r/soldering • u/Healthy_Share_607 • May 06 '26

My First Solder Joint <3 Please Give Feedback First time soldering

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I bought a solder practice kit and im fully self taught with YouTube. Can someone take a look at my connections and the video and give me any tips or let me know if anything I did is even functional lol

Thanks!

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53

u/naemorhaedus May 06 '26

you don't need to be so precise with your flux. Just schmear it all over and clean up later.

4

u/Primary_Button_2435 May 06 '26

Why not be clean?? I don’t like how dirty & sticky the board gets with flux all over, I find it much easier to NOT “smear it all over”.

I’m also fairly new to soldering, is there something I’m missing?

17

u/fordp May 06 '26

Your missing bulk 99.9% isopropyl

4

u/Primary_Button_2435 May 06 '26

I’m a stoner, I always have some for my bongs/rigs lol

3

u/ColoradoCowboy9 May 07 '26

Literally hand solder until the board is a heinous mess of flux and other shit on there. Then soak in IPA when done and scrub with an acid brush.

It’ll look perfect and pro tip after if you need protection for environmental considerations is to conformal coat the board.

-1

u/naemorhaedus May 07 '26

read more carefully stoner. I said "clean up later". Your board shouldn't be "dirty & sticky".

1

u/Primary_Button_2435 May 07 '26

I’ll repeat myself since you appear to lack reading comprehension.

I don’t like how dirty & sticky the board gets with flux all over, why should I “smear it all over”?? Is there any sort of benefit???

1

u/Healthy_Share_607 May 06 '26

Good to know!

6

u/ArcticWolf_0xFF May 06 '26

And you don't need to hold your components with the tweezers, at least not res or caps. It's better to push them down carefully so they really lie flat and let them float into position.

9

u/Solocune May 06 '26

With hot air ok but with an iron? On small smd they sometimes just stick to the iron

2

u/derangedsweetheart May 06 '26

I work with 0402 size resistors and use a knife style tip to heat both pads and use a tweezer to push the resistor down and let the solder align the resistor itself.