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SECTION 6:
SOLDERING BASICS
Before you start slinging solder in your kit
or if you have never soldered before, take
a moment to read over this section about
soldering.
When assembling your amp kit, whether
it’s putting components on the eyelet board,
wiring up the tube sockets or connecting
wires to the potentiometers, the rst thing you
want is a good solid mechanical connection.
So for example if you are connecting a wire
to a pin on a tube socket or on the back of
a potentiometer, you do NOT want to set
the wire on the pin or let it oat loosely and
throw a bunch of solder on there. Solder is
not a great conductor, specially some of the
newer lead-free solder, think of it as more of
a semi-conductive glue. So what you want
is a solid physical connection between the
components that you are connecting together.
For example, when soldering to a tube
socket, you would want to create a hook with
the wire or component lead, hook it through
the pin, then use a pair of needle nose pliers
to pinch the hook together around the pin.
Now the wire has a solid connection to the
pin, so even if solder were to fail, in theory
you have the components connected together.
After you have created the mechanical
“bond”, then you can add a little solder to
help solidify the joint.
Working with eyelet boards
When installing components onto the
eyelet boards, you want the component to
lay or sit down onto the board, feeding the
leads into the eyelets and them bending
them underneath the board. Once all the
components are installed on the board and
the connecting wires are attached as well,
then start soldering the joints. After they have
been soldered, be sure to clip the excess leads
that are underneath the boards so that they do
not short against other components.
PRO TIP: There is an exception to laying a
component down on the eyelet board and
that would be when higher wattage resistors
are in the power supply OR if the amplier
is running the power tubes in a cathode
biased conguration. These components
are dropping voltages across them during
operation, which results in excess heat, and
needs to oat a little above the board to
dissipate the heat.
Soldering a Connection
{Connect the components together. Be
sure you have a solid mechanical connection
before you proceed.
{Make sure the tip of the iron is clean.
{Heat the components by touching the tip
of the iron to both components at the same
time. It should take about 2-3 seconds for the
connecting component leads to become hot
enough to ow solder.
{Slowly ow the solder into the connection.
The solder should liquefy and spread over the
connection. If the solder does not melt almost
instantly or if it beads up and falls off, double
check the temperature of your soldering iron
and make sure the tip of the iron is clean.
{Remove the solder from the connection.
{Remove the iron from the connection and
allow the joint to cool. Once it has cooled
you can gently pull the component to test the
connection.
