Applying flux with the hot iron tip will just burn most of it off before you get to the joint, I usually apply flux paste the the joint with a toothpick. And cleaning it off before soldering the joint rather defeats the purpose as the surface will reoxidize pretty much instantly on contact with the air. You want the flux on the joint as the solder and iron are there so the heat activated flux can remove the oxidation and the liquid solder wet the clean joint. But mostly you should be fine with just the flux core in the solder wire itself.
Thanks! I knew I was doing something wrong there :) I was going to use the wicking wire next time to apply but the toothpick is a much better idea. I really appreciate your input and am looking forward to applying it soon!
Yes, I do recommend the PINE64 Pinecil! I have to add that I don't have much experience with soldering irons but I can say it is small (easy to hold), heats up fast, is very configurable (a ton of setting you can change) and is open source so you can update the code. I found it easy to use.
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Applying flux with the hot iron tip will just burn most of it off before you get to the joint, I usually apply flux paste the the joint with a toothpick. And cleaning it off before soldering the joint rather defeats the purpose as the surface will reoxidize pretty much instantly on contact with the air. You want the flux on the joint as the solder and iron are there so the heat activated flux can remove the oxidation and the liquid solder wet the clean joint. But mostly you should be fine with just the flux core in the solder wire itself.
Thanks! I knew I was doing something wrong there :) I was going to use the wicking wire next time to apply but the toothpick is a much better idea. I really appreciate your input and am looking forward to applying it soon!
Would you recommend this?
Yes, I do recommend the PINE64 Pinecil! I have to add that I don't have much experience with soldering irons but I can say it is small (easy to hold), heats up fast, is very configurable (a ton of setting you can change) and is open source so you can update the code. I found it easy to use.