One of the best videos I've seen. Simple, effective & easily learnt. Thanks

Matt I've been on BLF for over a year and just got into modding/reflows mainly. You have really helped me and made it possible with your videos and equipment recommendations. Thank you.

Pasted below is my reply to one of your commenters. He was struggling with the flexibility of wire connections, which I see all the time in the flashlight and drone building communities. I happen to have a bit of professional experience in these areas and thought I might add my two cents. Hope this helps someone.... Here’s my pasted comment I’ve had the same issue, and this is what I have found. This is just my experience and advice but hope it helps. I would be surprised to find aluminum coated copper wire. If tested with acid, even the cheapest plated wires are nickel or tin instead of aluminum. Not even sure how they could plate the wire in aluminum because of the extremely high melting point. And ridiculously expensive/difficult process of plating aluminum. In my opinion, your an issue with breakage, was caused by other properties which all wires are susceptible to. Once wire has been soldered, a bit of solder will creep up under the silicone sleeve Due to capillary action. That’s the exact same issue that causes water to creep into wiring. If you take a 100 foot extension cord and stretch it out… Dip one end in water and wait a few hours… The other end will get wet because the capillary action wicks the water all the way through the cord quickly. Crazy and causes many terrible issues with wiring and automobiles and many industries. Also, even normal heat which is applied during soldering adds a bit of hardness and brittleness to the wire. Most people don’t realize, but copper and other metals can be heat treated and hardened just like steel. The effects are much less noticeable but still cause brittleness. The brittleness doesn’t allow the copper wire to flex, Making it very susceptible to kinks and it loses all of its springy qualities. therefore if bent back-and-forth even just a millimeter or two only once or twice…will break close to the shoulder joint. Even the most expensive “Belden” brand silicone test lead wire is susceptible if used in this manner. And that’s the same wire used in $100-$400 sets of test leads made by companies like fluke, Agilent, and Tektronix. The best way to combat this issue is to use a precision and high enough powered soldering iron, plenty of flux, and solder with a good lead content close to 40%. The faster the joint can be made… Lessens the time the wire is heated. Therefore the heat doesn’t creep up into the wire carrying the solder with it. It is only soldered at the point of connection. Another great thing to do is add a bit of silicone or flexible silastic compound over and around the joints. This is how the all high end industrial circuit boards are manufactured. If you open up any expensive industrial electronics… The board will be covered in conformal coating or a thin layer of epoxy… And the wire joints, transformers, capacitors, and anything that protrudes off the board.... will have silastic or silicone rubber around the base to keep them from moving, flexing, or vibrating. Even the slightest vibration (if constant over several years)… Will cause joints and component legs to break after becoming brittle. A quick note about adhesives and rubbers… be sure not to use regular silicone caulking or other materials. Some of them can cause corrosion on the copper traces on the board. It has to be neutral cure silicone caulking or adhesive, which contains all releases nothing acidic during the curing process. These can be found cheaply at any Walmart or hardware store. Just do a bit of research and figure out which ones are acceptable. there are many electronics forums that will steer you in the right direction of a good and inexpensive product, That is available locally and doesn’t have to be specially ordered. I’m not an electronics guru. so this is just my advice based on my experience. However, I’ve been lucky enough to work on tens of thousands of high-end industrial electronics and space-age test equipment that is crazy cool and interesting. I have an electronics lab, with NIST certified/calibrated equipment. Half my time is spent building guitars and violins, But the other half is spent in the lab repairing and recalibrating industrial electronics and test equipment for clients. I’m sorry to ramble on, but I Hope this helps someone

850º is pretty dang hot. If you start going through tips lower it to 750-775 and use a larger tip. Ive used a weller at work for last 20 plus years. Its not my favorite but its a workhorse. I use a Hakko i was given by a rep friend about 35 years ago and its still cranking! I still use it almost daily at home. One more note id add to your video is if you do fine pitch work the sponge and deionized water is a better choice. The brass is good but is good at coarsely removing debris. A sponge will clean better. If you dont keep your tip on the sponge so long you wont have a problem with it loosing heat. Its bad for the tip anyway because tips are mostly laminated and the thermal shock will begin to separate the tip laminate construction. Proper tip care is everything. I had a Metcal tip I used for 20 plus years and finally the heater went out but the tip was still good. Great intro and good to see someone do it on KZfaq. I thought about it but just never did:)

I don't plan to mod my own flashlights, but as a customer of yours, it is informative to see how you work and it builds confidence in your product. Thanks.

Very helpful! Nice to get instruction from someone who really knows what they're talking about.

I'm in begin to start flashlight modding and this video helped a lot! Thanks!

Hey Matt, I've done the occasional solder work here and there for like 20 years always using flux core solder, but when dealing with tiny parts, like smd stuff, you can't always stick the wire into the joint. Without the flux you don't get a good joint. I just recently picked up a flux pen for electronics. Man that makes the soldering so much nicer. I also recently switched from sponge to brass cleaner like in this video. Not losing the heat really speeds up my work. Great video here.

Excellent job Matt. Thank you. This is probably the best solder tutorial I've seen on KZfaq. I've watched tutorials that were done in three twenty minute long parts and still didn't know what I should do at the end. Thanks very much for sharing. I'm recommending your channel.

Nicely done Matt. Keep it up brother. Thumbs up from me.

Great vid! That answered allot for me.

Thank you for the soldering instructional video. While very descriptive on soldering technics, there was no mention of the ‘elusive’ Brass and or Copper buttons. Please provide the origin of the same, when ever you get time.

This has to be the best video I have seen on soldering so far. Nice work fella and focus is just on the subject at hand. Good day too. V

Thank you!

Good video Matt!

Thanks a lot for your sharing . It will be very useful for me .

Thank you very much.👍💯.

Some great tips..

Very good video.

Best at what your doing

I hope to start modding and this is great reference material. 😁

I use stainless scourers, I also use a solder tip cleaning compound in a tin. Nice vid.

Great vid. Finding proper wire is tough these days. Most silicon flexible has aluminum tinned strands inside. For the short runs in a flashlight I guess it doesn't matter but I'd still prefer the durability of real copper. I did a DIY bluetooth speaker with silicon aluminum wire and I had a wire break off just by bending it back and forth a couple times. The solder was fine but the wire at the base of where it was stripped broke. I use lamp cord now and I can bend that copper wire back and forth and it holds up..

Well done!

When I brought my brass cleaner ,It came in a hard plastic blister pack ,I cut around the dome of the brass container and use it to sit over it when I am finished ,it keeps any dust out..

So great. Could you please advise me how to mod my pelican 7610? It's led was dim due to insert wrong battery. 😭

Checkout doesn't work on your website. I can't purchase the driver

How can i paste the xhp70.3 led in the flashlight to make sure they still in the center.

Great video! What wattage or power should the soldering iron be set at, or should I be asking what temperature should the heat be set at? Sorry, I know NOTHING about soldering, LOL! Thank you:)

hello friend. My flashlight spring is disconnected from the driver. What kind of solder can connect between the spring and the LED driver of the flashlight? I need your help.I really appreciate your help, friend.

Hi man, is this silicone wire that you recommend good for spring bypass on the tailcap and driver ? If yes, what is the best from 8 awg to 28 awg ? Thanks.

Great vid. Which kind of flux is the best? Rosin Activated, No Clean, or Water Soluble?

Do you have a tip for soldering LED wires inside the flashlight head? I pre-tin my MCPCB, put it inside the head, then put a bit of flux on the tin on the MCPCB and reheat it with the cables held in place with tweezers. But often I get this sticky tin which sticks to the iron when I pull it away. I think that's because of not enough flux on there, right?

What's your opinion on butane irons Matt ?

I tried, solder kelps rolling off the springs Making lose connection god damn it

What is that jig at 1:29?

"Thanks for watching, and good flux."

Hi, my friend, can you ask me a question in my last video, I'll do a video answering questions.

I picked this one up about a year and a half ago and haven't had any issues with it yet (knocking on wood) and I use it quite a bit for modding lights. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MCVCHJM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1 I doubt that I've modded as many lights as you have but I've modded a few. The one thing that I haven't done and need to is invest in some Kester solder. I've never used any and I find that different flashlight modders use different types of Kester solder. I'm going to go with your recommendation since your joints look great...mine aren't bad but I've had a few that weren't so pretty.

you should get yourself a quality wire stripper like this one - www.amazon.com/Ideal-Industries-Stripmaster-Wire-Stripper/dp/B000RFSWF8 you can sometimes find these ones on sale but don't go for the knockoffs that don't have separate individual holes for each wire size. trust me you will be happy you have these

American pronunciation of Sodder makes these videos unbearable.