PCB Holders

Your post was very timely for me.

I use the through hole device you presented. I have a few of the others you mentioned also.

You answered the question I was going to ask and that was "How do you hold components to solder once you flip them.?" I will find a piece of foam and give it a try.

Your post was very timely for me.

I use the through hole device you presented. I have a few of the others you mentioned also.

You answered the question I was going to ask and that was "How do you hold components to solder once you flip them.?" I will find a piece of foam and give it a try.

The Weller has an articulated arm.

Seriously, blu-tack is the way to go here as they don't move at all once stuck down - the only thing to be aware of is avoiding getting blu-tack stuck in any empty holes!  I picked that tip up from Shabaz.

Contacts contamination risk.

Never, ever, ever been a problem.  Do as normal: clean the PCB with IPA after soldering.

I have seen it a few time from pros to DIY jobs. Some connectors needed replacement. 

Blu-Tack is about as harmless as anything, perhaps there is a chance of finger oils on the board/components or handling the solder causing more contamination. 

Blu-Tack is also useful to raise some components slightly off the board (this can be done without the blu-tack touching the wires if desired, but it's hard to see that being an issue for anything apart from space-lasers or other critical stuff. There's no need to wedge Blu-Tack into connector pins, just a couple of blobs can support each end.

Besides, the Weller clamp has plastic pieces and foam, there's a chance of contamination from that if the soldering iron accidentally touches and melts it.

I use a similar tool vice as Doug, but a lightweight aluminium version. Main downside is that it can't handle boards much bigger than 60mm, but that covers 80% of the stuff I work on.

It has a V-notch that's handy for circular connectors, but recently I've been thinking of making some 3D-printed clamp for one or two circular connectors that can get particularly awkward. No time to work on it : (

I have a couple of cheap plastic vises with this form factor, but find they are too light (they slide around too easily) and they can't hold even a moderate sized card. That one looks pretty stable though. They were omitted from the video because I use them so little for holding PCBs, I probably looked right at them without remembering they could be used to hold PCBs...

The foam idea is from a system I used to use at work - in the days of though-hole boards. In this case it still needs some method of holding the foam in place for different sized boards. One of these days, I will rig something appropriate.

Yes it's great. It's lighter than iron or steel but not super-light. I think it's a clone of this, which is 500 grams:

I use it on this ESD mat (really excellent mat too, and surprisingly low-cost for the size!), and it doesn't slide around:

The jaws have a large flat top surface, and I end up using that as a "staging area" when soldering same-value SMD resistors etc! 

There's also often blobs of blu-tack tacked on the top of the jaws, so that I can quickly hold a board down if it's too awkward for the jaws (e.g. if there are parts right to the edge, such as side-mounting right-angle SMA connectors etc!). 

This one on Amazon looks so promising, and can handle boards up to 130mm wide! It is alu, 1kg:

However, it's pricey : ( plus, the depth is 13mm, and there could be components taller than that off the surface of the PCB.

Also, the recess for the PCB is just a bit too much (4mm).  It's a shame, it is so close! But good from far, far from good : (

blu-tack is new to me. I have used Frog painters tape in the past. It is a real pain in the *** to use but I haven't discovered an alternative. Shabaz recommendations are top shelf. I'm curious to know more.

Can you use it like a foam bed to hold multiple components in place while you flip the PCB to the soldering side?