I spent 40 years in the electronics industry; 35 of those years as a soldering instructor. I taught soldering classes mainly in the US at our manufacturing plant, but also in Europe, Japan, and Singapore.
I hung out my own shingle as a soldering consultant for a while, that worked OK for a few years. I had some articles published in technical journals for the printed circuit board industry, and I was invited to speak at conferences in Minneapolis, San Jose, and Singapore. But that all dried up.
Along the way I held various positions in a few different companies, from entry-level electronics assembler to Quality Manager. I've attended all of their solder training programs. Without fail, they all focused on the specifications, i.e., what the finished solder joint needs to look like, how much solder, etc., but they didn't teach the "how" part of the soldering equation. The specifications are only one leg of the soldering tripod. You only need three things to make perfect solder joints every time:
1. Clean parts
2. The right amount of heat for the right amount of time
3. The specifications
While the corporate soldering certifications are being done by the big training companies, I figure a layman's hand-soldering handbook is feasible. I'm getting too old to pitch my classes and travel around the country. I have plenty of knowledge and research to produce a book, and I can do that right here at my desk.
My goal was always to enable people with the knowledge, the tools, and the confidence to produce 100% reliable solder joints by hand, every time. There is no magic to this. It is strictly about chemistry and thermal management. The electronics industry produces some unbelievably high quality products these days due to computer aided design and manufacturing automation, but...unlike machines, people can recognize when a change needs to be made to the process in order to be confident of the quality. That is the primary focus of my book.
By the way, my initial soldering certification came from the Naval Air Technical Training Command, Naval Air Station Whidbey Island WA, 1973. "Miniature and Micro-miniature Component Repair." 4 weeks.
After about a year of Avionics schools, I finally landed in the Intermediate Maintenance shop in my squadron, VA-145. This meant I did not work up on the flight deck of the carrier, but in the computer lab; we ran diagnostics on the black boxes and repaired the circuit boards, etc.
My first job was an air data computer that had a defective encoder, with probably 24 wires, maybe 28 ga (small.) I got a soldering iron and replaced the part, and it resembled a fouled up open face fishing reel on steroids, multi-color even. My shop Chief took one look at that and said "Didn't they send you to soldering school?" I had to tell him "No." He called the training guys and had some choice nautical words for them
The following Monday I was in MILSTD Soldering school, LOL.
I hung out my own shingle as a soldering consultant for a while, that worked OK for a few years. I had some articles published in technical journals for the printed circuit board industry, and I was invited to speak at conferences in Minneapolis, San Jose, and Singapore. But that all dried up.
Along the way I held various positions in a few different companies, from entry-level electronics assembler to Quality Manager. I've attended all of their solder training programs. Without fail, they all focused on the specifications, i.e., what the finished solder joint needs to look like, how much solder, etc., but they didn't teach the "how" part of the soldering equation. The specifications are only one leg of the soldering tripod. You only need three things to make perfect solder joints every time:
1. Clean parts
2. The right amount of heat for the right amount of time
3. The specifications
While the corporate soldering certifications are being done by the big training companies, I figure a layman's hand-soldering handbook is feasible. I'm getting too old to pitch my classes and travel around the country. I have plenty of knowledge and research to produce a book, and I can do that right here at my desk.
My goal was always to enable people with the knowledge, the tools, and the confidence to produce 100% reliable solder joints by hand, every time. There is no magic to this. It is strictly about chemistry and thermal management. The electronics industry produces some unbelievably high quality products these days due to computer aided design and manufacturing automation, but...unlike machines, people can recognize when a change needs to be made to the process in order to be confident of the quality. That is the primary focus of my book.
By the way, my initial soldering certification came from the Naval Air Technical Training Command, Naval Air Station Whidbey Island WA, 1973. "Miniature and Micro-miniature Component Repair." 4 weeks.
After about a year of Avionics schools, I finally landed in the Intermediate Maintenance shop in my squadron, VA-145. This meant I did not work up on the flight deck of the carrier, but in the computer lab; we ran diagnostics on the black boxes and repaired the circuit boards, etc.
My first job was an air data computer that had a defective encoder, with probably 24 wires, maybe 28 ga (small.) I got a soldering iron and replaced the part, and it resembled a fouled up open face fishing reel on steroids, multi-color even. My shop Chief took one look at that and said "Didn't they send you to soldering school?" I had to tell him "No." He called the training guys and had some choice nautical words for them
The following Monday I was in MILSTD Soldering school, LOL.
