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Anyone in (East) London handy with a soldering iron? (Also, wireless soldering iron opinions?) - SOLVED

Den - aka Wolfgang

Den - aka Wolfgang

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5Years
Joined
Oct 22, 2019
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Location
London (U.K)
Evening all, so a couple of weeks back I had an issue with the right sling shot on my machine not firing when the ball touched it.
Turns out I just needed to replace the little diode and all was fine, despite thinking I'd done a cack-handed job.
Well after hours of play at the weekend at our house party, turns out my work was actually crap, as the connection(s) have come loose again.
Is there anyone who's good with a soldering iron in East on here who could help me do it properly? ; can offer beers/tea/coffee and pizza (or any take away of your choice).
I'll be putting the machine up for sale later this year and so obviously want to make sure it's sorted properly.

Despite my soldering skills being crap, I don't think the cheap soldering I bought helped much. What's everyone's opinion on cordless soldering irons?
The only place to work on my machine is in our open plan kitchen/living room and it was a ball ache already trying to solder when gravity is working against me, let alone with a chord getting in the way.
I don't like the idea of a butain one, as sounds like a fire hazard and so was thinking of a rechargeable one?

Thanks all
 
Den - aka Wolfgang said:
Evening all, so a couple of weeks back I had an issue with the right sling shot on my machine not firing when the ball touched it.
Turns out I just needed to replace the little diode and all was fine, despite thinking I'd done a cack-handed job.
Well after hours of play at the weekend at our house party, turns out my work was actually crap, as the connection(s) have come loose again.
Is there anyone who's good with a soldering iron in East on here who could help me do it properly? ; can offer beers/tea/coffee and pizza (or any take away of your choice).
I'll be putting the machine up for sale later this year and so obviously want to make sure it's sorted properly.

Despite my soldering skills being crap, I don't think the cheap soldering I bought helped much. What's everyone's opinion on cordless soldering irons?
The only place to work on my machine is in our open plan kitchen/living room and it was a ball ache already trying to solder when gravity is working against me, let alone with a chord getting in the way.
I don't like the idea of a butain one, as sounds like a fire hazard and so was thinking of a rechargeable one?

Thanks all
Click to expand...
Hi,
Soldering isn't difficult, but does take some practice to feel confident..
I would think any iron will do the job tbh... I understand cordless would be a little easier, but if you have corded I'd stick with that.
I prefer leaded multicore solder - and would urge you to grab some bits of wire - a comfortable position - and solder a dozen pieces of wire together.
This will allow you to understand the need to heat both pieces to be joined easily - and then feeding in solder to effect a good joint.
If you can - put the diode in place and wrap the leads so that they hold in place without solder - then a simple heat and feed solder into the junction should take seconds and last years...
I realise I've been soldering for nearly 50 years, so it seems second nature - but it's a good skill to have - and anyone is able to learn imo.
Hope this helps!
 
Phil Lee said:
Hi,
Soldering isn't difficult, but does take some practice to feel confident..
I would think any iron will do the job tbh... I understand cordless would be a little easier, but if you have corded I'd stick with that.
I prefer leaded multicore solder - and would urge you to grab some bits of wire - a comfortable position - and solder a dozen pieces of wire together.
This will allow you to understand the need to heat both pieces to be joined easily - and then feeding in solder to effect a good joint.
If you can - put the diode in place and wrap the leads so that they hold in place without solder - then a simple heat and feed solder into the junction should take seconds and last years...
I realise I've been soldering for nearly 50 years, so it seems second nature - but it's a good skill to have - and anyone is able to learn imo.
Hope this helps!
Click to expand...
Cheers for the advice Lee 👍🏻- much appreciated. When it did it before, it wasn't possible to get the diode in to a position when it was held in place without solder, but I'll see what I can do.
That's good advice putting in some time practicing - I thibk the solder I have is either low lead or lead free IIRC.
 
Practice is key, and is where I'd start.. If still proving tricky it may be worth getting a different solder.. I bought some cheaper stuff recently (lead free) and it made everything much more difficult!
I just popped to workshop to check brands - and all my rolls are so ancient the labels are worn off! However they were from RS and definitely not lead free.. i have had some lead free that worked ok - but never had leaded that didn't work, if that makes sense. Flux can also help - but not really critical in this case..
I'm sure with half an hour practice, you'll be good! Best of...
 
didnt have much luck when i was looking for a cordless iron.

Unless you spend big bucks they seem to be a waste of time.

I tried the dremmel one for about 60 quid and was absolute garbage, Theres so much heat that blasts out the sides of it, it melts anything nearby.

Theres nothing more frustrating than trying to solder with a ****ty iron. Spent years wondering why i was struggling so much until i finally stumped up the money for a corded HAKO. All of a sudden my PCB soldering was great! fancy that.

So moral like with any tools, just get the best you can afford. When it comes to soldering, for £150 a corded HAKO is one of the best things you can do for yourself.

maybe one of the pro cordless ones will work OK for working in the machine, but i suspect your going to be paying £200-300+ for one that actually works properly??
 
If you are soldering coil lugs you need a decent amount of heat - eg 60w iron (i have a big nasty 100w one that will do the job in about a second)

biggest problem is not enough heat causing a dry joint that will break quickly.

forget cordless. they’re all ****e. spend £15 on a mains extension reel so you can get power to where you need it.
 
drhex said:
Ersa independent works well, also for heat shrinking etc. Where in East London are you?
Click to expand...
I'm in Upton Park (no, I'm not a West Ham fan...😀)

I think my biggest obsticals are;

Trying to hold the diode or wire in place, whilst holding solder and a soldering iron - I've just been looking on Amazon at those third hand tools; that might solve the problem for me as far as holding the diode in place for me to solder.

Gravity - risk of solder dropping down as I'm soldering before it takes to the other metal (last time, I put a cloth down to catch any solder dropping down, but it was a ball ache never the less)
 
Are you German perchance? Very Easy, but am sure we can sort something if you don’t manage. Switch should have a hole in the tab you can put the leads through so they don’t drop off. Then tin the whole thing.
Good tools always help, buy a Weller or Ersa, you won’t regret it. Gas ones from these companies work fine.
 
Den - aka Wolfgang said:
Evening all, so a couple of weeks back I had an issue with the right sling shot on my machine not firing when the ball touched it.
Turns out I just needed to replace the little diode and all was fine, despite thinking I'd done a cack-handed job.
Well after hours of play at the weekend at our house party, turns out my work was actually crap, as the connection(s) have come loose again.
Is there anyone who's good with a soldering iron in East on here who could help me do it properly? ; can offer beers/tea/coffee and pizza (or any take away of your choice).
I'll be putting the machine up for sale later this year and so obviously want to make sure it's sorted properly.

Despite my soldering skills being crap, I don't think the cheap soldering I bought helped much. What's everyone's opinion on cordless soldering irons?
The only place to work on my machine is in our open plan kitchen/living room and it was a ball ache already trying to solder when gravity is working against me, let alone with a chord getting in the way.
I don't like the idea of a butain one, as sounds like a fire hazard and so was thinking of a rechargeable one?

Thanks all
Click to expand...
Can you unscrew the part you want to solder? That would make some of the problems less acute.

I have used a soldering iron (with lead-mix solder) and can make very ugly joints that haven’t (cross fingers) come loose yet and am in SE London, about half an hour away from West Ham on the DLR. I probably can’t do anything for a fortnight due to a work trip, but let me know if that would be useful.
 
diodes on coils : wrap the wires around the lugs - then it stays in place. same for diodes on switches (may even have a lug hole to poke the wire through)

Wires: strip insulation to reveal enough wire to wrap around the lug. or put through the lug hole if there is one. again no need to hold it in place it should stay there on its own.

a tricky one is where you have three wires onto a single coil lug. in this case, bind all 3 wires together by wrapping a thin strand of bare wire around all three, then do the same to strap the whole bundle to the lug, it will stay in place ready to be soldered.
 
drhex said:
Are you German perchance? Very Easy, but am sure we can sort something if you don’t manage. Switch should have a hole in the tab you can put the leads through so they don’t drop off. Then tin the whole thing.
Good tools always help, buy a Weller or Ersa, you won’t regret it. Gas ones from these companies work fine.
Click to expand...
I'm actually kind of half German:) (Born and bred in East London/Essex - English dad, German Mum:) - my wife is German though!,,,

When I get time to lift the playfield again I'll defo look in to yourself and other's suggestions of wrapping the legs of teh diode round first to hold in place before soldering. I think this will work for the diodo, although I can't remember if the (pale brown?) wire which also connects is long enough to reach to wrap around.
Thanks for the tip on the Weller or Ersa - the way I look at it, is I doubt this will be the last time I need to solder something, so can't hurt investing in a S Iron which is at least above the level of the current low budget one I have.
 
Last edited:
VeeMonroe said:
Can you unscrew the part you want to solder? That would make some of the problems less acute.

I have used a soldering iron (with lead-mix solder) and can make very ugly joints that haven’t (cross fingers) come loose yet and am in SE London, about half an hour away from West Ham on the DLR. I probably can’t do anything for a fortnight due to a work trip, but let me know if that would be useful.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much - I'll keep you posted.

When i was working on it before, I unscrewed the switch and pulled it out from underneath the PF to have better access to it, but was still awkward, as at least two other wires (green and a pale brown IIRC) are attached to it (the brown came off whilst I was working, but I soldered it back on - that might be what's come off now) , so could only take it out so far.
In an ideal world I'd desolder all the other wires, solder the diode on, on a flat table, when resolder all the other wires back on, but that's my last resort other than getting a professional pinball repairer in to sort it, as I'm worried I'd balls up other wires.
 
Evening all, so I managed to sort out the problem 👍🏻

Some flux and "third hand" clip thing (with arms to hold the slingshot mech in place) arrived at the weekend.
When I lifted the pf, I could see that one arm (?) Of the new diode I'd fitted had come off.
Soldered that back on, but then an odd thing happened; no switch test alert/right sling out of service (great I though!...) but switch not registering in switch test when I press the rubber or the contacts together.
(Sling coil fired in test and switch contacts weren't permanently touching).

At this point I was p'd off and ready to hire a proper tech with to install a new switch, but I thought I'd have one last go.

Lifted the PF, took off the diode, applied some flux and soldered another new one in (think previously I may have soldered one leg of the diode to a wrong lug)
Anyway....all working fine again now 😀

Whilst I was at it, I installed some new flashers here and there and cleaned the mini playfield (ACDC premium) 👍🏻 - so now the machine is 100% and tup top again 😀

Thanks again for everyone's suggestions 👍🏻
 
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