Gene Breniman's Blog - All Comments

RE: Great Community Contributor Swag

robogary — Fri, 01 May 2026 14:42:10 GMT

Congrats. Its nice to see how excited everyone gets with surprise swag. We engineers are so easy to please :-)

RE: Great Community Contributor Swag

DAB — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 20:36:14 GMT

Well earned.

RE: Great Community Contributor Swag

meera_hussien — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 02:54:08 GMT

Congrats [mention:d214a0a0f5594ee19515b2a3782e7070:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] [emoticon:1435ff2429184e17bc948e4f19178e1e]

RE: Great Community Contributor Swag

rsc — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 02:14:42 GMT

[emoticon:37e515f9f1ea417199b681c49f42c606]

RE: Great Community Contributor Swag

dougw — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 17:32:57 GMT

Congrats [mention:d214a0a0f5594ee19515b2a3782e7070:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] . You are one of the stalwarts.

RE: Great Community Contributor Swag

kmikemoo — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 03:10:38 GMT

Congratulations! The socks are nice. They're part of my dress clothes collection now - for real.

RE: Great Community Contributor Swag

dang74 — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 22:05:08 GMT

Congrats [mention:d214a0a0f5594ee19515b2a3782e7070:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] and wear that magic smoke hat with pride.

RE: And then there were three. A vintage Mr. Machine has joined the crew.

dmac001 — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 12:54:12 GMT

Hi Gene, A bit of a reach here, but wondering if you have parts 7 and 17 from your doner machine. If so, I could use them to bring to life my latest 1960's Mr. Machine. Bought on eBay and to my surprise, it is mostly intact and the mainspring works. Gear 17 is stripped and 7 is broken (may be able to glue). I'm also thinking I may attempt to 3d-print the stripped gear.

Thanks, Don

RE: First Impressions of the FNIRSI SAG-55 (Pro)

Jan Cumps — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 17:21:19 GMT

> I did manage to lift one pad while I was removing excess solder with my iron and solder wick

More heat! This usually happens when your iron has a too low temperature, or not enough capacity to keep pad and wick hot enough.

Often, "just not enough" heat does more damage than too much. Because you melt part of the solder, the wick gets in, it solidifies, and you rip off the pad.

RE: First Impressions of the FNIRSI SAG-55 (Pro)

shabaz — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 15:33:42 GMT

Hi Gene,

I always feel uncomfortable soldering SMD LEDs, to me they are always more difficult than other SMD components!

The solder you're using is a very low temperature Bismuth mix, which doesn't have the same feel as normal solder when reflowing. It's more useful for removing parts, because it can be used to mix with the existing solder, to lower the melting point. Also, that Bismuth solder seems to take a lot longer to solidify, than (say) normal eutectic solder.

I use no-clean Sn62Pb36Ag2 solder paste (called Qualitek 818, but there will be many other brands with similar mix), which is still quite a low temperature (about 182 degrees C I believe) but solidifies quickly. As you say, pre-heater will help, I never reflow without that (and worth getting a little thermocouple meter, to see what temperature your board is at, so you can more easily replicate in future). For instance, I will heat the board to about 80-90 degrees C, and I can keep the board at that temperature indefinitely while I take care to place the part that needs reflowing, so I'm in no hurry. Sometimes I'll squirt on a tiny bit of flux paste from a metal-nozzle syringe (it will instantly dissolve to a liquid when the board is warm). I use the hot air to gently ramp up from a distance (i.e. just slowly bring in the hot air rather than adjust the temperature of the hot air tool) and then when it's visibly reflowed, I'll keep it there (just moving the nozzle in a circular motion to make sure the heat is on all the pads) until I'm certain all has reflowed then slowly move it away. I don't have a proper scientific process, but I've just learned what works for me, and it's reasonably repeatable.

RE: First Impressions of the FNIRSI SAG-55 (Pro)

BigG — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 12:16:19 GMT

Great post.

I discovered this small hot plate early last year and love using it for this sort of work. I first warm up the board using this hot plate and then finish off with a hot air gun. Works a treat.

https://www.adafruit.com/product/5903

RE: First Impressions of the FNIRSI SAG-55 (Pro)

rsjawale24 — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 11:32:44 GMT

Great post.
FNIRSI has good soldering stations as well. I'm not sure if anyone has tried them yet. I'm planning to buy the one with C245 or C115 tips.

RE: First Impressions of the FNIRSI SAG-55 (Pro)

dougw — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 21:07:06 GMT

"No Clean" solder flux should be called "Not Clean" [emoticon:fbd079a1c4f748c5a234faee215de9cc]

No clean flux always leaves a residue. [emoticon:83bbb1525ffc44c294fc5d238d2a33f7] We have had big issues with no clean flux residue.

RE: First Impressions of the FNIRSI SAG-55 (Pro)

DAB — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 19:20:42 GMT

Very good post.

RE: Continuing to improve my workspace.

phoenixcomm — Sun, 13 Apr 2025 23:44:54 GMT

genebren its nice, but I don't have room on my work bench for it. In the back in the center I have my Metcal, Soldering Station, and the work piece holder, then comes the hot air station, to give you a feel its just to left and under Scope. its a wreck, My Desk is made from a hollow core door and two Bank (Money) draw sets, One draw has some Screwdrivers, then below I have a Kennedy Top box which hold machine tools scales, etc, and below is a 5 draw Automotive Cabernet, one draw for screw drivers, one for pliers, wiell you get the idea, the only holder thing I have is for Solder. I have a pic of the draw and the tool boxes sorry there is a computer on the desk (middle) ~~ Cris H.