April 2, 2016 – In the last three weeks I have purchased new soldering equipment. I needed to buy them in order to work on my Magnetic Loop Antenna, which I am building.
I first purchased a Weller soldering gun at HomeDepot. Which others swear by, and while I was at it I also purchase a butane torch. I viewed videos on YouTube where each were featured with great results. But I did not get the results shown on the video.
The Problem
I then purchased a Hakko Soldering Station, which feature temperature regulator, meaning I can raise the temperature of the iron via controls on the control box (touch plastic). The soldering station works, but again I did not obtain the results shown in videos. I am beginning to suspect that either the universe is against me (think God) or that what others are doing is just video gimmickry.
The problem is that a lot of soldering video show the soldering iron touch the object to be soldered, heating the object up, then solder is applied to the heated object where it then flows like milk and beautifully covers the object thereby soldering it. What happens to me is that the object to be soldered gets hot, but never hot enough to melt solder applied to it. No matter how much time I apply the soldering iron to the object. I have also semi-melted object by holding the soldering iron on them too long. Still even at then the solder will not melt onto the object. So I find that what is shown on videos does not work in real life.
People have recommended all sorts of things to do in my Facebook groups. Add Flux, tin the iron tip and then the object, hold it until it gets hot, buy new equipment. But it just does not work. By the way in order to in the object, don’t you have to melt solder on it? And if done the way they do it, you have to heat the object up to the point which solder will melt on it, which is what I am trying to do in the first place and which does not work.
In order to solder, I find that I must melt the solder on the tip of the iron and let it flow down onto the object being solder. Another thought occurred to me. How is melting solder on the iron tip different from heating up the object to the iron’s temperature. Why do people want to get the object hot when all I want is to get the solder hot?
What I have learned from all this is that I HATE SOLDERING.
