Ten Useful Things

Danny those wire strippers,look like something out of a horror movie ! I'm sure i have seen something similar at my doctors surgery but i was too afraid to ask what he did with it !

Ian.

I thought the weller tips were iron and plated with Nickel. The wet sponge for cleaning the hot tip is oddly non-intuitive. I think rubber mats for soldering iron might give you static damage.
I made the MAP plans 'Sardine' submarine 4ft long from biscuit tins with only a 15w iron and tinman's solder stick. That plan should never have been sold - it was a disgrace.
We didn't have pcb holders at my multimillion pound defence contractor labs so to hold the pcb for my first computer in '77 I milled two slots in a piece of scrap square ali tube in line with the thicker bit on the inside. Turned out to be expensive WG17 double ridged waveguide extrusion. Still got it somewhere.

Weller now use Bronze swarf for tip cleaning.

Martin

Never heard one called that before, I've found one reference to the name on Google.

Neil

Neil

What model of rework station do you have please?

I have a good Weller magnastat station and a good quality solder sucker, and some solder wick. I have not ventured into smd components yet but will have to soon.

Please can you explain the advantages of a rework station, what specifically is it, does it do, etc for me the uninitiated.

Thanks, Stephen S.

Geoff,

Do you do smd component work with this set-up? And if so, do you find it works OK? Do you use a solder sucker at all or just solder wick?

Thanks, Stephen S.

Hi Stephen,

Yes, I use solder wick with SM components. It works fine, Ronseal should sell it. Solder suckers often have too big a nozzle, curable by fitting a Hellermann sleeve over it to improve the suction by making a better seal with the work.

Geoff

That's what we called them when I was in school/uni at the beginning of the 80s

Antex. It combines a temperature controlled iron with a temperature controlled precision hot-air gun you can use to solder or lift SMT components. I've found the rework gun works well for removing connectors as well.

Neil

The Weller type soldering guns were banned from my workplace due to the ESD (electrostatic discharge) capability to damage sensitive CMOS devices,as also was solder wicking braid (it could damage pcb tracks).

Given all that, they are quite adequate for home handyman use if used with care.

Also, we used a carbide tipped shear nipper to cut component leads to minimise the shock travelling up the device leads. I can dig up a photo if anybody is interested as all tools used during my course were given to the students and so have been carefully preserved.

One other useful trick that I learned is to cut the component leads to length after insertion into the board and tin the cut end before making the main joint. The above mentioned carbide cutter was handy for this as it left a consistent length of lead (about 1.2mm) projecting above the track.

* Danny M *

Catching up. First - strippers, whether or not Titian haired or named Tiffany.

Secondly - pcb jig as above

Tertiarily, or thirdly - heat resistant, resilient, pad to hold in the components when pcb is inverted. Plastikard backing, polyester foam wadding (Thanks Debs) flexible, heatproof boiler insulation. Elastic bands hold it together, and across the corners to hold it to pcb, and Robert's your aged relative! The wadding doesn't burn or support combustion, and you can make several to fit various pcbs.

Geoff

These disappeared from posting above.

Geoff

These work really well for small wires up to wiring a plug:

£11 on Amazon or £6 at Machine Mart.

Very helpful thread, thanks Neil.

Michael W

Danny,

I presume you are referring to the soldering guns where the wire tip is part of a transformer secondary, or are you meaning the Weller magnastat irons that use the Curie point principle for temperature control ?

Does anyone know if the Weller magnastat irons that use the Curie point principle for temperature control do realistically have any problems due to the switching of the element, which of course does not bother about zero-crossing as it is just a magnetically operated switch ? Do these have any ESD problems in real-life use ?

Thanks, StephenS.

Don't get the heel of your hand around the back end of those if you're using the nippers. Ask me how I know.

Personally I prefer the plain nippers of similar design

Stephen, I am not sure what type of switching was used for the Weller soldering guns that we were prohibited from using, it was quite a few years ago. All I remember is that they had a pistol grip ,and offered 'instant heat'. I also do not remember any type of thermostatic control except the operator's trigger finger.

They were quite handy for soldering up fuel tanks for my models though!

My Aussie Royel soldering station came with grounding sockets so that a ground clip may be attached to sensitive devices and I can see no reason that any tool cannot be connected to ground with a flying lead from there to the ground track of the pcb being worked on.

Oh yeah, for Neil's list add 'Thermal Shunts'

* Danny M *

.

Danny,

For info ... here is the other Weller [and an interesting little modification].

**LINK**

http://spritesmods.com/?art=wtcpled

MichaelG.