How much soldering should one do per day?

Let's ridicule the "Drink 19 gallons of yogurt a day" thread with something more useful. Well not much, just a little bit.

Is soldering similar to riding a bike, once you know the trade you "never forget" ?
Or do You need a regular dose to keep it a smooth procedure ?
Would yogurt work as flux ?

I have never soldered anything.
I don't even have a soldering iron in the first place :stuck_out_tongue:

That answer is not fair [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]

I think soldering requires constant practise. Riding a bike is something which you don't really have to 'focus' on balancing the bike. But not in the case of soldering. You have to make the solders flawless.

You have to make the solders flawless.

No, adequate will do nicely. It's not brain surgery.

Lefty

Yeah, I meant not to mess up :stuck_out_tongue:

It's not brain surgery.

It isn't? Dunno what I've been working on then...

Oh yeah:
"Brain brain brain... Pinky and The Brain..."

I find it like riding a bicycle. All it takes is some practice, and if you've been out of practice for a while, it's a skill that comes back pretty quickly. (and it's not that difficult in the first place, once you get the hang of it.) (and I've probably had gaps in my soldering whose length has exceeded many readers total soldering experience. Being mostly a SW sort of guy...)

Well general purpose through-hole soldering is fairly easy to pick up. Now SMD soldering is something that is a wee bit more challenging. Luckily a large part of my job requires soldering components on motherboards so I get paid to work on my skills :wink:

I usually stop when the rosin smoke starts making my eyes burn.
6 to 10 hours / day is reasonable.

You never forget how to ride a bike, but that doesn't mean you'll be very good at it after 10 years of not doing it. This would apply to any skill.

I take 'roids to enhance my soldering performance. Now every idiot that wants to look trendy wears a stupid rubber wristband that says "Rosin Strong".

I for one picked up soldering and Arduino so as to look useful to our (coming, and not a moment too soon) Robot Overlords. Riding a bike only impresses Al Gore. The robots will give me wealth and dominion over thousands.

However, this new ROHS Lead-free solder might be better than the 60/40 we used back in the day- it must have been imported from China. No matter how much of the old stuff you ate, you were still hungry again in an hour. (twitch) (twitch)

Or, combine the two. "Flux Armstrong" - Now I really am showing my age

More than Divyanshu, less than focalist.

Crap... if Flex Armstrong is showing your age I'd hate to know how old you think I am (actually, Flex Armstrong was popular during my childhood, but I don't know how LONG he was popular for....)

Wikipedia says 1976 to "1990's" so it was around my whole childhood, and I am only 31

Yea, I had one in the 90s

It does take practice... but not a lot. Just learn to respect and understand the solder and the process. You can be making nice clean shiny joints without too much time spent. (assuming you are trying)

I may not solder something for over a month or two but then build 3 or four boards and all are fine... (and nice looking).

But... I will admit I do have had a lot of years... in 1978 I ran a wave solder machine doing ~150 1' by 2' boards per day. It included trimming the leads as well and after job that I went on to assemble small run boards for the A/V sales group... so for a short while, it was more than a hobby.

@sptrks: I do not agree with the SMD considered harder idea. I believed this for years and sticked to TTH for a long time. However by now I know that SMD is actually much easier to solder. The hardest part is placing the tiny parts. Soldering them is definitely much easier. However it is a good idea to stick to leaded solder.

Udo

Oh Well! :o