Soldering kit

I have been soldering for a lot of years, but all I had was a single 30W temp iron and no desolder gun.

My new kit will have adjustable heat and a desoldering gun.

That will be nice as it's been a bear trying to wick up solder and sling it away.

I have been using my bench grinder brush to clean my tips.

My current tip is at least a year old, but still heats great.

What do you use ?

What other tips do you have?

Some of the wire I have worked with is a dull silver, obviously not copper.

What kind of wire is it?

Thanks, Andy

Reply to
Andy
Loading thread data ...

I use wick, but mostly surface-mount. It's harder to wick thru-hole parts. I don't reuse parts, so I can snip off all the leads before desoldering. The board is important, the parts aren't.

Metcal.

Several sizes, and a really hot one for taking the insulation off magnet wire.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
John Larkin

The tips I was referring was the helpful kind, not the soldering ones :-)

Andy

Reply to
Andy

To clean the tips I use one of the brass or bronze type cleaners. It looks like one of the things used to clean pots and pans. The thing that looks like a big wad of flat metal strips. They usually come in a holder about the size of a baseball with one side cut out.

I don't do a lot of soldering, but bought one of the hot air rework stations off ebay for about $ 60. It has an iron with several small tips and a hot air gun. The hot air gun works for the SMD, but also to remove the through hole ICs and sometimes to remove the daughter boards that have several pins to connect to the motherboard. The inexpensive one probably would not holdup to every day use (they do make some for around $ 300), but I just do it for a hobby.

The dull silver may be aluminum. I have seen some hookup wire that was copper plated aluminum.

Unless you have to use it , stay away from the lead free solder. Use the 60/40 or 63/37 solder. Use some liquid flux to help remove the solder. Flux the braid.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

English is a wonderful language. We have about 300,000 words, and each has many meanings.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
John Larkin

I've had a Weller WTCPT for years, actually I have two, one with a fine tip and another big burly one. Tips have a coating and shouldn't need grinding... that might just make them age faster. (The production people have Metcal's and like them.) For sucking solder out of through holes I love my DP-100 desoldering pump. I'm not any good at using solder wick.

George H.

Reply to
George Herold

And England english is sometimes different than American english. Some words that mean the same are not even spelled the same.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

But none with as many meanings as the German word 'zug' AFAIK.

--
This message may be freely reproduced without limit or charge only via  
the Usenet protocol. Reproduction in whole or part through other  
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Cursitor Doom

They can be too aggressive on some boards, though. It's not nice when you find a half inch of trace hanging out the end of your pump. :(

--
This message may be freely reproduced without limit or charge only via  
the Usenet protocol. Reproduction in whole or part through other  
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Cursitor Doom

Best I've found is the Hakko. Little blue thing heats up quick and works real nice.

If you want hot air I don't know.

Reply to
jurb6006

Do you have the model number or link for the actual specific item on Ebay or Amazon?

Reply to
Chris

Collins german-english dictionary lists only 10 meanings,

English "set" has thirty-something meanings and there are words with more.

--
This email has not been checked by half-arsed antivirus software
Reply to
Jasen Betts

"Little blue thing" is probably a Hakko FX-888, (also available in grey)

--
This email has not been checked by half-arsed antivirus software
Reply to
Jasen Betts

Right, not for surface mount.

George H.

Reply to
George Herold

Whats the matter fer you, they all spelt the same! ;)

Reply to
M Philbrook

There are some exceedingly useful words in this language. Schlag, for example; and Zug. There are three-quarters of a column of Schlags in the dictionary, and a column and a half of Zugs. The word Schlag means Blow, Stroke, Dash, Hit, Shock, Clap, Slap, Time, Bar, Coin, Stamp, Kind, Sort, Manner, Way, Apoplexy, Wood-cutting, Enclosure, Field, Forest-clearing. This is its simple and exact meaning -- that is to say, its restricted, its fettered meaning; but there are ways by which you can set it free, so that it can soar away, as on the wings of the morning, and never be at rest. You can hang any word you please to its tail, and make it mean anything you want to. You can begin with Schlag-ader, which means artery, and you can hang on the whole dictionary, word by word, clear through the alphabet to Schlag-wasser, which means bilge-water -- and including Schlag-mutter, which means mother-in-law.

Just the same with Zug. Strictly speaking, Zug means Pull, Tug, Draught, Procession, March, Progress, Flight, Direction, Expedition, Train, Caravan, Passage, Stroke, Touch, Line, Flourish, Trait of Character, Feature, Lineament, Chess-move, Organ-stop, Team, Whiff, Bias, Drawer, Propensity, Inhalation, Disposition: but that thing which it does not mean -- when all its legitimate pennants have been hung on, has not been discovered yet.

"One cannot overestimate the usefulness of Schlag and Zug. Armed just with these two, and the word also, what cannot the foreigner on German soil accomplish? The German word also is the equivalent of the English phrase "You know," and does not mean anything at all -- in talk, though it sometimes does in print. Every time a German opens his mouth an also falls out; and every time he shuts it he bites one in two that was trying to get out.

"Now, the foreigner, equipped with these three noble words, is master of the situation. Let him talk right along, fearlessly; let him pour his indifferent German forth, and when he lacks for a word, let him heave a Schlag into the vacuum; all the chances are that it fits it like a plug, but if it doesn't let him promptly heave a Zug after it; the two together can hardly fail to bung the hole; but if, by a miracle, they should fail, let him simply say also! and this will give him a moment's chance to think of the needful word. In Germany, when you load your conversational gun it is always best to throw in a Schlag or two and a Zug or two, because it doesn't make any difference how much the rest of the charge may scatter, you are bound to bag something with them. Then you blandly say also, and load up again. Nothing gives such an air of grace and elegance and unconstraint to a German or an English conversation as to scatter it full of "Also's" or "You knows.""

From Mark Twain's essay, The Awful German Language:

formatting link

--
This message may be freely reproduced without limit or charge only via  
the Usenet protocol. Reproduction in whole or part through other  
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Cursitor Doom

That was certainly the case before Samuel Johnson published his ground- breaking dictionary - but you're really talking about the state of the language prior to its publication in 1775.

--
This message may be freely reproduced without limit or charge only via  
the Usenet protocol. Reproduction in whole or part through other  
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Cursitor Doom

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.