#8 in Welding equipment & accessories
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Reddit mentions of Chemtronics Desoldering Braid, Chem-Wik, Rosin, 10-50L 0.10", 50ft.
Sentiment score: 8
Reddit mentions: 15
We found 15 Reddit mentions of Chemtronics Desoldering Braid, Chem-Wik, Rosin, 10-50L 0.10", 50ft.. Here are the top ones.
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Price For: Each Braid Material: Copper Width: 2.5mm Length: 50ft Braid Color: Blue Leaded Process Compatible: Yes Roll Length: 50ft RoHS Compliant: Yes
Specs:
Number of items | 1 |
Weight | 0.1 Pounds |
Holy mother of god..
I'm assuming it's any or a combination of:
Those definitely look ruined. :/
Having the right tools is super important for soldering/desoldering, especially if you lack the experience/know-how. If you used a desoldering braid/solder wick, one with better quality will make a massive difference when you're trying to desolder. I remember struggling with a cheap wick/solder sucker combo I got a while back. Switched to a Chemtronics Desoldering Braid and was shocked at how much easier desoldering could be.
You may have heard the old saying:
>The road to success is through experience.
>
>The road to experience is through failure.
It sounds like you have already achieved some failure, so this means you are well on your way on the road to success!
Let me add another old saying that I just made up:
>Good technique may overcome a bad soldering iron.
>
>A great soldering iron will never overcome bad technique.
You didn't mention what kind of iron and what kind of solder you are using now. But if you are getting cold joints, that is more likely a sign of bad technique rather than the wrong iron.
Cold joints happen when you heat the solder instead of heating the work material. The hot solder hits the cold metal and freezes in place instead of flowing onto the hot metal.
You need to heat the work material itself first. If it's a through-hole component, then after you turn the board upside down, touch the iron to both the component's wire lead and the board's pad. Only after both of those heat up do you apply the rosin core solder to melt onto and into them. Then you will have a beautiful shiny solder joint.
This does take some finesse and attention to timing. So I would do this Heathkit style. The Heathkits I bought when I was a teenager always came with clear instructions on how to solder, and most importantly, some extra pieces to practice with. I learned to get the technique down on those before tackling the kit itself. So practice on scrap material until you have it down.
Of course a good iron and good solder will help. If you're using lead-free solder, I might suggest a traditional lead-tin solder instead, as it is easier to work with.
For an iron, you didn't mention what you're using now, or what your budget might be. If something around $100 works for you, you can't go wrong with the Hakko FX888D. You might want some extra tips of various sizes too.
Desoldering is an art to itself. Do you have some desoldering braid? I used to use the "soldapullit" suction pumps and similar things, but the braid always gave me better results. It comes in different widths so you can pick one that fits the work you're doing.
I hope these notes are helpful. Holler back with any questions, and happy soldering!
Questions asked by chat during stream:
Question by /u/anthonyooiszewen:
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Will edit comment if more come up, and of course corrections if I took notes incorrectly :D
solder connections are on the bottom of the board. It's going to be a bitch to get off without burning or peeling up leads - those boards are not meant to be re-worked. I'm pretty handy with soldering, this is not something I would attempt except as an absolute last resort, and if I did, I'd go into it prepared to have a ruined board.
If you want to have a crack at it:
But here are some better ideas:
This is a great first kit to get you started. I bought this exact one and built like 5 keyboards with it before I upgraded to a nice Hakko station.
The one thing that you do NOT want to skimp on, though, is desoldering braid. A lot of newbies make the mistake of not planning for mistakes. This kit comes with a cheap desoldering pump, but it is garbage. It might seem pricey, but this stuff is the best desoldering braid on Earth, and will last you a long time. If you even have to desolder so much as a single switch, you'll be glad that you bought this stuff.
Outside of that, as /u/clee290 said, you'll want to watch some soldering videos. It's not terribly complicated stuff, but you'll want to have an idea of the basics to prevent common mistakes.
For soldering the number one advice I can give is to make sure you always leave a little bit of solder on the tip of your iron when you put it back on its cradle. This prevents the tip from oxidizing. If you do this your tips will last a very long time and you will not have to use tip tinner / cleaner. You clean the tip before you make a solder joint and you put solder on the tip when you are done with it. That is not intuitive to a lot of people.
For protoboard vs breadboard the same "best practice" things apply. Check to make sure ground or power isn't connected where it shouldn't be before you power it up, use star grounding, etc.
For the iron the gold standard is the Hakko 888. If you want to save some money go with the Weller WLC100. The good thing about that WLC100 is that it will heat any tip that will fit in there whereas the 888 you have to have the right tip. Don't waste your money on one without temperature control. The WLC100 and 888 will last forever. The Chinese clones most likely will not.
Conical tips are terrible for most any soldering, don't use them. You want a chisel tip. My advice to practice is get some wire and solder pieces of it together without. Do it without twisting the wires and do it until your solder joints come out nice an clean without a long solder tail attached to the iron. That happens when you burn all the flux out of the solder. The fumes off solder are the flux burning and flux smoke is terrible for you. Don't breathe it. Your solder joint is good when the wire will break before the solder joint.
For wiring up perfboard I always use magnet wire. You remove the enamel with the soldering iron an a bit of solder. The fumes from doing this are really nasty is the only drawback. If it doesn't want to come off nick the enamel insulation with a hobby knife and it will come right off. I find with plastic insulated wire I am always melting the insulation.
Hopefully someone will chime in on online soldering tutorials that are worth watching. I learned my tricks from a week long IPC-610 training class years gone by so I don't have any to recommend.
Lead free solder is much harder to work with than lead solder. Only use lead free if you have to because your product is going to be sold in Europe. Not all desoldering wick is created equal. Some of it pulls solder right off your board. Some of it just pushes the solder around the board without sucking it into the braid. You want a wide braid with a good flux on it. I bought a spool of this recently and it is the best I have used in a while:
https://www.amazon.com/Chemtronics-Desoldering-Braid-Chem-Wik-10-50L/dp/B0019V5MAC/
The microswitch looks to be a Omron switch. Would make sense since Razer also sells gaming mouses that use this switch. As far as the joystick, I have to agree with /u/ScryptHasher and say that this is more than likely an off the shelf part. For this I would just search on Ebay for replacement Xbox One joysticks and find one that matches closests to the original.
For desoldering I highly recommend watching some videos on YouTube. Take your time. Also pick up some decent desoldering wick with flux, such as Chemtronics Desoldering Braid.
Good luck on your adventures repairing this controller and hopefully many more electronic projects in the future!
Are you referring to solder wick? This sort of thing:
http://www.amazon.com/Chemtronics-Desoldering-Braid-Chem-Wik-10-50L/dp/B0019V5MAC/ref=sr_1_3?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1462654881&sr=1-3&keywords=solder+wick
This is the best I have found. The roll is HUGE and it sucks solder up very well.
I personally have had really shitty luck with using a solder sucker combined with cheap solder.
You might want to try using some desoldering wick - I've had decent results with this stuff. Even if you don't want to try this, you should get some anyways because there are things a pump cannot save you from.
I do not know if he got you the links but here they are all on Amazon. The funniest thing is that I have it all ready for when I get enough money for this and the Hakko FX-888D.
Solder is the Kester 44
Solder sucker
Desoldering wick
Hakko cleaning tip wire station
Here is a short build inventory for people who may want to perform this mod in the future:
Lube and replace switches based on WFD's guides. Get two small paintbrushes and a pair of forceps or tweezers to help manipulate the components during the lubrication process. You should also whip up a couple of these guys. They make opening the switches a hell of a lot easier.
This was only my second time desoldering so I learned a lot along the way. Quality, flux-treated desoldering braid and a temperature controlled soldering iron with a chisel tip was the most reliable method I found to desolder. I used the Hakko FX888D soldering iron and station with a 2.4 mm x 14.5 mm Hakko chisel tip. I used Chemtronics' Chem-Wick desoldering braid to remove the solder from the plated through holes on the PCB. You have to take extra care when using desoldering braid not to heat up other components on the board, but with enough practice you will be a pro!
Sorry I'm a little late to the conversation, but when desoldering a component, this stuff is what we use in the business for a clean removal.
My WhiteFox recently started getting chatter on the R and the 2 keys, so from what I've read it seems like I need to desolder the switches and put new ones in? So for desoldering, do the Engineer SS-02 and this desoldering braid seem good, or is anything else someone might recommend for desoldering?
Also wondering for putting the new switches in, if there's any specific size or type of solder I should get?Thanks!
edit: figured out the solder, but what would be a good flux? what are the different types for and why is flux important?
A desoldering braid is the way to go. Not very reusable, but very effective and easy to use.