Goot Heat clip H-2SL

[mikepukmel]

Anyone have preferences on heat sinks for soldering klutzes like me? I'm worried about ruining capacitors before they get any current applied.

[The Dude]

Just my opinion, but I've never thought that was a good idea. It only causes you to hold the heat on leads longer because the heat sink is wicking the heat away. If I have something that is going to take a while to heat (large surface area, etc.), I just use a generous amount of flux to limit the time the iron needs to be there and to help the solder flow better.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Anyone have preferences on heat sinks for soldering klutzes like me?

Regular old alligator clips work fine for me. Ya got your big ones, ya got your small ones, use as appropriate & don't forget to remove 'em before you power up.

[Enzo]

Use a hot enough iron. Turning the heat down only means you have to heat the joint longer.

Learn to solder with confidence. If you get on there with a hot, CLEAN tip, warm the joint anf flow solder into it, then GET OFF. Guys who warm it up, melt some solder on it, decide it isn;t quite melted enough so they heat it some more, then maybe add more solder "just in case". Then worse, suck that solder away and do it again "better this time." Those are guys who will lift pads all the time.

[mikepukmel]

Thanks everybody! I think I need to get some more practice before working on the real thing, maybe get a few old computers and TV's and unsolder and re-solder stuff. Started watching some good old soldering training videos on Youtube I found last night (they make it look easy)

[mikepukmel]

Regular old alligator clips work fine for me. Ya got your big ones, ya got your small ones, use as appropriate & don't forget to remove 'em before you power up.

You're gonna laugh at this, but when I started looking around for small heat sinks, the first thing I saw was the 25 cent alligator clips. The second ad was for some high tech sounding name for 14.00 and the image was ... an alligator clip!