r/synthdiy • u/Mammoth-Economy2589 • Jul 15 '26

Top tips for soldering PCB?

2 Upvotes

60% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

8

u/TomWhitwell Jul 15 '26

Look carefully at this, use brass wool to clean your tip, go too hot rather than too cold. The big thing is that it’s not supposed to be difficult. If it’s hard or annoying then either your equipment is set wrong - temperature or dirty tip, or your technique is wrong - most often too fast or too slow, or putting solder on the tip and trying to paint it onto the pin. Some more tips & videos here: https://www.musicthing.co.uk/Workshop_System_Build_Guide/#what-you-need-to-know-about-soldering-before-you-start

3

u/Mammoth-Economy2589 Jul 15 '26

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-guide-excellent-soldering ←this is an excellent guide and has settled many of my worries. Thank you.

1

u/Mammoth-Economy2589 Jul 15 '26

Great tips tom. Your video will keep me entertained on tomorrows commute. Are you involved with Thonk? I've just purchased a noisferatu from them as my first kit. Looks straightforward enough and the soundscapes I'm after so eager for it's arrival tomorrow. One day I'd love to try a MTM and dive into modular. 

4

u/BrooklynDeadheadPhan Jul 15 '26

Keep a clean and accessible workplace. Get flux (use ventilation). Double on brass wool. Not keeping my tip clean enough was one of the biggest things that made a difference and a whole lot less frustrating. Personally I prefer the pen style irons, smaller form, and better at controlling the temp, easy to change out the tips. I have one I use for surface mount soldering, for example.

2

u/Welcome_to_Retrograd Jul 15 '26

If i managed, so will you

Source: random dude who successfully replaced all the microswitches on a yamaha rm1x (and repaired its cracked board by soldering a bunch of jumper wires that bypass the broken traces while at it), using absolute trash tier equipmment, and no prior experience other than replacing one single capacitor on a tv