How to Solder

This page is about How To Solder, check out the main index for the rest.

There is a YouTube video about this, or scroll down for the written version with pictures.

Pictured below are the following items:

A soldering Iron and stand. There is also a piece of sponge in the the base of the stand which should be kept wet when in use – this is for cleaning the bit of the soldering Iron. Soldering Irons get hot – up to approx 400 degrees C, which is enough to melt metal and burn you.

A reel of solder. This is multicore solder which means it contains flux. Flux helps keeps the soldering iron bit and the electrical joint you are soldering clean.

Helping hands. This is a stand with a heavy base and two clips for holding the piece you are working on.

How to solder two wires together:

Firstly you should ideally position the wires so they are touching:

Next heat the joint with the soldering iron for a few seconds so that both wires get hot:

Now feed in the solder so it flows around the joint:

Remove the solder, but leave the iron in place for a second or so:

Now remove the iron to leave a nice clean soldered joint:

How to solder a component to wire to a circuit board:

I have placed this LED onto a piece of stripboard, the legs of the LED are poking through the holes:

As before, we must heat up the joint so that both the copper tracks on the board and the legs of the LED are heated:

Feed in the solder:

Remove the solder but leave the iron there for a second or so:

And remove the iron to leave a clean solder joint:

Tinning wire

If you want to solder wire that is muti-strand inside and is copper in colour, then you may wish to ‘tin’ the end of it – this means coating it in solder so it’s easier to solder to other components: