Hello there.
My question may be freak, but I'm really interested in answer.
In my country (I'm from Russia) electronics hobby took roots very long time ago and during Soviet period it was thoroughly supported by government. So there are some traditions (traditional techniques) which were established in last hundred years of electronics hobby in my country.
The thing is my fellow citizen almost never bring solder directly to the wire by hand (or another detail) while tinning. We usually take some solder with the soldering iron tip (not just tin the tip, but actually load tip with necessary amount of solder) and touch with the tip detail that is to be tinned. Then we slightly move tip along the detail, helping solder to flow. The same thing with PCBs: we usually bring solder to the joint with the tip. This method has obvious advantages:
- you don't need "helping hand" device;
- it takes less time as you don't need to heat the detail before applying solder: detail gets warm enough during as you apply solder and move tip along the detail;
- as you don't need to heat detail before making joint, you have less chances to overheat the detail. That may be not very important while soldering wires, but that gets important if you make point-to-point circuitry, which contains semiconductor elements, which can be overheated easily.
So, once I decided to watch YouTube and know how you, western guys, make soldering. I was very surprised to see that technique when solder is applied directly to the joint by hand (or with helping device) is a sort of "orthodox" among electronics hobbyists and professionals.
I've watched about 30 vids about soldering techiques. 28 of them demonstrated "direct applying" technique and only 2 of them taught viewer to bring solder with the tip.
"Direct applying" example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L61LJcz7H6g Look at this man (watch from 6:10). Joint he made is awful! He was trying to heat up the wire for more than a minute. I think it's just fail.
"Loading the tip" example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z8CzB4BYJAWatch from 2:10. Soldering is instant.
So my questions are:
1. Why "direct applying" technique is so popular?
2. Do you ever bring solder to the joint/wire with the tip? Or you always use "direct applying" technique?
I'll be grateful for your answers.
P.S. I've tried "direct applying" technique in my home laboratory and I have to admit it's not bad, but I still don't think it has serious advantages.
P.P.S.
https://cxem.net/beginner/beginner85.php - that's how we usually make soldering. It's in Russian, but I think video is enough. Watch from 16:30.