Collin's Lab: Soldering

Learn the basics of soldering from Collin Cunningham!
Adafruit guide to excellent soldering: learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-g...
Entry level soldering iron: adafruit.com/products/180
Hakko FX-888 soldering iron: www.adafruit.com/products/1204
More Collin's Lab:
Breadboards: • Collin's Lab: Breadboa...
Multimeters: • Collin's Lab: Multimet...
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Music by bartlebeats: / bartlebeats
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[@RealDealHolyfield2099]

Wow, so many good things to say about this video. First, it's very well written and extremely clear an concise. The presentation and visuals are excellent. Even the "cinematography" elevates this video, making it more engaging. Then there's Collin, whose stellar delivery is a cross between Agent Smith and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. He's also dressed for success! Kudos for another great video.

[@vapenation7061]

Christopher Kiefer well said

[@domobrah2671]

Yes!

[@djtoddles8750]

good call on the cinematography. Wouldn't have thought of that but yeah, Colin's the Speilberg of geek vids

[@michaelcoxjr]

I get the vibe of Alton Brown’s Good Eats show.

[@rwh777]

@@michaelcoxjr Me too, plus a little bit of Thomas Dolby! :-)

[@mikecraftin3564]

Collin is easily my favorite electronics guy. I've learned so much from him and he is just an awesome, unique personality that needs to make more videos! XD

[@danlespoir]

Just realized this was 8 years ago and is really keeping up to modern editing and instructors

[@DGMDevGamingAndMore]

the man wears a suit and a tie in a workshop while recording videos. respect.

[@adafruit]

*Learn the basics of soldering from Collin Cunningham!* Entry level soldering iron: adafruit.com/products/180 Hakko FX-888 soldering iron: www.adafruit.com/products/1204 More Collin's Lab: Breadboards: Collin's Lab: Breadboards & Perfboards Multimeters: Collin's Lab: Multimeters Collin's Lab: Soldering Collin Cunningham #soldering #solder

[@SherryNouraini]

Ben Shamsian

[@peterlake9448]

I had no idea there was more Collin's Lab, I'm so glad I've found these!

[@heidioliviamunksgaard9492]

I have tried to avoid the discipline of soldering, because it seemed so tedious and boring. After watching this video I am online ordering soldering gear. It is incredible how highly motivating Collin' s enthusiasm is on me! More of this please :)

[@RaptorJesus696]

Thanks Collin you taught me how to solder and I just repaired 500$ worth of Camry speedometers soldering in a 3 prong ceramic resistor on them both and it was easy and fun. I had a cold solder joint and I hit it with the iron real fast and it fixed it. My setup was not as nice as yours I used 5$ iron, crap wash solder and some copper wick for desolder. Thank you!!

[@liminal-m3g]

Bravo! It's amazing how Collin combines excellent teaching skills and clear and concise information within such a stylish and well produced video. Thanks!

[@peteroakes9007]

I have never seen a better "how-to" about anything than this one. Clear, great presentation and photography.

[@elitejohnlp]

This is a great video. The colors are vibrant, close-ups amazingly detailed and focused, and his intensity made it seem like he was repairing control systems on a nuclear sub. The detail spoken about can be clearly seen in the examples shown.. I can't wait to show people this video - quite possibly the best made soldering video I've seen yet. Thank you for taking the time to make it!

[@fuhgawz500]

I am so happy Collin's Lab has returned! The original videos were extremely helpful when I first started out in the world of electronics. He has returned with increased production quality and more nerdly awesomeness! Keep it up Collin! You are the host of my all time favorite how to series!

[@williamlawson3617]

This is my first time watching Collin nice work on the video. Thank you for helping us learn. THIS is the true power of the internet. Thank you please keep making videos we love you're personality.

[@supersammy00]

Thanks adafruit for bring back collins lab your the best!!!

[@rastislavpalenik1563]

Hi Collin, I watched this video 5-times and i still love it. Your videos are relaxing, funny and informative. You are the best. :)

[@seyinaike]

Thanks a lot! About to do some soldering on my PS5 controller to fix stick drift. I feel more confident after watching this ❤️

[@ChrisKurtz]

I think this is the one of the best "how to solder" videos I've seen, and includes a good basic tip choice guide, which I really needed. I never understand why most soldering irons sold by Adafrui and Sparkfun come with a round tip that isn't best suited for their likely use, soldering to perfboard.

[@AustinGodber]

That guy cracks me up

[@AustinGodber]

Instructive too.

[@ChrisKurtz]

Yeah, he's amusing!

[@GRBtutorials]

Well, they come with that tip from the manufacturer, it's not the distributor's fault.

[@lytcomm88]

This is by far the best soldering tutorial I have ever seen.

[@43monk]

I love this show! I hope Mr. Cunningham continues to make them.

[@bossysmaxx3327]

woah dude where have you been this whole time, youtube recommends me booties all the time but videos they don't even appear in my search. youtube's a simp

[@brandonbraner]

Finally a video that shows the applying solder part and how to do it. I have been trying to hear the pad and apply the solder to the other side.

[@lstouder]

Great job, Colin! I always enjoy your workshops, even if I think I know how to do it. Keep up the good work.

[@JustinHallPlus]

Possibly the best and most useful Collin's Lab to date.

[@el-domo]

i was a Labor-Tutor at a University and i can say: This video ist super and very correct.

[@CarolGardner60]

Great demo. Detail, Yes! Well paced. Close-ups Yes! Thank you.

[@stemjesus]

One of the best soldering tutorials I've seen

[@theoriginalwirelessmonk]

Thrilled to see more Collin's Lab!

[@ankushkakne9530]

Excellent work sir. You have made so many useful and one of the best videos. Keep the good work going.

[@landongreer]

Yes! Collin is awesome! I love these very basic concept summaries.

[@davidledoux1736]

What a great tutorial! Alton Brown meets MIB. Thanks for the video.

[@MrUKTechReviews]

That was a really useful tutorial. Time to move my soldering to the next level!

[@rmstech9703]

I never knew a soldering video could be so badass.

[@DaveMcAnulty]

My #1 soldering tip, Use eutectic (63/37) blend solder. It costs no more then regular (60/40) and makes producing a cold solder joint almost technically impossible.

[@seda8883]

great detailed and thorough video collin

[@theshadowman1398]

Agent Smith how much wattage iron is best to buy ? Regards

[@wolfrobots118]

I love everything Adafruit.!!!

[@_windows_software_wizard_2136]

i saw this vid 2 years ago and it stil intreags me today i just wish they stil did collins lab vids hees awsome

[@SamReynolds]

Collin's Lab is the Best!

[@nickrowan]

4:10 For metric people - 650°F is just under 350°C and 750°F is just under 400°C

[@rajibalam9748]

That was great, Collin. 👏🏼 Thank you so much.

[@zzScopoProductionszz]

Awesome tutorial! Got yourself a new sub! Very much appreciated

[@insidiousfleen356]

+1 for Collin Cunningham

[@Tahnvalas]

Awesome video Collin! Keep 'em comin'!

[@morelenmir]

An absolutely *excellent* video--clear, concise and brilliantly presented. I was especially pleased to see that no emphasis was given to using external flux. This is a practise I have come to believe is actually counter productive and when using even moderate quality solder is completely unnecessary. The only issue I would raise is that as an example of an appropriate quality tool you highlight a Hakko 888 station. No doubt this is indeed of high quality but it is also *extremely* expensive and likely out of reach to beginners or even long-term hobbyists such as myself. Again--nothing wrong with showing the Hakko iron, but also give an example of a more sanely priced tool as well for those of us who can't afford £120 or even £60 for that matter! For instance the entry-level example given in the description is pretty good and could well have done with an appearance in the video itself, as could one of the reasonably priced but still decent quality Chinese stations. I know professionals in electronics who never used anything but a directly mains-powered, thermally balanced iron through their entire life. Otherwise a great presentation. I just wish Colin had his own channel!

[@emilybendsspace]

I'd argue that for anyone who is looking to do electronics at today's scale, including surface mount components, Hakko's FX888 is about as cheap as you'd want to go, and an excellent choice no one will regret. It's about $100-$110, which I would not call extremely expensive. The cost is comparable to that of any decent power tool, like say a Makita 18V drill. Hakko has $2500 soldering irons for people who do this for a living. The soldering iron is your main tool as an electronics hobbyist, cheaping out on it will affect absolutely everything you build or repair. Trying to do everything with a single 25W mains-plug iron is, IMO, a mistake of false economy; you'll lose the difference in cost over your first couple of weeks, as ruined boards and components, wasted solder, and by spending 5 times as much time fixing and debugging your bodge jobs than if you had a good tool. When I was a kid, I could get by with one 25W Radio Shack pencil iron too, but those were the days of discrete, through-hole components only. I can't say that I'd want to use that today on something like a microcontroller or TSOP IC. And on that note, a lot of people are going to find out pretty quickly that they need a hot air station too; soldering is not just for irons any more!

[@0h2ezy]

Again, wonderfully done!

[@lordblack998]

this is really helpful because I'm doing electronics in high school

[@KulbirAhluwalia]

So much info. So easily said. Awesome video!

[@kf7tkj]

Love Collins lab!!!! More Please!

[@CigaretteTricks]

Can't miss that McMaster catalog. Love McMaster Carr.

[@stryk187]

+Jesse Leonard Those catalogs are like a mail-order treasure hunt. They won't even send you one willy-nilly, NOOOO, you have to ascend to the customer level worthy of being bestowed such a gift. I remember Will and Norm from tested.com and Adam Savage from Mythbusters talking about it on their podcast a long time ago as well.

[@giannislymperopoylos5574]

you make exceptional videos and complete to the tiniest ...finest detail....the most interesting thing though is that you are.....''seriously'' funny something very difficult and very rare.....cr7 bless you...!!!

[@SaiSurya300576]

Thank you! awesome presentation!

[@liamp2648]

Collin is back! Yay!

[@incognitoanonymous3739]

Waw, this was just perfect. In addition, the Matrix.

[@sunilkhandagale9966]

👍Nice deeply info abt soldering technique

[@signalscout6020]

Any of the pros watching have a guess at the width of that screwdriver tip or a recommendation for a tip for a newbie to do some through-hole projects? My new hakko station came with a conical tip.

[@alecclews]

We used this at #shemakes Melbourne yesterday and it was great. No one needed a real human to show them. Great video, saved a lot of time.

[@OysterPir8]

I frigging love these videos.

[@linohidalgo818]

☝🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👌🏽 The most concise and useful video I’ve seen in regards to soldering.. Am I the only person that thought this video had some discreet humor which I found to be hilarious 🤔🤣 Stay classy my friend, I appreciate the educational video

[@wolfrobots118]

that was a very well made video....nice!

[@edvinass3804]

What is he using to hold the pcb board?

[@rwh777]

How steady do your hands need to be in order to do this well? I'm a bit shaky. Should I give up or do you have any suggestions that might help?

[@thomasalexander1563]

Again Simple and amazing cotent.. Thank you..

[@TRaddcliff]

what is the joint is smooth, convex but matte....not shiny. is that a bad solder? your vids are great...helpful!

[@blackbeard0074]

What kind of iron do you have 15 watt or higher but a link would be great

[@Oshbotscom]

I DEMAND MORE COLLINS LAB! \o/

[@MidnightRambler1964]

Interesting video!! Great info labeled clearly,

[@smithperks3313]

Best so far

[@HellRiderSpirit]

This helped a lot, thanks!

[@rlljr103082]

Short n simple, nice.

[@Gabriel-yw8lk]

What lead solder do you use? Any other good lead solder?

[@MacRutan]

This as a great video with perfect pace and presentation. Nice work! Cool tunes as well, I bet they're from someone in house at Adafruit, are they?

[@quenjankosky7348]

Thanks, I need to learn this.

[@imanbarron3703]

Thankyou I learn a lot

[@db7271]

I like your style great vid glad to see this topic

[@thespritman4052]

This guys the reason I got a soldering iron

[@zachsofai5458]

what was the thing at the end

[@diredesire]

It should be noted that lead-free solders don't generally have the same shiny finish even on good joints. Those using lead-free solders should not be alarmed if your end joints look a little dull. The technique here isn't really great, either. It's fine for an introduction video, so I'm not going to criticize, but this technique (wetting the iron and then wicking to the joint) relies a lot on the flux in the core. Old solder (it has an expiration date!) may have some wetting issues. It's ok to pre-tin the tip and then contact both points of the circuit, and then apply the solder to the opposite side of the iron. There are also standalone flux applicators (dry/paste or liquid/pens/syringes). This will make your life easier, and it should be considered an essential tool.

[@electronash]

And yep - extra flux is definitely recommended, but probably not necessary for a lot of basic through-hole soldering, as long as you use a decent solder with multi-core flux to begin with. But, added flux is pretty much a MUST for a lot of surface-mount stuff, especially when doing drag-soldering on chips with many fine pins. I use often use extra flux for making things like the solder joints on small 0603 / 0402 sized components a lot neater. Many of the cheaper "stripboard" or "matrix boards" with bare copper tend to oxidise too easily as well. You can buy the nice pre-tinned proto boards really cheaply now, so luckily the bare copper boards are a thing of the past for newer prototypes. hehe I find lead-free solder to be OK to work with, as it's used in practically everything these days. It does tend to look slightly dull in comparsion to lead solder, but it doesn't take long to get used to using it. You do need a fairly decent soldering station with a good thermal capacity for lead-free really (due to the higher temps required). Thermal capacity of a soldering iron / station is NOT the same thing as it's rated wattage though. The cheapo irons you often see (usually with the giant screw that holds the tip in. lol) can get way too hot when just sitting "idle", and can have that charred / oxidised look in a very short time. They might claim to be "60 Watts" or "100 Watts", but that doesn't mean they have any kind of temperature control, nor have decent thermal capacity when soldering larger components / PCB planes / heatsinks.

[@KJ7JHN]

Collin, what was the name of your laser game console? It had inter changeable color wheels, and was implemented on some arcade games. Thanks.

[@n8than26]

You have no idea how many time i watch soldering video just to prepare my first time soldering my broken mechanical keyboard

[@anup05ful]

Thanks for interesting videos BRO.

[@CSO3DOnline]

really nice video!

[@madchow1317]

The MiniPOV4 looks cool, when is it going to be available???

[@6lu5ky86]

Thanks Collin! 🖖

[@Mohammadalhashash]

What a great video !

[@batzorogeo]

Thank you very much. Great video.

[@tim8602]

Best video on soldering ever!

[@CarputingYT]

this is such a good video

[@Roflmane]

can someone tell me what kit he is using at the very end for the long exposure?

[@AndrewStottisTheIndiWerWlf]

I think its this one www.adafruit.com/products/20

[@GustaveMichel]

New Collin's Lab!!!!!

[@thespritman4052]

MAKES SOLDERING SIMPLE AND FUN !

[@madmac66]

Yeah about that whole 2 seconds thing...it usually takes me way longer than that to melt the solder and make a join. Why? I have a Weber 25w iron. Is it just too weak, for even the most small thin wire

[@nikolam9126]

how do I make my own board

[@Mustachioed_Mollusk]

Did this guy work on the show Severance?

[@whitenorthstar]

I swear!...hes in "The Matrix"!

[@Dagoth_Ur_1]

"Mr anderson"

[@richardmoeller5351]

Pfft he IS the Matrix.

[@iyeetsecurity922]

He sounds more like the narrator from Twilight Zone.

[@THECIBOR009]

Me sorder

[@azimrashed93]

Well tutorial. Thanks

[@mbchannelworld]

Collin, is that a cyberoptics Tie?

[@iandouglas451]

very helpful - thank you

[@eliasskuli9845]

omg im sobose to make the sponge wet ive been using it dry

[@powertran6755]

perfect stuff. thanks

[@electronicsvlog1574]

Fan of your videos