Soldering Equipment

EPL Soldering and Rework Station

Policies

• Please use lead based solder only. If you must use lead free solder, make sure you clean any equipment you used throughly and re-tin tips with leaded solder.

• Keep the area clean. Pay particular attention to cleaning and tinning soldering iron tips. They will last longer and you will get better results.

• Always return hand-pieces to their stands when they are not in active use. They will go to sleep which extends tip life. It only takes a couple of seconds for the tips to come back up to temperature.

• If you are unsure how to do something, please read the documentation or ask one of the EPL managers.

• Stay focused. These tools have hot pointy ends. Don’t hurt yourself or someone else by forgetting that.

Using the equipment

• The manuals for all the Hakko equipment are available online here. Hardcopies are also available in the EPL.

• The station on the right side of the bench currently has an FM-206 three port base unit. There are two FM-2027 soldering irons, an FM-2027 desoldering tool and an FM-2022 parallel remover tool which can be attached to the base unit. Note that not all of the ports on the FM-206 are the same. In particular, the FM-2022 can only run off the the middle port (port 2).

• To change settings on any of the ports on the FM-206, hold down the button above the port until you get a menu. Rotate the knob to make changes and push the knob to make selections.

• It is possible to change the tips on the FR-2027 soldering irons without turning them off and waiting for them to cool down. However, it takes a bit of care since the tips will be hot. Press on the two black clips to release the green tip holder. Then pull the holder and tip off the iron. Then you can push the tip part way out of the holder by pushing on the cold end (not the tip end). Don’t push the tip all the way out. You want to expose enough of the cold end of the tip to be able to grip it and remove it completely from the holder. Then put the hot tip in the tip storage holder and install a new tip by pushing it into the tip holder and installing tip and holder onto the iron.

• The center station contains a stereo microscope with illuminator. If you haven’t used a stereo microscope before, here are a few tips:

• You don’t need to press your eyes onto the eyepieces. Hold them off slightly.

• You can use your glasses if you prefer. Just roll the rubber eyepieces back in that case.

• Be sure to adjust the separation between the eyepieces to match your eyes.

• If you are having trouble focusing, first use the normal focus adjustment to focus with your left eye. Then focus for your right eye by rotating the right eyepiece.

• Because of the narrow field of view, it is easy to loose track of the position the soldering iron tip when working under the microscope. Therefore, it is easy to burn yourself or something on your board. If you can’t see the iron tip, take your eyes away from the eyepieces and move the tip into position by looking directly at it.

• You may be surprised to find how much more precise your hand motions are when working under a microscope. This seems to be due to enhanced visual feedback.

• The left side station contains a FR-830 board preheater and a FR-803B hot air rework station. This equipment can remove a chip from a board and also be used to reflow solder chips back on. The basic procedure is to use the preheater to warm the board from below and then use the FR-803B with its vacuum pickup to heat the solder to melting and pull the chip off.

• First fit an appropriate sized rubber tip onto the pickup tool. Clamp the board under the pickup tool and over the preheater. Line up the pickup tip over the chip you want to extract.

• Use the preheater to bring the board up to temperature via a gradual heating profile.

• Turn on the FR-803B hot air and melt the solder. Then turn on the vacuum, lower the extraction tip and pull off the chip.

• Then turn the preheater off and let it go through its cool down cycle before removing the board.

• To solder a chip using the hot air station, it is probably best to place solder paste and the chip under the microscope and then use the preheater and hot air to solder it on.

Using Metcal Soldering Machines (black ones)

1. Turn on Fume Extractor (it sits on the floor in the middle of the two soldering desks), the power switch is on the back and lights up when on.

2. Turn on Metcal MX-5200 using the big red button on the top of the machine and make sure the LCD output says Ready.

3. Confirm which output you’re using by pressing the button to the left of the LCD display; if you’re using the right output, there will be a flashing white box on the right side of the display.

4. Tin the tip of the soldering iron by coating the tip in solder, then get to work.

5. Make sure the soldering iron is seated in its stand when not in use, never put it down on the workbench.

6. When you’re done soldering, clean off the tip of the iron on the sponge/steel wool contained in its stand, re-tin the tip of the iron, and return the iron to its stand.

7. Turn off the Metcal.

8. Turn off the Fume Extractor.

9. Make to clean up your station and wash your hands when you’re done.

General Soldering Hints

• Soldering is primarily a manual skill which improves with repetition and experience. We have scrap boards you can use to practice on.

• For an introduction (or refresher) on soldering, check out the “Soldering is Easy” and “SMT Soldering. It’s Easier Than You Think” pamphlets. Or watch this three part video. The videos from Pace are also good although getting little old.

• If you are having trouble, ask for help. Sometimes a simple trick or two can make a huge difference.

• Good soldering should be quick. If you are taking too much time, you risk damaging components or the PCB. Stop and reconsider your approach.

• Consider good heat transfer. If you are having a hard time getting solder to flow, don’t automatically turn up the temperature. Often a better approach is to use a different tip. Use a larger tip or a tip with a flat face instead of a small conical tip. Small tips have little heat capacity and also little contact area with the work. Also, it is often useful to melt a small amount of solder between the work and the iron tip in order to create a bridge which transfers heat more efficiently.

• If you are having a hard time removing a solder bridge, either with an iron or with solder wick, add more flux. You can even add extra flux directly to solder wick to make it work better. There is seldom such a thing as too much flux!

• Soldering usually seems to take at least three hands. Make it easier by holding the board with a mechanical device or a couple of blobs of blue tack. Blue tack or Kapton tape is also helpful in temporarily holding components while soldering.

• Learn to “drag solder” component leads. It is much faster once you learn it. Ask for instructions or check this short video