Well my old solder gun broke, so I just bought a new one today. I started soldering some wires together....the gun was plugged in for about an hour and I had the trigger down for maybe a total of 20 mins, when it started to smoke. I turned the gun off right away to let it cool.

I'm wondering if everyone else's solder gun does the same thing, or do I have to return this one?

Also....the gun came with solder paste....but what the **** am I supposed to do with it?

Thanks for the help

 

Hmmmmm....I assume it's not supposed to smoke. But does anyone know what the paste is for?

 

The gun might smoke if you got something on it that is burning off. But otherwise, smoking electrical appliances are not good!

The paste is also known as flux. You coat the areas where you want to apply solder, in order to make the solder flow better. This makes a hotter, stronger bond, that is less brittle (bright mirror silver looking soldered areas = strong = 'hot' joints, instead of dull silver/aluminum/galvanized looking solder areas = weak = 'cold' joints). You don't need to use a lot of paste.

It is posionous, just like the lead solder, so use a brush to apply it, or dip the ends of the wires/leads you are soldering into it and work it around. Also wash your hands afterward, and as with lubricants, don't smoke until you wash your hands, or wear some cheap surgical gloves for the dirty work.


This is probably a good time to mention that if you can avoid touching the parts where you will apply solder with your fingers, it will make a better joint. Your skin oil messes it up. Flux helps prepare the surfaces. A trick I learned way back, was don't touch component leads (ever), and when stripping wires, make the cut in the insulation, but only remove the insulation 1/2 way. Then grab the end of the insulation with your fingers, and twist it while pulling it the rest of the way off the end of the wire (multi strand wire). This leaves a nicely twisted wire with no skin oils.

Also, you will do better if if you 'tin' the wires/leads individually before connecting them, by applying some solder to them. This allows the solder to get into/onto the entire surface of the wire/lead, and makes the actual bonding together of parts occur faster. This results in a hotter joint, with less total heat applied. If the insulation melts back at all when you solder, you are using too much heat to make the joint. This weakens the wire/lead where it enters the solder joint (good joint, but the wire just breaks at the joint ).

Why should you care? Because bad solder joints not only break and leave you stranded, they increase the electrical resistance of the wire. And that can cause all kinds of problems in sensitive electronic circuits.

Hope this helps!

 

A new gun will smoke no matter what. No big deal. Leave it plugged in for days on end you'll be straight.