I started soldering wires to PD and QPD mounts for OMC.
As of today, I finished the QPDs. Tomorrow I will work on the PDs.
Since the work using the vacuum compatible solder (https://shop.allectra.com/products/315-LF-SOLDER) was very difficult, I will put my note on how to do it as a future reference.
Accoding to the datasheet of the solder, the melting temperature is 225C, which is not so high. In reality, it is very difficult to just melt the solder.
So I cranked up the temperature of the soldering iron to 450C. Since we are only heating up sockets and wires, this was fine.
According to the desing of the OMC PD mounts, I need to solder a wire to the bottom of a socket to hold a PD leg.
The procedure I found is the following:
- Apply the flux on the bottom of the socket.
- Melt the solder with a soldering iron.
- Push the melted solder against the socket.
- After a few second, the solder wets with the surface of the socket.
- Do the same wetting process to the wire.
- In the above process, make sure to put a bit excessive amount of solder on the socket and wire.
- Put the wire very close to the socket.
- With the soldering iron, melt the solder on the wire and socket at the same time then fuse them together.
- Release the iron and let the solder cool down.