As an electronics nerd I have learned a few lessons over the years, here are some.

- When you hold something to be soldered with large metal objects they act as heat sinks(ie vise grip), your soldering iron has to heat the vise grip and the solder joint, use small needle nose pliers.

- Use a big soldering iron, for bullet connectors I use a 100 watt pen type soldering iron, they cost about $30. I do this because small 30 watt soldering irons act so slow they end up heating the wires and melting the insulation, my 100 watt iron takes 1 second to make a perfect soldered connection, so the insulation doesn't have time to melt.

- solder(tin) the iron tip first, tin the wire, then lightly tin the connector to be joined to the wire-- then when you put the connector over the wire you don't have to wait for everything to heat up as much, as soon as the solder gets shiny you dab a little solder in and remove the heat, as I said 1 second to make a good joint.

- don't add solder with the iron tip, the tip should just be covered with a light layer of solder, you heat the thing to be soldered then add solder to the joint not the iron tip.

- Use the smallest wire you can get away with, heating up large diameter solder wire like the plumbers use takes alot of heat and time, so you are overheating the joint waiting for the solder to melt. Remember small things heat up faster than large things.

- In electronics heat fries small components like transistors, you use high heat for a very short time so the heat has less time to conduct to other components. I also use a small aluminum spring loaded heat sink between the component and the joint to limit heat transfer in circuit boards.