Considerations for Solder Station Upgrades -- Workbench Wednesdays 03

Thank you for your very kind words. You made the first excellent point that I have heard on the deminsioning issue. The fact that you cannot buy the proper tool. That is the way I felt about metric when I was a kid. I never had the right size metric tool. I think this probablly gets closer to the real issue (rather than a scientific explaination). Imgaine a professional plubing needing to use an adjustable wrench (or expanding, monkey wrench). But never use round off pliers. (In the USA we used to call them "water pump" pliers.) Your friend that has the plumbing job could probablly get the "SAE" (imperial) wrenches he needed for a few dollars faily quickly. But, I liike your point, when a significant majority of the world does not use the difficult SAE system and use the rather simple 2 mm, 3 mm, 5 mm etc. Our electronic measuring tools have an instant button to go back and forth between "SAE" and Metric. Although our wrenches don't have that magic button. It does sell a lot more tools (at least in the USA we tend to have two sets of tools).

Several years ago I attended seminary where most of the professors studied in Great Britian. Many of the leading theologians write in English, many of the books are printed using the spelling of English. When the word processors came around, spell check was always correcting to "english" (USA) spelling. I thought I had gone daffy. The amaing thing is you can set your word processor to correct the spelling into "English" in several different versions. This must be confusing for people trying to learn the language.

Again thank you for your kind words, as well as positive outlook on seeking to help "All" people enjoy electronics. I do appreciate your comments when writing about other persons notes. Your very helpful.

mgillett  wrote:

 

..but why do we switch from a base 24 to a base 60 and think everything should be in a base 10? The engineers have it figured out for the problem with the inch, foot, yard problem, they just made it i/10 of an inch, or 1/100 of an inch or 1/1,000 of an inch. how would you ever measure that in metric? It would be an extremely odd metric number...

Personally in terms of engineering lengths, I'd rather work with (say) 25.4mm or 2.54mm or 6.35mm and so on, I have no issue with them being non-integer. I'd find it far more uncomfortable working in fractions of an inch like 1/10" or 1/4" and so on, simply because we're not used to that here any more. I think in the UK kids are not exercised in schools to work in inches at all, apart from as an occasional curiosity and infrequent math question, so as a result, at least for the past 35+ years or more, we are not used to recognise what is (say) longer, 3/16" or 1/10" without some thought, or pulling out a calculator, whereas I'm guessing in the past, people had popular fractions like that ingrained in their minds from lots of day-to-day experience.

We cannot get many imperial tools and products here any more either. As an example, a friend in the building industry was recently telling me, some wealthy client of his purchased $50k of bathroom fittings (shower taps/faucets, etc) for their huge home, all imported from the USA. Nothing fits, since UK plumbing is incompatible, so they're struggling to deal with it all.

mgillett  wrote:

 

.. people pronouceing every vowels, every letter in a word then saying this is the proper way to speak "English". Well in the United States we speak english, not "Englandish".

We also like to change the spelling of words such as: color (rather than colour) but our pronouciation would be difficult to explain..

I feel the same, it is tiresome if people try to correct grammar and spelling to suit their local perceptions. Element14 staff and members seem to be very open-minded though, even going to effort to translate languages. Sometimes I try to spell words depending on who I think will read it, so I'll interchange color/colour often, but at the same time it's nice to see people's own unique spelling and ways of writing, and even sketching too - some forum members here like to do hand-sketches of drawings to explain technical detail, I look forward to seeing when they do that type of creative stuff.

Do you mean like encapsulated surface mount parts like ICs, diodes, and some capacitors? Or something different?

I would like to see something on encapsulated components. I'm sure it's different now than when I went through soldering school. Liked your presentation.

I happen to be a native United States english speaking person. I get tired of people pronouceing every vowels, every letter in a word then saying this is the proper way to speak "English". Well in the United States we speak english, not "Englandish".

We also like to change the spelling of words such as: color (rather than colour) but our pronouciation would be difficult to explain. more like "Ku-lur"; another word is "potato" rather than "potatoe", English speakers say something like "Po-ta-toe" where in the US it is pronouced more like "S-bud", or "ta-der", "Pa-ta-doe".. At least we agree that there are 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in a minute but why do we switch from a base 24 to a base 60 and think everything should be in a base 10? The engineers have it figured out for the problem with the inch, foot, yard problem, they just made it i/10 of an inch, or 1/100 of an inch or 1/1,000 of an inch. how would you ever measure that in metric? It would be an extremely odd metric number. At least there are about 350 million people that understand. The ones we should feel sorry for are the people in India, they have to some how build all that stuff in US units while using metric numbers. Where did the imperials ever change things.

This Video is really very helpful and briefly describe soldering. I am a follower of https://www.youtube.com/user/SolderingGeek/videos after that I found this one very helpful!

I can get by with even a low-cost Antex (except they're not as low-cost any more) since one eventually gets used to and can work around some tool limitations, but nowadays I have an old but decent JBC machine, and rarely use more than two tips.. depending on if it's small SMT, or large connectors I'm working on.

When I first started at a firm, all new recruits got given their own new tools, including a reasonable soldering workstation for the time. The firm did not skimp on quality, and we all looked after our tools.

But then one day arrived - one guy received a Metcal, or perhaps it was loaned by the sales person, I cannot recall, but what I definitely remember was us all crowding around to see it in action - it seemed like alien technology at the time : ) It was a futuristic vertical-standing unit, possibly an early MX-500MX-500 and it did magic with surface mount, with its heating system and fancy tips.  We all wanted it too, suddenly our soldering stations were mediocre in comparison : (

Hey a thumbs up for Metcal! I used these in manufacturing applications because they never cool down, the heat is so consistent no matter what the mass of the item you are soldering. The downside of this is don't ever let it brush against your skin! It will char your finger instantly!!

I've used so many soldering tools, but I ended up favoring just a simple 20W iron with a 120W 'boost' button. This enables me to do regular component soldering and also to work on connectors with the boost. I've had several but the one I have right now is EXSO EX-90BN The problems with the workstations are they: are too expensive, are awkward when working on things 'off the bench', are not more reliable, usually don't feel as comfortable in the hand to me. I am a fan of the right tool for the job, so a tweezer solder iron is better than two pencils when working on a 201 resistor! I used a hot air pencil before, and it incinerated a few things. I used to have an Ungar heat gun, I think it was 669 maybe? I'd like to see some options for these to remove TSOP, SOIC, and quad flat pacs if you get around to it. Those snazzy square solder tools are sure nifty, but who can afford to have all the different sizes when you won't use it very often?

Great feedback Steve. Stay tuned! I plan to cover many of your questions.

There is one I will answer now, because I will not be covering it (in the near future.) I do not use a microscope. I'm lucky with my vision. I can solder 0402 unaided, as long as there is enough light. Microscopes are something I would like to cover in the future, but I need more practice with them first.