Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Hello.

Around the year 2000, when I first got into building guitars, I bought a spool of solder. That solder lasted me until January of 2021, when I decided that I might try building a pedal kit. I have since gone through another spool of solder.

When I bought the first solder re-up in January, I also got a finer tip for my iron, which is a simple 5-40W Weller. In addition to going through 50g of solder since then, I think I also killed the tip? I went to tin it last night and found that it was broken off like a pencil lead.

Is this common? I've never really used a point this fine before and I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong or if this just happens. It was a genuine Weller tip, and I generally try to keep it tinned and clean. I don't do anything weird with it. I still have the chisel tip that came with it, and still use that for heavier duty stuff like soldering to the back of pots in guitars, so the fine tip is only ever used on PCBs. This iron doesn't have a thermostat or fancy temperature control, but it does have a knob numbered 1-5, and I usually run it at about 3.5.

Is this normal?

It's pretty normal in my experience. I had a couple of 25W Weller "pencils" that used to go through tips like J-Lo goes through boyfriends. Now that was an unregulated iron, so it ran at full heat all the time, whatever that worked out to. Not sure how your model operates.

After the second Weller iron went T/U, I decided to bite the bullet and get a proper soldering station with good temp. control. Bought a Hakko 936 station (since replaced by the newer FX888D model) and two tips--both chisel tips, one 1.6mm (1/16") and one 3.2mm (1/8"). Set the heat control at 700 F and have been using it that way (a lot!) ever since. That was late 2009 and both tips still look almost new! Best ~$100 I ever spent.

Don't know what your preference is in solder, but I swear by this stuff for pedal work and buy it in 1 lb. rolls: https://www.amazon.com/Kester-24-6337-0 ... ref=sr_1_3

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

I think mine is one step up from unregulated in that it has a rudimentary power knob, but it definitely doesn't have a thermostat. I guess if I'm going to keep doing this I should consider a better iron. Thanks for the info.

And he springs that serious gourmet ... solder on us!

I use about 1 meter of that stuff for each pedal.

I use that same solder. I don’t go through it quite that fast though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

_________________
Pedal building is like the opposite of sex. All the fun stuff happens before you get in the box.

Either of these your work??

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

Never seen 'em before in my life Sheriff! Five pots and an LED ... hmmm ... no I haven't built that one yet, can't be me. As for the second one, I don't recognize it ... but the year printed on the board makes it clearly before my time. I'm not saying I have *never* produced that kind of ... art, but those aren't mine!

OK maybe not a meter, but, yeah, more than half a meter I do confess. I was surprised when I realized I used this much, but it is what it is. And no, it's not that most of it ends up on the sponge or in the brass coil either. I guess I just like to keep those vias filled.

Let's see, I recently made the Envelope Filter With A Wah Fixation--it requires around 150 solder joints, not including tinning wires and lugs. If it needed 0.75 m of solder, that would work out to 5 mm of solder per joint on average. That doesn't seem excessive, given how skinny the stuff is.

---------------

Next up: How much leftover purple hookup wire do YOU have?

Yeah, I agree, that's not excessive. Don't pay any attention to me--I'm just raggin' on ya!


Current inventory below; some partial rolls but many untouched, 'cuz it's not my favorite hookup wire:





And I've sold quite a bit of it (cheap!) and given a bunch away in the past. But I've been at this since late '06! And as you can see, BYOC wire hasn't always been purple....

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

I like the BYOC wire, I just hardly ever use it, I color code stuff to keep me from being confused. I did find some like it on eBay though. It’s a bunch of rolls in multi colors.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

_________________
Pedal building is like the opposite of sex. All the fun stuff happens before you get in the box.

Pretty Enlightening and a lot to draw from this. I have been doing it all wrong mahn!

_________________
approach