Novice topics: breadboard & solder

[JWBarlow at aol.com]

Hi All,

I really appreciate the thoughts about breadboards and solder. I do have a 
couple of questions and some thoughts though.

Breadboard question:
I'm wondering if there is a good reference (primer, tutorial type of thing) 
for breadboarding and prototyping in general -- like the last section of The 
Art of Electronics, but more detailed. I've been breadboarding quite a bit 
lately and had a wide variety of results, from almost no changes needed, to 
throwing the protoboard away. I've seen some boards which look as if a 
machine made them, and could probably be changed several times before really 
damaging it, and I'd like to get closer to this ideal -- my boards get a rats 
nest of wires look very quickly.

Solder thoughts:
I too have been very impressed by both the "no clean" solder and the organic 
solder (water clean) which comes with the MOTM kits. However, I recently 
finished my MOTM 420 VCF PCB assembly in a marathon (actually, only about one 
hour twenty minutes) soldering session, after which I did the only board wash 
(I will add that this is in direct violation of the MOTM instructions). As I 
washed the board, I noticed a few places which fizzed slightly (like an Alka 
Seltzer) when I hit it with the brush. So, with apologies to John Speth, I'm 
not sure it can be left on for very long without attacking the board and 
components. I do like working with it in general though, and would have 
ordered a pound of it, if I didn't have almost a pound of Kester 44 still on 
the bench.
However, I did order a pound of "no clean" solder, with a smaller diameter 
(0.20") than the MOTM variety. While this solder doesn't work as easily as 
either the 44, or the organic, the smaller diameter really helps to remedy 
this. I've recently started using this to do whole PCBs with no problems -- 
I'm wondering if there is any problem with using this for whole PCBs.

Still a novice after all these years -- and proud of it!
John (putting the Sod back in solder) Barlow