Soldering and Hand Tools

Soldering Station at Acera School, Winchester

What  it is: Making electrical connections by connecting wires and other conductors with melted solder
Skills required:

• Prepare wires and other conductors - cut, strip, set up in a fixture "like helping hands"
• Obtain and be able to use soldering tools and accessories: soldering iron, solder, tip cleaner like brass sponge, 
• Proper soldering techniques - different methods for wires, pc boards
• Methods for correcting mistakes - solder wick, solder sucker
• Protect electrical connections - heat shrink tubing, strain relief, wire routing

Wire Stripper, Adjustable

Wire Stripper, Preset

Needlenose Pliers

Diagonal Flush-trim cutters

Tutorial: 
Introduction to tools and materials and practice project:

1. Solder is pronounced “sodder”, forget about the “l”
2. Show soldering iron, tip, brass sponge, solder, cleaner
3. Safety with hand tools:
   1. Arrange tools so the power cords do not get in the way
   2. Do not touch hot solder tip to anything but metal
   3. Heat the part to be soldered, applying pressure- allow solder to flow onto it.
   4. If you burn skin with soldering iron, put it under cold water asap
   5. Soldering iron takes 5 minutes to heat up

​Materials:

• Soldering Euipment:  Iron, Solder, Helping  Hands, Tip Cleaner (brass or ordinary sponge)
• Tools: Wire Cutter, Wire Stripper, Needle Nose Plliers

Soldering instruction:

1. Watch Basic Soldering Video 
   Note: if showing video directly to students, DO NOT instruct your students to "flick" solder as shown at 3:20 - solder droplets can easily burn both flicker and flickee! Instead, make sure students use the brass sponge to scrape off excess solder.

Practice task:

1. Put on safety goggles
2. Cut, strip and solder a wire back together; Use either solid or stranded wire, 20 - 24 gauge wire
3. If desired make a chain of wire loops or an Olympic Rings model