If the solder does not melt immediately and flow onto the joint, pull the solder away and try again after a couple seconds longer. If you exceed 10 seconds, pull the iron off and try again after it all cools down. You probably didn’t have the iron touching enough of the parts to be soldered. Sometimes, the parts to be soldered are so big that they conduct the heat away very quickly and make it difficult to solder. In this case, it is OK to put some solder on each part individually and then put them together later by melting the solder on each one while they are touching.

Joining Two Wires - Strip off about 3/8” of insulation from the two wire ends to be joined. Place a ½” length of heat shrink tubing over one wire and push it back so that the heat from soldering won’t shrink it prematurely. Fold each bare wire end back on itself so that the tip of the wire now comes back to the end of the insulation. Link both wires together using the bends like hooks. Now, twist the ends of the wires around themselves tightly. This type of connection is called a Western Union and it is the strongest method of joining two wires together. Now, heat the connection with the iron and allow solder to flow over the entire joint. Wait a few seconds for it to cool off and then slide the heat shrink tubing down over the connection and heat it with a match or heat gun.

Soldering a Wire to a Circuit Board – This is the most delicate work that you will do while soldering. Too much heat and your board will be damaged. If you are attaching a wire to an existing hole on the board, make sure that the hole is clean and free of any excess solder (see de-soldering for more detail). The best advice when soldering to a circuit board is to angle your soldering iron tip so that it makes good contact with the pad on the circuit board and the wire or part to be soldered at the same time. Heat the parts up and touch the solder at the point where the tip meets the part and the pad. If the solder does not flow immediately, pull everything off and wait for it to cool down and try again later.

De-Soldering – Hopefully, you won’t need to read this part, except if you are removing a part from a circuit board on purpose. The problem with removing a part from a circuit board that makes this method necessary is that you have to remove more than two legs of a part at the same time. With one or two, you can just heat it up with the iron and pull it out while the solder is still melted. Otherwise, you will need to use a solder sucker. There is a trick to using the solder sucker that makes this job pretty easy. You have to add solder to the joint you want to remove solder from. With more solder on there, the sucker will get better contact with the solder to form a good vacuum and pull all of the solder out at once. Cock your solder sucker and have it in hand when you are ready to start. Put your iron on the joint with the excess solder on it already and heat it up thoroughly. Move the tip of the iron around a little so that everything gets nice and heated. This will help you gauge when the solder is ready to be removed.