My mediocre beginner soldering tutorial

[buck converter]

Friend wanted me to solder a breakout board for him. Thought i'd make a video out of it to help others.
https://youtu.be/5YWX354vPqQ
Subscribe for more beginner tutorials - next video will likely be measuring the speed of sound

[Awesome14]

Goody goody gum drops! But I think maybe you could use tip tinner instead of a sponge. I never thought of using the kitchen counter as a bench, probably because I hate standing and soldering. But the video does the job.

[nanofrog]

The solder should wet the tip, not ball up on it.

At this point, I'd suggest getting a tin of tip tinner/tip activator (aggressive flux + metal powder, so this is only used to salvage tips that no longer wet properly; example).

Then get a new sponge and use distilled water only (ionized water can corrode tips and cause the problem you're having) or a brass wool tip cleaner.

[arisma]

Thanks, video plus comments will be a start point for some of us

[tooki]

Friend wanted me to solder a breakout board for him. Thought i'd make a video out of it to help others.
https://youtu.be/5YWX354vPqQ
Subscribe for more beginner tutorials - next video will likely be measuring the speed of sound

Not to be a party pooper, but while your tutorial isn’t bad, the world needed another amateur soldering tutorial like a hole in the head — YouTube is full of awful soldering tutorials by amateurs, a few good ones by amateurs, but there are also plenty of them from experts that show it better than any hobbyist could. (As always, I recommend the videos by Pace Worldwide. They’re from the 80s, but are brilliant.)

I do give you high marks for the clarity of the recording: everything is in focus, framed well, and the audio is clear. 

Anyway, as others have said, the solder shouldn’t be balling up on the tip. It is probably oxidized and needs therapy with tip cleaner as others said. Once you’ve done that, then be sure to follow proper tip care: always re-tin!! You don’t tin, then wipe, then go solder. Instead, wipe, tin, and solder. And critically, whenever you put the iron back in the stand, tin it generously first! The layer of solder will protect the tip from oxidation. (What you don’t want to do is what almost everyone does instinctively: wipe the tip and then put it straight in the stand. That’s the worst for the tip because you’ve removed all the protective solder.)

The bit of solder added to the tip to aid in heating is called a thermal bridge, btw.

Finally, those joints have a bit too much solder. They should be concave, not convex. (I do recognize that this can be hard with many boards, whose solder pads are frankly much too small, causing the solder to kinda ball up along the component leg.)

[buck converter]

When I was I learning to solder, I was slightly put off how easy the pros/industry make it look, with solder melting instantly, flowing nicely. A beginner can not pick up an iron and reproduce what the pros do, leading to frustration.

[I2C]

Good tutorial, soldering is something I always struggled with as a beginner so it's good to explain everything in detail. Good camera work too by the way, close up's are always useful. I've got some constructive criticism (not hating, just friendly advice, I liked the video overall):
- Might be worth making sure beginners buy roisin flux-cored solder (I like the fact you mentioned thin solder)
- Maybe suggest a desk-fan to disperse any smoke? (I'm a hypocrite, I don't use one, but opening the window was a good point)
- What kind of soldering iron should a beginner use? (You've got a nice soldering station, let beginners know what to avoid)
- What kind of tip to use on the soldering iron? (you're wedge-tip is perfect, let them know)
- Helping hands to hold components/wires, let beginners know what they do to help (saw yours in the background)
- What temperature to solder at, really hot or really cold? What works for common circumstances?
- Maybe introduce beginners to solder-wick and solder-pumps, very useful

Also, Awesome14:

Goody goody gum drops!

Do you vape? Is that a quote from ZophieVapes? Maybe a coincidence 

[tooki]

When I was I learning to solder, I was slightly put off how easy the pros/industry make it look, with solder melting instantly, flowing nicely. A beginner can not pick up an iron and reproduce what the pros do, leading to frustration.

Yes, if you’re just seeing, without knowing what’s happening. Have you watched the Pace Worldwide tutorials? They really explain what’s going on, and I fully expect that a beginner would have no trouble, when following those instructions. Of course, limitations of crappy firesticks and shitty oxidized untinned PCBs notwithstanding. At least in the latter case, the rule of “more flux never hurts” will usually take care of it.

[Ian.M]

Using a breadboard as a jig is a good way to wreck a breadboard (melting + filling it with solder dross) and doesn't actually reliably hold the headers vertical.  OTOH if the breadboard is FUBARed anyway and you don't mind tweaking the header angle by hand it will do the job.   A better choice is to stack some plain perfboard to get enough thickness for the header pin height and use a press fit pin at each corner to get the alignment, then bond the edges with a little thin superglue (just enough to wick between the layers but not to fill any of the holes) to reinforce it and make it rigid.

Also get some flux - I prefer pure Rosin (R) liquid flux because usually you don't need to do any extra cleanup, but many here prefer a gel or paste flux.   A light smear on the pads before assembly and soldering will make all the difference to the quality of, and ease of making the joints.

Whether or not you need to use distilled/demineralised water for the sponge depends on your local water mineral content and chlorine levels.   If you use a water softener the high chloride ion concentration would be undesirable.  In all cases its essential to fully saturate and wash out the sponge then squeeze out the excess to prevent buildup of residue from the flux and solder dross which is far more likely to cause bit tinning problems. 

[adras]

Good job for your first video! I'd like to give you a few tips on making the video look more professional

• You said thin soldering wire? What is thin? 1 inch? 10mm? Make an example, or state what you're using. Try to be precise. Why should the soldering wire be thin?
• Create a written script of what you want to do in your video. Just list a few steps. Then record the steps from the script, you can ignore audio. Then cut the video down to the parts you want to show. Write a more detailed script where you basically comment on what's happening in the footage. Record reading the script. Put that audio track on the video.
• Try to have your camera always mounted on a tripod. That way you can get rid of the shaking. Having one fix camera angle, with one specific field of view makes it also easy to show a clean workspace. For instance, put some white cloth on a table, some more cloth on a piece of wood behind it, and you have a clean surface, a clean wall. Put the camera up so it only can see your work area, only put the parts you're working with on the table and the eyes of the viewer are all focused on what happens.

See these two guys on how that will look like. https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRedNile/videos or https://www.youtube.com/user/greatscottlab/videos

[TomS_]

When I was I learning to solder, I was slightly put off how easy the pros/industry make it look, with solder melting instantly, flowing nicely. A beginner can not pick up an iron and reproduce what the pros do, leading to frustration.

You should view it as something to aspire to. Dont let it put you off, because its not like those people picked up an iron and went to town.

Remember, people arent born with any skills, they acquire them through knowing the correct techniques, having the right tools, and practice practice practice. It may take several months of intensive practice (i.e. day job), or maybe years if practiced as a hobby.

Youre young, so learning to swim, ride a bike, roller skate/blade, skateboard, etc etc are all parallels to draw here.

My motivational $0.02