WTB: Anyone to fix my mess..

IMHO 5 seconds to the diode pin is way too long. The first thing I am going to do is to heatsink the pin with an alligator clip. When the tin melts on the pins then it is time to remove the solder iron, no longer !
I learn it the hard way with a 445nm diode.

man i jumped right here so i'm prolly repeating what everyone else told you but:
just get yourself better prepared. and don't give up! i've fucked up quite a few diodes and drivers. all the real pros here had to learn too, and back then failure was Pricey.
try again above all else. do some breathing exercises ( see hatha yoga) beforehand. you Can do it!


oh, yeah, (after reading the thread) read more! if you don't know how to do something, there's a pretty standard procedure in installing a diode into a host with driver. know all it's parts and be familiar with them. i learned the hard way.

One thing which REALLY helps. Get some of that silicone insulated ~26AWG wire from LPF vendors. It works very well and won't break leads off diodes. Stop using 18 AWG solid wire !!!!!
Tin the leads before you attempt to connect. It then only takes a moment with a good iron to make a good solder connection.
Soldering, like welding, is an art.
HMike
I also set my micro iron at ~ 750 Deg F and use either 0.010 or 0.020 " 63/37 flux cored solder sometimes with additional flux. Use a wet sponge to clean the tip. A HOTTTT tip will do the job so fast that the diode will never see the heat applied.

My diode isn't broken, I have tested several times just by holding the wires together by hand to fire it up and it works. After a night of sleep, I tried to solder again and succeeded with all 4 wires with pre-tinning the wires which I did by putting wire+tin the same time to the soldering iron and I fired the laser and it worked!!! So then I screwed the body part on and it didn't work.. Hmm.. why? Well, when I opened it all the 4 joints had broken!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sending it to Jeff tomorrow.

Thanks for all the tips people!! Oh and, I bought a soldering iron with 15 different tips and some markers or stuff (why would you need that?) and two of the tips are pointy, and both of them are really dirty now and have thick layers of stuff on them, and when I use a moist sponge to clean it off, the whole soldering iron gets miscolored and a black layer is put on top of the iron...

^Its good to hear you succeeded (somewhat anyways). The whole fun of this DIY thing is knowing YOU built the laser.

There could be many reasons your connections broke off. Weak joints, not enough solder, not flexible enough wire... I could go on. I wouldn't suggest giving up JUST yet. You pretty much had it.

My suggestion would be try it again! Try adding a bit more solder to your wire and diode pins.. Thisbway it will make a stronger joint. Use smaller wire. Make SURE that when you reassemble the laser that you use heatshrink so there is absolutely NO shorts. Yes put heatshrink on the diode pins... It will also make your joint a little more durable (less flexible I may add).

After that GENTLY bend your wires back into the host as best you can so they don't bunch up onbthe driver and the back of the diode and break the connections, pins or crush the driver. Gently put the heatsink in and hold it with one finger so it doesn't twist while you screw the retainer ring back on.

Cross your fingers and if it works... Congrats! You will s*$t bricks!