You would think it would make me feel better to know that every person has intrusive thoughts. But it doesn’t at all, quite the opposite.

Yall are as crazy as I am, we are doomed.

  • Aceticon@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    9 months ago

    It really depends on whether it’s soldering of SMD or THT components: it’s a lot nicer to just feed the solder when doing through hole pins until it’s just the right amount for that pin and as you pointed out the flux is in the solder, but if you’re manually soldering SMD components with their tiny 0.5 mm legs or smaller, a tiny bit of solder on the tip of the iron is enough for 3 or 4 legs and the soldering wire (even the .3mm stuff) just gets in the way and even makes it much more likely to get solder bridges.

    Mind you, I don’t think SMD components are soldered in professional production settings since it’s way simpler to just use a pick and place machine and a soldering oven, so it probably only matters for hobbyists.

    • Fosheze@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      9 months ago

      To be fair, neither are typically hand soldered in profesional environments anymore (outside of rework). Surface mount stuff gets paste and sent through a reflow oven. Through hole stuff gets wave soldered or sent through a selective solder machine. The only thing I can think of that needs to be hand soldered anymore are batteries because sending a lithium ion battery through a reflow oven or over a pot of molten metal is a bad idea.

      Also, fun side fact, lithium ion batteries also explode if you stick then in antistatic bags. I’ll let you imagine how our inventory people discovered that.

      • DosDude👾@retrolemmy.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        9 months ago

        Yeah, for smt I just use a heat gun or rework station for repairs. Only part I use an iron for that is when a lead didn’t take. Even then, the solder is already there so just flux is enough.