Lpc2000

> This one is expensive, but if you go to a sewing shop or a hobby shop
> you should be able to find one much cheaper.  The next thing you need
> is a fine soldering tip, hoof tips are not necessary.  

No offence intended but the reason why we use concave tips is precisely to avoid 
the following...

> Its easy now, just put a tiny bit of solder on your iron and run it
> along the a row of pins.  Dont worry about bridging.  You will see the
> the solder will follow your iron up and down the pins, gently coating
> the pins with solder, its like magic.  If the solder is not following
> your iron, you need more flux; throw some on.  Until you learn how
> much solder to put on your iron, you are going to have too much and
> you are going to have pins bridged.  Relax, its no big deal.  Just
> clean your iron, add more flux if you need it and run the tip up and
> down the row again.  Repeat this, clean and run step, a couple times
> and you will have picked up the excess solder.  Now, to fix the
> bridges, just gently swipe the pins quickly with the iron in an
> outward motion, away from the package.  Start at the package and move
> to the tips of the pins.  Dont run the iron up and down the pins like
> before, the motion you want is perpendicular to that.  Now, it should
> only take a couple times to remove the bridges.  If its not working,
> you still have too much solder.  Clean your iron, add flux and get rid
> of some solder like described earlier.
> 

Repeatedly re-heating the joint to do clean up tasks alters the alloy mix and 
creates embrittlement in the joint which later may lead to joint failure.  The 
concave tip is a single pass process, no solder clean-up, no reheating. General 
rule is to hit it once & that's it, don't be tempted to go back over it again 
The joints may look prettier but will in all likelihood be far weaker.

Generally any tip which has thermal mass greater than the joint will attract 
solder away from the joint leaving an optimal fillet, some people prefer flat 
blades which cover a few pins at a time e.g. is heating a new pin while drawing 
across middle pins and snapping the fillet away from the trailing pin.


-- 
Cheers

Don