How to Do Manhattan Style Soldering

Cut out mounting pads from a piece of copper clad board, using the nibbling tool. Make sure you have enough pads for every component that you are going to mount on the circuit board. Sand off all the rough edges of the pads with some sand paper to ensure that there are no burs on its edges. The small mounting pads are used as connection points on the circuitry.

Cut strips out of .031" copper clad board with scissors or a paper cutter. Make them the same width as the pads that you made in step 1. If the strips curl up after cutting, you can straighten them with your fingers.

Measure the copper clad board and write down the dimensions. Then draw the board with a pencil and ruler on the paper to those measurements. Next start drawing the circuit that you are going to create. Try to arrange the circuit components, such as resistors, diodes and capacitors in a logical manner so that they will all fit on the board. Keep in mind that each component is going to require two pads, one for each side that is going to be mounted with solder. The copper strips are going to go in straight or diagonal lines from each pad. Try to make sure that your design is straight, symmetrical and square. If you wish, you can measure the distances between each component and write them down so that you can speed up the next step.

Draw the layout you have designed on the copper clad board with a pencil and ruler. Double check by measuring the designs and comparing to make sure that they are exactly the same before moving on to step 5.

Take the super glue and begin mounting the copper pads to the copper clad board by administering a single small drop onto the board. Make sure that the size of the glue drop is smaller than the size of the pad you are gluing to the board. This way there won't be any glue coming out from under it when you put it on. Place the copper pad onto the drop of super glue, and using the tip of a craft knife or tweezers slide it into position, using the pencil drawings as a guide. Once it is in place, push down on the pad with a knife so that the glue will move and cover the entire bottom surface. If the pad somehow ends up in the wrong spot, use needle-nosed pliers to grab onto the sides of the pad and with a twisting motion, remove it from the board. Then glue it into its correct spot.

Cut the strips to desired lengths and glue them to the board to form traces that lead from one mounted component to another.

Clean the excess dried glue off the board by scraping it with a craft knife. Then, take the hobby brush or tooth brush and wet the end in rubbing alcohol and run it along the board and pads to clean off oils left from fingerprints and any leftover debris.

Melt the solder by placing the soldering wire against the tip of the hot soldering tool and pressing it onto one of the copper pads. Position the component into place with tweezers and hold it there. Touch the tip of the hot soldering tool onto the pad you just soldered, and when you see the solder flowing onto the component, remove the tool. Set down the tweezers, and solder the other pad. Apply more solder to the first pad that you worked on if it needs some. Be sure not to touch the component directly with the soldering iron, only the pad and solder that you just put down so that it flows up to the component when it melts. Repeat this process with all of the other components. Be sure to mount the components onto the pads according to your design.

Solder the ground connections directly onto the main board. Connect the circuitry wiring and solder where necessary to keep it in place.

Wait until the glue and solder have dried and do a "drop test" by dropping the board several times onto a hard surface such as a table top or the floor to see if there are any loose parts that need more soldering. If any components come off or appear to be loose, resolder them onto the board and test it again.

Prevent corrosion by cleaning up the board, components and solder with a brush that has been dipped in alcohol.