Greetings.
Some thoughts on the comments regarding soldering and mechanical connections. There are 2 schools of thought.
One says that a good mechanical joint will keep the component in place and not allow a short circuit to occour if the joint fails and the component is free to move about. The aircraft manufacturers/RAF tend to follow this line of reasoning which is fair enough as the reasoning makes sense. The big problem is that it can hide the dreaded 'dry joint'. A component may look soldered but inside there is an unreliable connection, but it will not fall off.
The other school of thought is just the opposite, when I worked for the London Underground Signals and Telegraph Dept, mechanical joints were banned. The danger of an unreliable mechanical joint in signaling systems just cannot be tollerated, so all joints were soldered only. The terminal was tinned and the wire was tinned, the wire was laid on to the terminal and the two parts were soldered together. Each joint was inspected by an inspector, pulled to see that it didnt move and them marked with a dye to show that it had been inspected and deemed fit for service. Neither were you allowed to use sleeving over a joint because it could hide a broken wire.
As far as our hobby is concerned we are not going to cause major incidents if our soldering fails but we might well loose our boats/money and time invested etc. Soldering is not a black art it simply requires that you understand how it works and the correct method of applying the iron and the solder to the work.
Basicly, both parts have to be clean, both parts have to be tinned then brought together, the iron applied to the joint firmly and solder fed in untill a clean joint is formed, remove the solder, remove the iron and a good joint will be formed.
I am interested to hear your comments.
Peter.