Naio wrote:
I have some nerve damage in my hands, that makes soldering really difficult for me. It's certainly possible that I could get better at it than I am, with some thought into technique!
And the right tools. I have a big heavy vise that I never use. I found a small lightweight one at a garage sale. I didn't know they made small lightweight ones :-). I expect it will help a lot.
And the mini torch sounds like it has a lot of potential. The problem I have is that the soldering iron or torch, and the terminal, and the wire are all shaking in my shaky hands. Plus I can't see for sh*t.
For big jobs like say 2 ga or heavier wire, a propane torch is the tool for the job..
The one I used in my how to document is like this one..
Which is a torch on a hose, pricy but very light weight since the propane can fits in a holster and the holster has a belt loop.
For very small soldering jobs, I use a soldering station and basically you have a very light weight pencil tip soldering iron with all the heavy parts in the base that sits on your desk.
The part you hold weighs about the same as a pencil!
Looks like this..
I recently had to repair my DDs $180 10" tablet, some how, she managed to break the USB port which doubles as the charging port..
Takes a micro USB connector..
I was able to take an old cellphone, unsolder the USB jack from the cellphone, remove the broken tablet USB jack and solder the replacement USB jack in.. And it passed the smoke test!
That was all surface mount stuff, I had to modify one of my soldering station tips by grinding it down to nearly a needle point tip..
Told my DD that it WAS the smallest items I have ever worked with.. Lets not break it again, please?
One of the issues that can affect a solder joint is movement when cooling.
Movement while cooling tends to "crystallize" the solder, this changes the alloy structure which affects the overall strength and even resistance.. This is often called a "cold solder joint" and has a dull almost aluminum look to it.
To reduce the chance of movement you can get little "vices" with "gator clips" called "helping hands" to put the wires into for the soldering operation.
Looks like this..
Allow to cool then cover with heat shrink tubing (they do make a glue filled heat shrink tubing which works great for outdoor exposures)..
