This is the new BEST how to solder video on UKposts. Great job Steve.

By far the steadiest hands on UKposts. Kudos.

I really appreciate the care and precision you put into your soldering so your joints don't end up looking like a dog's breakfast. Thanks!

This video gets straight to the point and covers the fundamentals with efficiency. Thankyou.

The best video I've ever seen for this subject. Thanks!

Very good tutorial on SMD soldering - really enjoying your very informative videos. Great stuff!

You make it seem so easy! I'm looking forward to solder my first PCB, thank you for providing us with confidence

Your technique is perfect! I've learned a lot from this 👍

I enjoyed watching this video. Vey well presented and made. Thumbs up.

Cheers mate! I'm ready to try now!

this is great! just designed and got my first PCB's in from JLPCB. Am incorporating several SMD components, and only have a soldering iron so I'll be referencing this video. Thanks!

Hi Steve, nice series of soldering videos. How about adding to the series with a video on soldering iron tip selection for different jobs and a video on testing solders with different compositions? I am sure these would be appreciated.

Sensational, I’ve got a SM job to do (my first), yours was the first video that I found, I need look no further. Thanks for your efforts.

Thanks Steve! I used solder paste and my rework station on the last Micro-B charge port that I replaced, and it looked beautiful! It was so easy.

It looks very easy when you do but I find it quite difficult. I also see that if you do regular it's seems to going better. This video is well made and the tips you give are really good.

Enjoyed watching your video and learned from it. Thanks

excellent view during soldering, keep it up Sir

Great demo Steve, thanks...will pass the link to this video on to our ham club.

absolutely great, thanks a lot, sad I only found this so late! Please add some description/title 'how to solder smd' or similar, this is what I searched for initially

Real proper video mate cheers.

Useful video 👍 very good

Speaking as an old git with bad eyesight and shaky hands... I've got to question that "no magnification" bit... I use magnification to solder THROUGH HOLE fer godsakes. Why would you clean boards with India Pale Ale? ;)

Very helpful, thank you :)

I enjoyed watching this video

Sweet video. Got, or got in the pipe, one on small SMD _rework_ soldering? Maybe on crowded PCBs with big ground planes?

V creative....Thanks very much.

Great teaching.

Excellent. Thanks.

Very nice thank you for your time

Good job!

Where did you buy your flux removed spray ,and how much was it ,thanks for your video.

Thank you. 😬👍

Can I ask you if the temperature used is 320C as I can see on the soldering station ?

On some videos on soldering SMD, they tin all the pads first, then tack & solder. You only tin one pad & then tack & solder.

can you give me links to solder used, wick, pcb board cleaner you used right at the beginning, flux paste and dispenser thanks. really enjoying your channel

Very satisfying:))))

What are those brushes used for cleaning off the flux?

Really enjoy watching you solder, I love soldering myself - haven't used any of that sticky flux yet though.. You mention it in the video as "MG Chemicals No Clean", do you perhaps have some more info on it? Would love to purchase some on Farnell for example, but they seem to have a couple of different ones, maybe you have some specific product number for it? Thanks :)

In a production environment using IPC standards for production and production rework you will see different techniques for different tasks in the quest for a high quality solder joint. The first task is to understand what you are soldering (Class of Device for end use) and the requirements for solder (lead and lead free) and flux (R, RA, RMA, No Clean and Water Soluble formulas) mainly in the context of manufacturing but also can be adopted for repair usually with a product specific adendum for specific company repair soldering practices (procedures). How much of what IPC offers in terms of electronic assemblies is relavent to the hobbiest I will leave up to you to decide. In production water based flux can be selected to be very aggressive and used for both automated (main and reflow, selective wave may use a slightly different flux, but still cleanable in the process) and hand soldering. So for your practive board instead of No Clean try using a water based highly agressive flux which you brush on with a small brush (it will be clear in appearence) and eutectic lead solder with flux that is also water based and matches the brush on flux. The wetting effect will be much different than the No Clean, especially on boards with oxidation. Soldering the part is as you have shown with tacking one side, soldering the other and then relfowing the first. Although I try and tack with about half the solder needed so I reflow with some additional solder with allows me to match the other completed joint (solder diameter 0.015" or 0.10" special order, if the parts are very small). A few more comments in general. Your tip selection can be improved. Usually there is a change to a fine curved tip from the larger chisle when moving to 0402 and 0201. Although in production these smaller SMT device are usually not hand soldered unless there is a need for rework. Also on the DPAK you would select a larger tip to better match the device power pad, and if the pad uses thermal vias you may have to preheat the board to get the best results. Also there is usually a requirement to tin the large pad and clean the device tab. However you may decide to use solder paste with preheat and hot air to solder the larger power part. It is helpful when you can see the solder wetting to the underside of the power tab by the way the device moves and floats (comes with experience) on the solder when using hot air. I use a metal dental tool to keep the part from wandering usually in reverence to the power tab location and leg solder fillets. However, in production the DPAK will be soldered with the rest of the parts. So here again this would only be done in production rework. The option of solderpaste with hot air is always a consideration for rework and repair. The two handed method for rework: you can use two soldering irons one in each hand with the same tip for very small devices instead of tweezers if you are concerned with temperature stressing the part especially for lead free solders. The part will adhere to one of the tips which you can tap on a plate to disloge very quickly. Tweezers tend to pump a lot of heat into the part if only for the fact for me they are slightly slower at dislodging the part and removing the heat. With practive the two handed method is faster than tweezers, well at least for me.

I have some 0402s in front of me and wonder how could it possibly get any smaller 😅

To achieve better thermal conduction on D pack I would apply flux on heatsink pad before soldering and reflow whole surface under it. With flux it is easy to do with good soldering iron. Actually I would use flux on pads in almost all cases here. Just to ensure all road surfaces are covered with tin after the process. I am kind of paranoid regarding to possible pad degradation. Oxidation and rust over time and in case of moisture and voltage fully covered pads tend to survive it better. Just my OCD working I guess.

what did you use to clean the PCB?

OMG, I like your voice and accent, narrate my life, please!!!!

what flux are you using? ive try many brand of flux and with iso 99% and kim wipe its always leaves greasy residue on the pcb

You should make this a kit, will give people practice in soldering smd stuff.. yeah ?

Could you please share the Gerber file for this PCB board ordered from JLCPCB?

I find 0603 the easiest to solder...but...I use 1.2 or 1.6mm tip... 1. Put solder on both pads 2. Grab the component on the legs 3. Heat both pads with at once with big solder tip 4. Place the component next to the tip and relatively fast remove the tip... With the right speed component will center itself nicely on the pads. No flux needed with leaded solder.

Hi there. What temperature for the iron tip do you recommend? Thanks

I've had very limited experience with ENIG finished, PCBs, but I believe it takes solder much better than the HASL finish, so the results here were always going to be good and easy to achieve. I would like to see if these techniques need to be modified when dealing with HASL PCBs.

Does this work on pcbs not from jlcpcb? /S

I would like to ask you which soldering station is the best in your experience and test hakko , JBC, Metcal or clone Chinese station

What temperature were you using?

Sweet

nice

Steve, are you there? I thought you'd do a reviews of Metcal's GT series stations. They look fancy but word is out there that they lack in performance. You're probably the only person who can justify this.

do you recommend RA flux.

👍

Use a decent metal spatula that covers at least the full width of your board and stencil. Only do a SINGLE pass, never multiple, this will make you applied paste so good that you can do QFN's and tqfp's without solder bridges. Ow and use new paste. I made boards with 300+ components bga + tqfp's + 0402 without any solder issues first time right like this.

What's the advantage of getting PCBs from China?