Do you need a special soldering iron?


I was thinking about doing some minor swapping of resistors and caps on an old integrated amplifier. Is there anything special that I need? I'm going to replace the items with the same values but just better parts. I have a craftsman soldering iron with a few different tips and a multimeter. I think I need to get a solder-sucker and a glue gun to hot-glue the parts back into place.

If I'm just replacing with just better parts, do I need the schematics?

Thanks for any advice,
Mike
vman71

Showing 1 response by artizen65

Vman71,

Ghostrider45 is off on a couple of points.

1) You want a to use a 15watt iron.
2) The solder should be 63/37 rosin core. This has a lower melting point than 60/40.
3) Unless you are working on a dual sided PCB solder wick works better than a manual solder sucker.
4) Always clean your connections with Isopropal (SP) Alcohol before soldering you connections.
5) Clean your leads with a pencil eraser and then alcohol prior to soldering.

There is more involved but that you should get you started.

Michael

P.S. In my former life I was a certified 2M technician.