161–170 of 200 posts
You shouldn't really lap solder wires to boards. They tend to pull the pads off the boards or crack. Better to use wire to board connectors or solder terminals.
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> The Mercury-4 is the culmination of years of research I'm imagining some researcher after years of investment and experimentation eventually accidentally discovering the solution: "you mean it just shuts _itself_ off?!?!".
It doesn't shut itself off. It just stops cutting. It's like using concrete as a kitchen cutting board: that knife isn't going to do any damage, regardless of whether or not you stop pushing. If you want to laser through metals, you need a different type of laser. Just as getting through concrete needs a different tool (say, a hammer chisel).
A knife blade and a masonry chisel are roughly the same type of carbon steel tempered to a similar hardness.
They will both scratch and damage concrete.
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Depends. New work versus rework versus what-is-this-piece-of-crap?
Ding ding ding. Production soldering isn't easy, but it's much easier to dial in than rework jobs. It's definitely a desirable goal to not need flux for production work. Rework... good bloody luck.
Fluxless rework isn't difficult at all. I do it dozens of times a day.
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Any particular kind you like? I'm still using some lead solder my wife had; maybe I should go lead-free if I'm buying some?
The one I got is "Kester 24-6337-8800 50 Activated Rosin Cored Wire Solder Roll, 245 No-Clean, 63/37 Alloy, 0.031" Diameter". I have no idea which of those words and numbers are significant. :) I didn't go lead-free because I've heard leaded solder is easier to use (lower melting point?) and since I'm just a part-time hobbyist, the health and environment considerations are minimal. It's not like I'm soldering eight h…
IMHO...despite the risks of lead...leaded solder is way easier to use and especially inspect. Lead free often looks "cold" just by the color of it.
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What's your tip for what makes one good? I dont do a ton but for me it always seemed like the weak point was the grip was 3+ inches from the tip. If I am soldering something that is just a couple mm from the hole next to it then this requires a decemt amount of dexterity - even if things are held nicely.
The base with temperature control and a fine-ish tip is what makes them good, I think. The older Radio Shack pencil soldering irons had a fat tip, one temperature. The nicer stations like Hakko's have very nice metallurgy in their tips as well. As soon as you get a station too there's a little sponge, maybe some metal wool — these things you can use to clean the tip of the soldering iron. That in itself encourages go…
Yeah my kit came up a sponge and station too - but unmounted was so lightweight it was worthless. Perhaps a safety threat but I (with my amateur perspective) still think a shorter length would be very beneficial if possible.
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> Now flash IronOS[1] on your soldering Iron I got to here and thought this was some elaborate joke, and expected the github page to continue on with the joke. An operating system for a soldering iron?? But no, it seems 100% serious. Somehow soldering iron tech passed me by.
I just need a firmware that will connect to Home Assistant so it can track my soldering habits. Just joking... mostly.
After reading this thread, it sounds like I need to get myself a better soldering iron and install IronOS
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A few years back I bought a Chinese hot air rework station for I never really use the hot air part but am in love with the iron. I can dial in the temp and avoid breathing fumes directly. It is so much nicer to use than my old Weller with a temp dial.
Yeah, I have been disappointed with Weller. Still, anything's probably better than the Radio Shack pencil iron I started out with (and thought I was bad at soldering).
Once I got a real iron, a real solder, and a real part holder my skills are infinitely better. I enjoy soldering now!
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Ding ding ding. Production soldering isn't easy, but it's much easier to dial in than rework jobs. It's definitely a desirable goal to not need flux for production work. Rework... good bloody luck.
I most certainly do not use flux in my rework. I am in a zero-clean facility, the only flux allowed is that which comes with the solder paste for stencil and SMT placement - on initial production work. Fluxless rework isn't difficult at all. I do it dozens of times a day.
Production reflow without extra added flux is normal. It's the goal for every assembly line anywhere and is almost always achieved.
Rework of existing joints after assembly without flux is just about impossible. The oxidation of the joints guarantees it. Many times the flux in the paste or wire is sufficient, but this is more true for through-hole than for surface-mount, mainly due to joint geometry and available volumes. If you are regularly reworking old fine-pitch surface mount joints previously assembled with no-clean flux, without flux of your own... then I'd like to know what materials you're using, because that is not possible in general. The "no-clean" fluxes are notorious for causing rework trouble, and they are difficult to clean off once reflow temperatures have been achieved (that's why we call them "can't-clean"). They are never active twice, so they must be removed and replaced once heated the first time. We have to use special solvent flux removers around here (based on DuPont's hellish Vertrel XF) to get the crap off just to be able to access joints again. (This is on assembly work done out-of-house or on COTS devices, made with who-knows-what.)
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It doesn't shut itself off. It just stops cutting. It's like using concrete as a kitchen cutting board: that knife isn't going to do any damage, regardless of whether or not you stop pushing. If you want to laser through metals, you need a different type of laser. Just as getting through concrete needs a different tool (say, a hammer chisel).
Not a really good comparison I think. A knife blade and a masonry chisel are roughly the same type of carbon steel tempered to a similar hardness. They will both scratch and damage concrete.
But would you like to chop through my sidewalk to get to the water main with a santoku?
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Yes it’s additional flux that you don’t need.
So flux is 'a crutch for people who don't know how to solder', because that knowledge would lead you to use 'expensive' flux-cored solder instead of 'shitty solder' plus flux? I really don't think either's wrong, and anyway I assume 'production engineering' is not using how-to-solder tutorials.
That is part of production engineering which is mostly about making sure that your product doesn't come back again because it's broken.