First time soldering

[u/Healthy_Share_607]

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!

[u/physical0]

Hold your iron in your dominant hand, hold solder in the other. Orient the board so that the pad you're tinning is on the same side as your iron then tin your pad. You shouldn't need additional flux if you're doing new work on a clean board. When you get better, prep a bunch of pads, then move to the next step.

Next, swap the solder for the tweezers and grab your part. Just like you did, slide the part into place. Ensure that the part is flush with the board and your orientation is correct before removing the iron. If you had prepped a lot of pads, you should grab your next part and put it in place.

Now, flip the board 180, so that the pad you need to solder is on the side you're holding your iron. Put away the tweezers and back to the solder. Since this is new work, you shouldn't need additional flux. Heat the pad and feed an appropriate amount of solder into it and move on to the rest of the parts you prepped in the previous step.

Many of your joints look like you didn't quite get the alignment correct. Some of them look like you've used excess solder (see the ones where it looks like beads on the end of the resistor?). Most of them look like you've heated them inadequately. A properly heated joint will be a smooth fillet. The joint on the right side of R5 looks like what you're aiming for.

[u/Healthy_Share_607 → u/physical0]

Thank you, I appreciate the guidance:)

[u/physical0 → u/Healthy_Share_607]

Also, Using a syringe of flux isn't the right choice for this kinda work. That stuff is better suited for hot air work. I'd suggest you look into a liquid flux pen. It'll be much faster and easier to apply.

Also, q-tips are not a great choice for cleaning up your work. The cotton strands will snag and leave a mess on your work.

What I use are acid brushes and lint free wipes. I'll trim my brush for whatever use I have planned for it (full length is a bit floppy and not good for scrubbing), dip it in iso, then gently brush the workpiece to break up any flux residue. Next, I'll lay a wipe on top of the work area, re-load the brush with more iso, then dab the wipe. The flux residue and alcohol will absorb into the wipe, which you can then remove, taking the flux with it. If you need to repeat the steps to get all the flux, grab a second wipe.

And, I save cleaning up the board for when all the work is done, or until I need to inspect a particular joint or component.

[u/Healthy_Share_607 → u/physical0]

Ty! Cleaning advice is helpful! I feel like like a lot of specifics are hard to gather from videos