Quote:
Originally Posted by knc1
We have already had one member (who **IS** highly skilled in this type of work) lift the adjacent parts off of the board.
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The pads pulling off happened during usage, not while soldering. After doing it TWICE, I learned my lesson and solved it two ways:
1) Solder to the pads with fine enamel wire (harvested from the coil inside a dead compact fluorescent light), and solder the other end to your serial cable.
The fine enamel wire solders quickly, transferring less heat to the delicate PCB pads. Hint: you do not need to scrape enamel off the wires. It melts off when you tin (presolder) the wires).
2) Stick the enamel wires down to the PCB with tape, fold the wires over the tape, and apply another layer of tape. I spread the wires at the cable connections before applying the second tape layer, to serve as insulation. Then I routed my small serial cable (a strip of 3 adjacent wires taken from an 8-pin UltraIDE cable) out the case opening for the microUSB jack. That serial cable is small enough that I can use both serial and microUSB.
Those steps provide adequate strain relief, even when my kindle slipped off the desk, suspended by the serial cable.
Without strain relief, just moving a kindle a small amount may stress the solder pads enough to lift them.
Of course, too much heat for too long (a noob mistake) can lift delicate PCB pads, so keep the soldering iron temperature down, and do not apply it to the pads longer than necessary. And use strain relief to protect the pads during use.
EDIT: I was given my first soldering iron (i.e. wood burning kit) when I was a young child. It did not take long to repurpose it. 
Later, I used an inexpensive Radio Shack soldering pencil, which I connected it to an incandescent lamp dimmer to control the temperature:
Be sure to NOT use a soldering gun on a delicate PCB:
