Psyching myself up to solder

Oh boy, the Pololu motor shield came in! It came in yesterday, actually, and it's smaller than I thought it would be. I'm going to have to learn how to solder now. I mean, I could probably do it ok, but I need to make sure that I don't mess anything up. I want it to be operational as soon as possible.

So with that being said, I've been watching some videos that involve soldering or teach how to solder.

Video 1 - A shield being soldered for Arduino

Video 1 shows the first video that I've watched. It's just a guy soldering stuff. I'm anticipating mine to work a bit differently, though, because I have pins that have inserts for 22 AWG wire at the top. Hmm.

Video 2 - Soldering for beginners

Video 2 gave me some good hints on how to solder. Since I'll be soldering small components on a board, I will have to keep the temperature on the low side (600 degrees Fahrenheit or 315 degrees Celsius).

Steps I've noticed:

1. Clean off connections and soldering iron.
1. A wet sponge can help for cleaning off the iron.
2. Apply some solder to the tip of the iron first.
3. Heat up the metal that you want to solder.
4. Apply solder to the heated metal (and not the iron tip).
1. This is because there is flux in the solder which helps make the connection.
5. Quickly pull up the iron to get that nice bubble look
6. Don't heat the board for too long.

I think I can do this! I'm just somewhat worried about the size of the soldering iron tip. My roommate has an iron, but the tip is quite large. I have an iron too, but it has no way to control temperature. I can find out if the engineering building here has an iron for me to use. 

Video 3 - More soldering!

Ok, by the ending of Video 3, I feel pretty good about the steps. I should practice on some cheaper items first, though. Cool cool. I will tackle this issue tomorrow when I have free time.