Too many people don't bother to learn and practice proper soldering technique. They think you have to heat everything red hot, or they melt the solder and drip it on to the joint. If you keep the tip clean and properly tinned, it only takes a few seconds to heat up the joint and apply the solder to the joint (NOT the iron). Use of a flux core solder or flux paste is mandatory. Proper tip size is also required: A small pointed tip for delicate work and a broad, flat tip for larger pieces. I had no problems soldering 16 gauge ground wire to the brass ground plate of the 5F6A clone using a 40 watt iron and heavy, wide chisel tip. Same iron with a smaller chisel works great for soldering to the back of a pot. Proper solder choice is important. Stay away form the lead free ROHS certified solder if at all possible. It is junk. On the other hand, the luthier that I have been helping part time uses silver solder on his guitars which I find to be overkill. 60/40 tin/lead rosin core solder is all you really need.

Here is a photo of the PCB from my Chamion 600. I have done many mods to it (converted it to a 5F1 circuit) and experiemented with different value coupling and bypass caps. All using the 25 watt Weller. No problem with traces lifting with proper technique.

_________________
Bill

Thanks Bill those are great pics. You can tell a craftsman by the cleanliness and neatness of the wiring and your stuff looks impeccable.

Yeah it's true experience and good technique are the important things. A lot of people don't keep the tip of the iron in good condition and then soldering is useless 'cos you can't get the solder to flow.

I recently changed the tip on that Weller iron, tinned it straight away as soon as i fitted it and it works well. It's a good iron, however my technique will be nowhere near as good as yours i wouldn't think.

Have you ever built any of Tube Depot's kits? they look really good as well. The guy that runs it Rob Hull is a very good amp builder. I watched some videos of him building a couple of amps up. Really interesting stuff they do as well.

_________________
Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

Thanks.

I find that the Weber kits have the most bang for your buck. All of the parts are high quality (except the phono plugs used for speaker connectors in the 5F6A kit were crap as I noted in my thread) and teh prices are less than equivalent kits from other sellers. They do not include instructions (only a schematic and wiring diagram) like some kits, so some amp knowledge is required.

_________________
Bill

I'd like a temp-controlled one.
Having said that, I grew up on using a non-adjustable type except for when I was doing some intricate work for my employer.

But I've been soldering for many many years!

_________________
-T

"You can't spend what you ain't got, you can't lose what you ain't never had" ~ McKinley Morganfield

Well i started to replace those caps with my Weller and i lifted a solder tab drat drat and double drat! Caps that were in were so hard to remove. Used a solder sucker and desoldering braid to get rid of all the excess solder to get it out. Put the first new cap in soldered first side in and then noticed the tab was gone from the other side.

Don't know what to do now. I think you can use one of those pens to dispense an electro-trace but i don't know if they're any good or not.

So i'll have to listen and see what the good folks on here advise. I bet this is the reason a lot of guys end up rebuilding their board and make it point to point wiring instead.

Hey looking on the bright side! and every cloud having a silver lining and all that; now that the chassis is permanently outside the amp i've got plenty of time to study all the wiring intricacies

_________________
Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

Here is a good article on how to make some repairs.

http://home.comcast.net/~machrone/bjr/mistakes.htm

Arc

_________________
...I for one, sure would appreciate the return of intelligent conversation, spirit of assistance and the simple yet effective ignoring of those who can't seem to hang with that...
Best regards,
rob

Thanks for the link Arc, i like your light

_________________
Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

That's a good article. The link you provided is from BillM's old site. Here is the new site link:

http://billmaudio.com/wp/?page_id=204

_________________
Bill

After removing as much solder as I can, I use a dental pick-like tool to grab under the lead and pull straight up while heating things. The lead will then straighten itself as it comes through the hole.

_________________
Bill

I think what happened was i removed as much solder with the sucker and braid as i could but there was a bit left still on the lead and i pulled the old cap out. I think that's how the pad came off.

Anyway the traces are all fine here, they're perfect, it's just on the one side there's no pad to solder to. I don't know whether the ideas in the link would work as there's no damage to the traces, simply missing the solder pad on one side.

On these Marshall's the traces are silver foil type stuff. Is that copper foil?

_________________
Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

Ah, see, I always pull the component out while applying heat to the lead. That way any solder on the lead melts, but there is no direct heat applied to the pad.

_________________
Bill

Can you show us a picture of what you are talking about? I think I'm not getting what went wrong here. Sorry.

_________________
...I for one, sure would appreciate the return of intelligent conversation, spirit of assistance and the simple yet effective ignoring of those who can't seem to hang with that...
Best regards,
rob

Excellent suggestion.

_________________
Bill

I'll try to post a pic tomorrow as it's 1.34 am here Basically you have your traces and at the end of the trace is your solder pad which connects to the next stage in your circuit, wherever that is. Anyway when i removed a coupling cap, either through too much heat or there still being a bit of solder on the lead and me pulling it out took the solder pad out so there is nowhere to solder that lead to.

I think what i'll do is scrape away a centimetre of the silver foil covering the trace and solder the lead directly on there as i can't be bothered buying that pen thing.

You have to be really delicate when you're removing these caps and resistors or it can cause a lot of headaches. Basically when the pad's gone it's gone and i think you have to find a workaround.

_________________
Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

A couple of weeks ago I bought a 0-80W soldering iron at Princess auto for only $20 and it works every bit as well as a top shelf model-so far,but even if it only lasts for a year or two, for that price-who cares.

_________________
'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.