I have little balls!

[zoombolt]

Just completed my first bit of soldering, connecting a new deans to one of my charger cables & a deans to a new outrage battery.
Tinned the bits ok as per Finless & Phockzie's vids.

At first it went well-ish with the charger cable, seemed like a clean easy to do operation, then towards the end (battery time) the solder just created little balls of moulten solder when I tried to join the wires of the battery to the deans & the two 'tinned' bits didn't want to re-flow or join together. The solder on the deans then also decided to hide around the other side of the pin without joining up!

I have 100W iron & the deans (and wire) were hot.

Apart from needing another hand, what was going on, what am I doing wrong & what do my little balls mean???

[Holst]

Are you using solder with flux in it?

You might have got it too hot and burnt off the flux.

Try fixing the connector to the desk with some bluetack.

[Mart61]

Sounds to me like a lack of flux. The areas to be soldered and cleaned and made ready to accept the solder by the flux and, if there has been insufficient applied (often by the pre-fluxed solder) then it will not stick and balls will form.

[zoombolt]

Are you using solder with flux in it?

You might have got it too hot and burnt off the flux.

Try fixing the connector to the desk with some bluetack.

I have no idea? got it from Danish import shop. All I know is it's a 60/40 mix, suitable for electrical joints & is 0,8mm.
After reading storeys of not enough heat or watts, yes my iron was toastie hot. So it can be too hot, left on too long?
I did the plyers & elastic band trick.

[zoombolt]

Sounds to me like a lack of flux. The areas to be soldered and cleaned and made ready to accept the solder by the flux and, if there has been insufficient applied (often by the pre-fluxed solder) then it will not stick and balls will form.

Thanks Marti. So do I buy solder with flux in it? Flux on its own? I need to get more info?

Will my existing joins be ok though??????

[Mart61]

I would imagine the solder you bought would be already prefluxed. It is fine to be that way. I often find that, to get a good joint, apply the heat to the thing you are soldering and then, when it is hot, touch the solder on the heated item, not the iron.

This can be tricky to do mind you, especially when the item being heated is electrical cable. Too cold and the solder won't melt, too hot and you'll melt the insulation.

[Holst]

To solder deans connectors I stick the connector to the top of a block of wood (or baked bean tin) so that the legs are sticking out over the edge. (bluetack)

I then tin the connector and the wire with solder. Hold the wire quite tightly at the start of the insulation when you do this to stop the solder from running inside the wire and making it brittle.

Once you have everything tinned up I put the iron underneath the connector and heat the pin, at the same time rest the wire ontop and gently push down with pliers.
The heat from the connector should melt all the solder and make a good joint.

If I need more solder then I might hold it in my mouth, but I wouldnt recomend doing it this way :P

[terryk2000]

if you have no other way of holding the deans connector while soldering, use a pair of pliers with an elastic band around both handles the pliers will grip for you leaving you 'hands free'
hope this helps
Cheers
Terry
Oops already mentioned

[163phil]

Another little tip is to make sure you have a little solder on the iron's tip when you heat the pin, as it will give a greater surface area for the hot iron to work through and will therefore heat the pin much more effectively

[phockzie]

I'm glad my vids are coming in useful

I agree, it sounds like your solder doesn't have enough flux. It could also be that your iron is too hot and burning the flux away before it does it's job of cleaning the metal bits.

[seemore74]

hello mate, i can see yourhavin fun soldering, what i do to make life easier for me when soldering is: et a small tin of solder tip cleaner, a small container of flux & any solder wire you've ot will do just fine now, all these items you'll get at Maplins. Dip the pins of the deans connector in the flux (the pins you'll be soldering of course) & the ends of your wires, grip the deans with a vice grip or pliers & rubber band. Clean your iron tip in the tip cleaner, this will automatically tin the iron with solder. Now solder away & see how easy it now becomes.

[phockzie]

Oh, and don't be ashamed of the size of your balls, your should be proud of what you have. It's not the size that counts, it's what you do with them. I don't have that problem, mine are huge.

Make sure you bang your balls into the bottom of something regularly... like the bottom of a plastic bag.

You can get them out later and warm them up... with your soldering iron.

...this will make them turn back into big lumps of solder which you can leave on the kitchen surface so your wife or your mum thinks you've got solder blobs stuck to it.

[zoombolt]

I'm glad my vids are coming in useful

I agree, it sounds like your solder doesn't have enough flux. It could also be that your iron is too hot and burning the flux away before it does it's job of cleaning the metal bits.

Yeah, it'll probably be that I made stuff too hot with my iron, as at the start it all went well, then I was a little nervous about the battery.