I had my first attempts on soldering today, and was wondering if there was any tips, or website about soldering, I have no knowlodge on it, don't know the how to's and tips
-Don't breathe in the fumes from the burning rosin -Wash your hands after handling solder -Clean excess solder off the the hot iron on a damp sponge -Put a light amount of solder on the joint, apply the tip until you get a "wet" connection, you want to cover the joint cleanly and completely with solder, no air pockets -You can always add more solder if necessary, taking it off can be more of a problem (use a desoldering wick) -Be careful with desoldering wicks, they can damage the solder mask -If you're not comfortable soldering to a fine pitch IC, do NOT attempt it! If you have any doubts about it, get help. It feels really bad to break your own stuff, even worse when you break other people's and nobody will have any sympathy for you! -Use a little flux when you're serious about a project -Get a very fine pencil iron, literally like a pencil -Don't use a >20W iron on an important PCB -Don't use a spring-vacuum pump desoldering tool on an important PCB (you will eventually pull up tracks or "traces") air vacuums are OK though -If you're going to do surface mount work, save for a hot air station!
And a fourth wouldn't hurt either. Youtube has some soldering instructional videos and there's lots you can google. Just remember the bigger the stuff you're working with the easier and smaller the more difficult. If you are trying to do something really tiny you might want to get a pro or atleast someone that knows what they are doing for the most part. My first soldering project was to solder wires to a controller's PCB (PSX) to run them to arcade switches to build my own arcade stick. That was pretty much my first project, relatively cheap if I had screwwed up, but it was no problem really. And fun too. Also definitely don't let yourself breath any fumes from the solder. Having a desk fan to blow stuff away from your face is a good idea.
I would suggest using an eutectic alloy for soldering, like 63/37 and not 60/40, because they usually have lower melting points. If anything, don't use the silver/tin/RoHS crap.
