4krow
Seasoned Member
  

IMAGINE WHIRLLED PEAS
Posts: 1666
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I am going to jump in here to make an observation. It was common for me in the past, to have trouble soldering in a way that was decent. I couldn't figure out why. It was only after I got the 'right' soldering station (in this case an888 model, made by Hakko), that I was able to make something that was both visually acceptable and much less electrically suspicious. Then, the solder mattered greatly as well. I ended up using 'Wonder Solder', what a stupid name, and continue to use it to this day. Yes, I have tried several solders and only wish that they worked for me but the results are not good. Dull looking joints, lousy flow, and more kept me using my favorite. The correct heat is very important, as you have found out with the damaged traces. Looking closely at some of the tube socket connections, I see that the solder hasn't flowed evenly. No this is probably not an electrical fault, but may become one if a tube is taken out of the socket and the solder almost invisibly cracks. This sort of this is seen at various points in the build as you have tried to get a lot of heat to say a speaker binding post, it isn't easy. Some of the blame there can be put to the position of the wire between two nuts rather than wound tightly around the end of the post, where wire soldering normally takes place. Again, there just may not be the intended physical strength in that connection. My rule of thumb for pretty much every connection is to have a good mechanical connection before the solder is applied, rather than counting on the solder to be the glue. Many times I see wire just layed across an intended joint with a swath of solder to do the rest. In those cases, you then are relying on the solder metal makeup itself (mostly lead) to make the electrical connection and not the copper conductor itself. When I find a wire to be small sixed for a solder hole in the circuit board, I will bend the copper wire into a J shape and then 'fit' it into the hole holding itself by the edge contact with the trace itself.
These observations are mostly self learned lessons as I went along for years trying get things at least better. Of course this is not intended so much as a criticism as a guide to follow. The intent is to have less troubleshooting of your own work, let alone defective parts or not so instructions for the build, etc.
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