Anyone into R/C?

I need to practice soldering today. It's an achilles for me. You see these clean ass solder joints in catalogs and pictures with just a dab of solder on a motor, it's like damn!

Then I need finish prepping this Carrera body for when the paint shows up.

Gonna take an old Tamiya stock motor and some old motor wires and try getting clean joints.

Wish me luck.

 

1. Use Thinner and smaller Solder
2. Flux is your friend
3. Get a good soldering iron set up that you can dial in the temp and not burn or overheat the connection

 

Well, I do have the iron. It's the technique and reps I don't have yet.

I can do better than this. I have all the supplies, solder sucker, flux, braid, I think my biggest mistake is not letting the solder do the work.

 

The motor connections show not enough heat. You want to "prime" your tip after making sure it is clean of slag by wiping it on the wet sponge. Melt a bit of solder on the tip, then touch the tip to the work piece (wiring connection) and heat the wire and connector. When it is hot enough, the solder on the tip of the iron will flow to the work and then you start feeding solder in the gap between tip and work until you have a smooth connection. The iron should be about 30-50 degrees more than the melting point of the solder, because when you feed solder into the work, it will cool the area a bit. Pull the tip away as soon as you have a good fillet of solder and it has penetrated the individual strands of the wire and bonded to the connector. Like crashngiggles said, a finer strand of solder (rosin core is best) will heat faster and flow better. The greater the percentage of tin in a solder, the more heat that is required to melt it 60-40 (60% lead-40% tin) is what electrical solder usually is and you can also get 65-35. If you need strength in a solder joint go with a higher tin content, 50-50 or more (like when soldering brass pieces together). I worry more about a strong bond than cosmetics, because I'll file the solder joint smooth when doing structural stuff like the tent platform in my picture above

 

That looks great! Always been one of my favourite vehicles. The guy that used to own the Toyota dealership in my home town has one that looks like it should be on a show room floor.