The Art of Soldering

Building up electronic circuits usually involves interconnecting all components using wires or circuit board tracks. Whatever the method, solder joints are used to ensure good mechanical stability and the best possible electrical conduction. Manual soldering is not difficult once you have some experience. If you are not too confident about your own skills in this area, a lot can be learned from articles and mini courses published on the Internet.Many readers of this magazine will have done a lot of soldering in their lifetime, so they probably need not be told that good soldering skills are required if you want to repair electronics equipment or build your own using components, wires and/or a circuit board. And yet, it may be a good idea to have a good look at your solder joints, because their quality is of the utmost importance. Typical errors are (1) using far too much solder tin and (2) insufficient heating of the joint.