Do you think NI can fix my PLL?

Or they just ignored it.

MHD

smear

Both are possible. I have done some teching myself. Been good with a soldering iron since i was 10. Scant practice in the last decade though.

I haven't done much soldering in the last five years, due to failing eyesight and severe Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Why is it that some tools don't seem to be a problem, but every soldering iron does after about five minutes? I guess that the diameter of the handle is just right to trigger the pain.

Michael,

Ever tried those "pistol grip"-style soldering irons?

I had one about 40 years ago, and it was a piece of crap. It only lasted about a week before the element self destructed and shorted to the tip. I haven't seen one since then. I do surface mount repairs, and I can barely hold a regular iron. From what I can remember about the pistol type, they were harder to aim.

I wondered about those, it seems like such a small thing, but perhaps it is what's needed.

I suspect one could even take a block of wood and make their own pistol grip to turn the iron into a gun.

Michael

Maybe also because one holds it in the same position, where other tools are rotated or picked up repeatedly?

And it is hot so there is a certain interest in not dropping it - tighter grab.

Thomas

The angle changes as you work, but maybe not enough.

The handle doesn't get hot, and some are barely noticeable. Only the handle on my old 175 watt Weller gets warm enough to worry about. On the other hand that monster weights five times what any of the others do. I used to use a Wahl cordless iron for quick repairs, but the square body became too hard to hold on to. I used their "tuner extension tip" to get deep inside some equipment to resolder wires to PC boards through gaps in a wiring harness.

It's because you've been holding it wrong since the very first time. When you first picked it up, you found that holding it comfortably didn't meet with the instructor's approval - or maybe it was the pencil when you were learning to wrote - so you strained your hand to hold it the way you were told, rather than find a more natural way to aim the iron, and you ignored the pain.

Over the course of decades of having her pain ignored, your body has finally said, "F*ck you, I'm on strike."

Sorry. Rich For more information, please visit:

It is so trivially easy to _NOT_ get carpal tunnel syndrome, that it almost breaks my heart to see the way people hurt themselves.

I have been in situations that have been blamed for CTS, (keyboard, mouse, screwdriver, video games, soldering iron, pen/pencil, etc, etc, etc) and I've felt the strain on my tendons, and rather than "play through the pain", I rearranged the orientation of my wrist until it didn't hurt.

Duh.

Pain is Mother Nature's way of telling you, "Don't do that".

Of course, if you're in denial of the messages of your body, then you'll continue to abuse yourself.

Good Luck! Rich

Have you tried soaking your hands in a pan/bucket of hot water with maybe some epsom salts, and flexing them in the warmth?

Good Luck! Rich

Styrofoam is much easier to carve. ;-)

Cheers! Rich