Soldering Safety

So in this video, we're going to talk a little bit about soldering. This is a soldering iron. The tip of the soldering iron gets really hot. It can get up to 700, 800 degrees hot or hotter depending on the iron. And so it's really important that you never touch any of the metal. Always hold the soldering iron like you would a pen or a pencil because it gives you a good bit of control. And the soldering iron, when it's not in use, should always be in its holder. So never just hold it while you're waiting for something. Always leave it in the holder. That way, there's less chance that it'll bump into something and burn it. Now keep in mind that the cord of the soldering iron can get pulled out. So you want to make sure that the cord is not running down near your legs or off the edge of the table in a way where it could get caught and the soldering iron could get pulled out. And definitely don't ever let the cord fall over the iron like this because it will melt the cord and can cause problems for you. So the first thing that you want to do is make sure that you have safety glasses. Make sure you have those safety glasses on. Make sure you have a holder for your soldering iron. That's going to keep the soldering iron stable. I like to also have a fan running so I've got a little fan here. And that helps to blow away the fumes from the smoke. And this is a third arm here. It's got two alligator clips. And it's really important that you always position your part in a stable way. Make sure that the part is mechanically tied together. So we're going to use this wire and we're going to link the part together by just twisting it together. The solder will hold the part, but it's good to have a good mechanical fit as well. OK. So we're going to put a little bit a solder on that. Now remember, we want to tin the tip of the soldering iron. So we take our solder here and just get a little bit of extra solder on the tip. We'll knock that off. And then we're going to take the soldering iron and hold it against the metal. And get the metal to heat up really quick. There we go. And now you can see, because the metal is hot, the solder is flowing right over it. And we didn't need to touch the solder to the soldering iron. We touched the solder to the twisted wire. So it's important to always touch the solder to the part that you want to connect, not to the soldering iron because the solder bonds when the metal is hot. And you can see there's a little bit of smoke coming up. That's actually from the rosin core. You don't want to breathe that so it's good to have a fan or a window open. But that's the connected part. Always want to make sure your part is securely held in place. And then you're good to go. You're ready to do some soldering.