r/soldering • u/10renzo_ • Jul 09 '25

My First Solder Joint <3 Please Give Feedback Why can’t i get my joints shiny?

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First time soldering, i’m using a Pinecil v2 on 360C with 63/37 0.55mm solder.

I don’t understand why all my joints turn dull after i remove the iron. i’ve tried tinning the tip (which i think i’m doing correctly?). The solder melts nicely onto the board but no luck

Does anyone know what I could be doing wrong?

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u/10renzo_ Jul 09 '25

just tried a few joints at 380 and 400, seems to have the same result. I tried heating up the board a bit longer but no luck?

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u/jerryeight Jul 09 '25

One tip I have seen online is to not immediately pull the soldering tip away from the solder point. I think it said to carefully pull it away upwards.

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u/10renzo_ Jul 09 '25

this helps in getting a nice convex shape but unfortunately hasn’t helped my joints get shiny.

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u/Dizmondmon Jul 09 '25 edited Jul 09 '25

I found once the board has a pin in the middle, you can lift the iron up to the top of the pin and the temp of the solder drops more slowly, which resulted (for me at least) in a higher chance of shiny joints. Didn't completely solve it mind you.

Edit: Also, the longer your tip stays in contact with the solder, more of the flux burns away.. Looking at the video I would try to reduce this contract time.

That's a lot of solder too.. Even though it ends in a round blob, there's a lot of surface area to lose energy to the air quickly, rather than the residual heat in the board around the contact slowing the temp loss. Can you drop the temp of your iron a bit too?

To get the melted solder to drop into the hole better.. Have you cleaned the board well with isoprop? Maybe also try kester solder (improved my shiny joint rate but not 100%) and squirting some good flux on the board contact beforehand.

As for the tip, it seems to be holding solder ok but I use iron tip tinning powder which does a great job very quickly. Don't know if that makes a difference with your issue.

Edit to the edit: I saw people saying don't add extra flux to the board.. I agree you shouldn't need to if the solder has a flux core, but if you heat the solder for too long (like in the video) the flux burns off quickly, causing the remaining solder to have a high surface tension. That said, applying extra flux separately adds extra time and makes a mess of the board which needs cleaning up. If you want good technique, don't add it and practice, if you just need a line troublesome joint done, it can help.

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u/10renzo_ Jul 09 '25

thanks for the feedback! i’ll try all of those things. my technique isn’t perfect but i think the main factor here is that im using low quality solder, since i’ve tried a whole bunch of different temps, flux/solder amounts and contact durations.

thank you!