Soldering motor advice?
 

I've tried to solder the 3 wires to the motor with no luck what so ever!! It just doesn't seem to want to take to it at all. Any help and advice would be greatly apreciated.

Thanks Liam

Hi,
Not sure if this will be any help at all but a couple of points to watch out for.
Have you tinned the tip of your soldering iron (covered it in solder) and is it clean.
You also need to tin the ends of the wires and the contact points on the motor. This should help to get everything flowing.
Is your soldering iron a high enough wattage?
You need to heating either the wire or the contact point and adding the solder onto these rather than directly onto the iron.
Also leaded solder is best although I just use the cheap stuff sold in most hardware shops.
Sorry if this is all old news to you I'm by no means the best solderer so hopefully some others can give you some more advice!
Thanks
Ben

Make sure you're using leaded solder for a start. Make sure that you tin the wires before soldering them to the motor.

Are you using an iron with a large tip and good wattage (40W+)? Make sure it's clean then tin the tip before you try and solder the wire to the motor.

Echo the above...try a little flux paste aswell. It may help

Deffo on the flux paste, I use fluxite soldering paste and 60/40 solder and a portasol technic gas powered soldering iron and I tin the wires and the motor tabs with the paste and solder, then put a bit more flux on both and solder together, it takes in seconds and creates an excellent strong finish,


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FRYS-FLUXI...2#ht_500wt_969



.
i've had one of these 50g tins for 20 years and i still have enough for a few years yet, and i solder a lot and use it every time, great investment

Well thanks for all the help and advice guy, the only thing I haven't tried is the flux so I'll give that a bash and fingers crossed!!

Get some old school leaded solder. New lead free solder is horrible to use, and requires a super hot iron, or give up. It's a pig to work with with my 480degC solder station, but leaded solder is perfect at 300degC.
Search ebay for "lead solder -free" and you'll find lots. 60/40 tin/lead flux core solder.

Flux paste is also a must for cleanign your iron tip and helping to tin the wires and contacts. remove residue with motor spray afterwards.
you can get good flux paste (LA-CO) from a plumbers merchants.

Solder, whether lead-free or otherwise is flux cored as you have stated so why use flux paste?

Lead free solder is not horrible to use and makes perfect joints with an iron tip temperature below 380 deg C - Leaded solder is horrible to use with toxic fumes and lead covered hands just by touching it.

I was sceptical at first, but after trying a few types at work, we have found a perfect lead-free solder that I use on all my RC cars and have had no joint failures.

Flux paste to clean the iron tip. A damp sponge doesn't cut it, and leave impurities and residue, which blacken the tip. Dip the iron tip in the flux before you are about to make a joint gives you a perfectly clean tip ready to tin and use straight away.
Flux paste to clean and draw solder into the wire. Often the flux in the solder core isn't enough. Again it depends on the thickness of the solder, and cleanliness of the items being soldered. Sometimes its not needed, sometimes it helps.

The OP was asking for advice on why he was having problems soldering. Using flux can help, as will quality high temperature controlled irons with large tips, and decent solder. Using too low a power iron, with a small tip and lead free solder is a recipe for bad solder joints and problems making them. Others posted above me had offered constructive advice to the OP, most of which said use flux and leaded solder...

In my experience lead free solder is awful to use. It's melting point is higher, and flow rate is slower, and requires a much longer period of heat contact to make the joint. It sets very fast, sometimes too fast to get a tidy joint, where you end up with part of it molten, and part set. My temperature controlled solder station goes upto 480 deg C, and its just awful to use with lead free solder at all temps I've tried. Sure it may be fine for small electronic joints, but large 10awg or 12awg wire contacts, or making up nicad/nimh packs for example with a large tip its just horrible to use, when good old leaded solder allow for perfect joints where the solder flows and allows perfect joints to be made. I've tried lead free with the six soldering irons I have, both electric and gas, of various powers, sizes and tip types.

Lead free solder is typically suited to flow or wave soldering process for circuit board manufacture, and they all use flux, either screened or sprayed on in these processes. more modern methods (reflow soldering) user a flux and solder paste, but that's getting off topic.
Lead free was introduced as part of the RoHS directive, where hazardous substances were removed from workplace and manufacturing process, and rightly so for the sake of those people exposed to it every day. Using a bit of leaded solder on the occasion when needed for your hobby certainly won't kill you, providing you use it in a ventilated place, and don't breath the fumes, or give it to children to eat, etc. It's certainly easier to use leaded than get burned fingers trying to get lead free solder to flow to make the joint.

I won't get into an argument about who's the better solderer, but I learned to solder at 7 years old, and 30 years later consider myself experienced. Hey, I even won a prize for my soldering in my first year of my electronic engineering degree at university ;-) I'll happily put up examples of my work for inspection.

If you've found a good lead free solder, please detail the stuff, and i'll go out and buy some to try, or accept a sample in the post if you like? I'd happily try some and change to it if it works. The several different rolls I've bought and used were utter rubbish.

:thumbsup:

Ooooo! :p

I use the Hudy Special Solder - excellent stuff

Very highly recommended

In addition, i tried the lead free stuff, just couldn't make good solder joints with it.

:p it was late, or early, and you get fed up of the same old comments when key words are mentioned.

I hope the OP manages to get his motor soldered. If he is still having trouble and can make it to cullingworth on Friday, I'll gladly solder it for him, with leaded or lead free solder, whichever he prefers. :thumbsup:

I take it hudy's special ingredient is lead? :)

While we are on the subject can you guys reccomend a good soldering iron (with and ebay lonk if possible) as i bought a new one to replace the one ive had for 20+ years and the new one is crap its meant to be 40W but it does not seem to like soldering even with proper Lead / Tin solder.

Cheers

Rich

Lol, yes.

That aside, it's quality solder :)

+1

@Rudolf - come on mate, time to man up! :p
Whats the lead free solder you use?
Ive tried a few lead free types and all were pants it seems; so Id be very keen on finding some that actually worked.

@HyperLiam - sounds alot like temperature. Same thing happened to me and it was down to an old 40W iron not holding enough temp for the larger wires. Heat jsut dissappated too quickly to make good joins.

Get down to B&Q, buy their 40W Stanley iron (think its like £18 or something) and, if it is temperature, you should be sorted.

HTH.

personally I tend to heat up the motor terminals and pop some solder on them. then tin the ends of the motor wires. then heat the 2 together. After it's changed colour to a matt finish I give it a few seconds and give a little pull. if it looks like a good joint and doesn't break that'll do for me :)

Firstly make sure your work area is free from rubbish.

Then give it to someone else to do, maybe watch them to pick up tips. If I am seen at Southport with a soldering iron people get panicky.

Seriously if your having problems maybe get someone else to do it for you this time. I am sure if you get early enough to your local track you will get plenty of help.

I use Multicore 99C Alloy Type 5C Crystal 502 Solder

biggest improvement to my soldering wasn't so much the solder i was using or even the iron it was the size of the tip..... :blush:

A very high temp iron is great but if the tip is small and is unable to maintain that high temp as soon as you touch it to a wire then its a bit pointless.

I use a 50w iron from Maplins and have replaced the tip for a larger one. Its perfect, fast to heat up and most importantly the larger tip maintains its heat so you can solder wires fast without heating up the component too much.

Link to Iron

Link to Tip

Cheers Rudolf - went to order some, but its pricey! £24 is the cheapest I can find. :thumbdown:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Multicore-...item19cada60ce

It's a bit cheaper :thumbsup:

this is a great soldering iron,

ive had one for over 20 years and its still going strong and gets hot enough for any job:

http://uk.farnell.com/portasol/porta...-gas/dp/148636

heres the same one on ebay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Portasol-P...item3f1ade02c4

OMG thats cheap, i'd buy another for £10 if i didnt already have a spare,

this is the flux to get:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3209538996...9#ht_500wt_969

and this is the solder:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100g-reel-...item20c584d7fa

try some Schumacher solder find it Reilly easy to work with, the best solder that i have found and i must of bought 50+ deferent brands of solder here is a link below

LINK

Sorry, I'm with Neal on this one, I have been soldering for almost 30 years, not just RC hobby stuff I also used to do electrical repairs too. I have tried several lead free solders and found each one to be hard to work with, producing inferior results to standard leaded types.

As for a recommendation for a good soldering iron, I have had my 25w Antex for over 25 years (Ok Trigger, it did have a replacement element about 10 years ago), I have various tips for this but for RC usually use a 2.5mm tip. This is fine for anything upto motor wire type size, so most RC jobs are no issue. I think its only jobs like cell building where I have to break out a bigger iron. A good quality iron and they are not too expensive to buy, plus AFAIK they are still a British firm :)

Even with a 40w iron, and a good one at that, i was still having issues, I bought an 80watt from Amazon and no issues now.

I do agree with the flux and solder points though, leaded solder and a good quality flux are essential to making good joints. I found 60:40 leaded solder made by Draper in Halfords for a tenner. Great stuff.

Just for giggles I used my dads big 200w Weller iron, ended up wrecking a motor... It seems bigger isnt always better though lads...

i find its solder i have one of them cheapo £7 soldering irons but i use decent solder and my soldering is fine never killed a motor or speedo
i do also have a 80w one from maplins its perfect its just the heads are expensive where as my cheap one i just get a flat head screwdiver and cut the head of it then grind the driver into a spike or whatever i think of at the time (two tools for the price of one)

(i use schumacher solder)

Any chance you can show us a pic of the iron your using?

You want a medium/large sized tip as the bigger the tip the better it will transfer the heat to the wire (more surface contact)

Leaded solder is easier to use but if you your using a decent iron (Antex are really good though you pay for the quality) high wattage 60W then lead free is fine as well but harder to work with (Electronics solder not leadfree plumbers solder :rolleyes: it will have a good percentage of silver/tin content)

Like everyone says tin the iron as it heats up (this bits important) then tin the motor tabs and wire, a small amount of flux will help as it cleans the surface for you (again electronic flux not plumbers flux as it can corrode electronics, so I'm told)

then put heat to the tab and wire together add solder to it, should run smoothly on then remove iron, this should leave a nice shiny joint. wipe the flux residue off afterwards and wipe it off your iron as well using a damp cloth.

Like someone said most solder comes pre-flux (not all) but a little extra can help. but like anything practice makes perfect.

Anyway hope that helps and best of luck and if you get stuck ask someone at the local track but check theres first :thumbsup:

Soldering Iron
 

I use a Weller 75W Iron with a 8mm round tip, made for doing lead window work but is superb for our hobby cost around £30 at local Machine mart. Holds lots of heat and use it for just about everything apart from soldering wires to servo's, break out the 45W weller TCP for that.
As for the debate on Leaded or Lead free solder, I use both. Leaded for home use and Lead free for work. Took time getting used to using Lead free after 30 years of using leaded but will stick my neck out and say that Lead free solder for our application is crap.
It produces overly 'hard' joints which can be fragile and to top it all off there is a lot of very corrosive flux in it to make it flow better, more so than tin / lead solder to the point where at work I am replacing soldering iron tips because they have eroded through ! You also have to use higher temperatures to make it 'melt' so this transfers through to your ESC, Motor etc.

Best solder to buy if you can still get some is 60/40 Ersin Multicore, avoid anything with 'green' on the label ! ! Not cheap but the best !

@iMull - that aint the same stuff mate - thats leaded solder.
We are looking for RudolfXC's lead free solder as he says its very good.

Maplins sell lead free solder.