Naptime DIY: solder wires together for simple electronic fixes

Before I did my first soldering project I thought that kind of work was difficult and dangerous.  It started with a remote control that simply had a wire that had become disconnected.  I knew duct tape was too big and clunky to do the trick and also knew that I didn’t have a soldering tool.  While it can be difficult and dangerous to use; soldering wires together has a learning curve and isn’t so bad once you practice with it.

Truth be told, I tried to solder something many years ago but go frustrated when the two pieces of metal wouldn’t blend.  Soldering is not the same at metal work I learned that day.  If you have an electrical wire that’s come loose then soldering that rascally fella back into place is exactly what you need to do.

Our most recent soldering project was an accident. One of More Mojo’s favorite toys, a small boom box that plays four nursery rhymes had stopped playing music.  He loved that toy.  I wasn’t too fond of it because it didn’t have a volume switch and always played things loud.  I know, our child is only 15 months and I’m already saying that he’s playing the music too loud.

It was a cheap toy so I was going to throw it away.  As most of it was plastic I took it apart to recycle the plastic bits.  Once I had it open I saw that the reason it wasn’t playing music was simply that a wire had become separated from the board.

This is the perfect opportunity to use the soldering gun. I turned the gun on, touched the metal surface that the wire was once attached to, brought in the wire to the superheated surface met the gun and let the liquid metal do its thing.   After a couple of drops the wire was once again connected to the board that would allow my child’s piano song boom box to loudly entertain everyone.

It was an easy fix that made More Mojo happy when he came down to discover it was working.  And, even though I’m not a fan of the toy, it made me happy too knowing that I’d fixed something he liked.

Here is the eHow description: http://www.ehow.com/how_4487788_solder-wire-together.html

It feels weird to say or type soldering gun.  Phonetically you’ll call it “saudering”, just so you look a bit more legit when you ask for one at your local hardware store.  It’s not a tool that you’ll use every day, but it’s more than paid for itself with the two fixes we’ve done recently.

As a stay at home dad I miss having the spare time to fix things. Even though the children are my full time job, things still break or need a fix in the house. Sometimes the repair will be something that I can easily complete and other times it’s a repair that I simply should pay to have done.  Regardless, I’ll write it up here in hopes that you may be able to gauge what you can do and when you need to call in for help. The series is called, Naptime DIY because the tasks are hopefully accomplished in 60 minutes, which is a good naptime period.  In this case it’s a simple fix, just be very careful as the instrument is H-O-T hot.