briskly with steel wool gets rid of that quite handily. After that, the solder beads up on the copper easier and doesn't seem as likely to want to bridge to other pads.

Make sure you don't leave any steel wool fragments there - I usually blow off the surface after I've done it - never had a short caused by it.

Good luck, the sheer act of using perf board makes you a treasured rarity these days.

Scott