• Welcome to the soldering free learning unit!
• Soldering is a fantastic tool used by everyone to create intricate inventions.
• Soldering is commonly used to either repair and or make new circuits for whatever electronic mechanism you can think of. Specifically:
• Soldering is the act of fusing two electrical components (wires, circuit boards, electromagnets, etc.) together to complete a circuit.
• A good example of this would be soldering wires from a power supply to a light bulb to make it turn on.
• The image below shows someone in the act of soldering:

• Soldering irons use electrical resistance to generate heat...lots of HEAT.
• If you are not careful, you can easily burn yourself.
• If you are silly, you can burn others, causing pain, blindness and horrible scars.

• BEFORE DOING ANYTHING ELSE, SPEND A FEW MINUTES THINKING ABOUT SOLDERING AND HOW YOU CAN STAY SAFE.
• THEN APPROACH YOUR TEACHER AND EXPLAIN YOUR THOUGHTS TO THEM.

• The basic tools you need to solder things are:
1. Soldering Iron
2. Solder (the metal you use to solder things together)
3. Electrical components (wires, circuit boards, electromagnets, etc.)
• Extra Stuff recommended to buy or use as you improve:
1. Heat shrink tubing
2. Pliers
3. Soldering Iron Stand
4. Wooden board
5. Sponge for cleaning the soldering iron
6. Wire Strippers
• Almost all of these items are available in C108 for you to use, with permission.
• Take a little time to use Google Images to identify any of these items you are not familiar with.

• Start by watching this video to get a good idea of what soldering is and what it looks like in motion:

• Now read through the following case study of a practical soldering fix:
• Identify the problem/point of soldering - In this case, the point of soldering is the blackened out part of this electrical contact circled in red in the picture below. We can see that this is a problem because this contact should look similar to the one below that is attached to the yellow wire. A problem like this where there is excess solder on the contact can lead to short circuits which will create a lot of unnecessary heat as well as a very inefficient circuit. Or if it’s the worst case scenario, the circuit just won’t work.

• This tool is called a wire stripper and is very useful for removing the insulation off wires. Without something like this, the process of removing insulation can be quite frustrating when substitutes such as pliers are used. (If you can’t get one of these, be sure to practice stripping wires with pliers before you begin on a project!):

• Action Plan - Now that we have identified the problem, it would be wise to form a plan on what tools you will need and what you have to do to ensure a stable connection between the two electrical components. In this case, the plan would be to clean up the blackened contact that has excess solder on it. Then proceed to solder on the wire of your choice.
  

• As you can see in the picture above, the contact has been cleaned and the wire is loosely resting on the contact. The contact was cleaned through resting a hot soldering iron on the dirty contact until the excess solder melted. After the clump was melted, the solder gradually attached itself to the iron which allowed it to be brushed off onto a sponge (This can take a long time with multiple attempts at brushing the solder away).
• Soldering - As a rule of thumb, you must always try and find a way to decrease the risk of burns and the components falling apart from each other due to any forces acting upon them. As an example look at the image below:

• To stop the motor from rolling around, the two prongs of a set of pliers were placed on either side of the motor.
• Actions like this allow you to have more space to use your hands for something more important like holding the solder and the soldering iron.

• The best way to learn about soldering is to practice...lot's.
• Take some time now to do the following:
• Ask your teacher for some spare wires from the electronic waste recycling collection.
• Take four wires of roughly the same thickness
• For each of your four wires:
• Strip around 5mm off one end.
• Cut the other end cleanly
• Now practice soldering two of the wires together, striped end to striped end.
• Once you have done it with one pair, do it again, but the second time finish the job by applying heat shrink tubing over the soldered area.
• Take photos of your tools and your work as it progresses.

• As evidence of your learning do the following:
• Create a Google Doc with a title and your name as author.
• Write a short introduction that explains what solder is.
• Add some photos of your soldering work
• Write a brief comment about the main things you learned in this unit.
• Submit your completed work as evidence of your learning.