[HN Gopher] Setting Up an Electronics Workshop
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Setting Up an Electronics Workshop
Author : saeedesmaili
Score : 38 points
Date : 2023-02-18 21:41 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (lcamtuf.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (lcamtuf.substack.com)
| KaiserPro wrote:
| My only tip, and this is super basic, is spend the money on
| silver solder. It handles much more like lead solder, and flows
| freely, it'll make learning to solder a fucktonne easier.
|
| its about twice as expensive, but will make your life easier as
| you don't need to apply as much heat. So you'll save in fried
| delicate components.
| peatfreak wrote:
| I'd be interested in seeing other "setting up an electronics
| workshop" articles by other engineers.
|
| Luke Gorrie, for example, has an article here:
| https://github.com/lukego/soldering
| gswdh wrote:
| As an electronic engineer of 10 years, one of the most useful
| things in my lab is blue tac[1]. It's so useful and versatile as
| a third hand for soldering or keep things from moving around
| attached to cables etc.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu_Tack
| jolmg wrote:
| I don't see why this was flagged.
| the__alchemist wrote:
| The recommendations here are surprising. Some examples:
| - No mention of hot air - No mention of fume extractors/fan
| - Recommendation of a point tip vice chisel - No mention of
| solder paste - No mention of different flux application
| methods - No mention of braid/wick - No mention of
| hot plate or oven - No mention of tweezers - Mentions
| scope, but not logic analyzer - No mention of copper etc
| tip cleaner
| jbay808 wrote:
| A hot air soldering station is an absolute must for SMT work,
| in my opinion. You can get "all-in-one" stations with a
| soldering iron, infrared plate, and hot air, very affordably.
| This is the one I use:
| https://www.xtronicusa.com/X-Tronic-5040-XR3-Hot-Air-Rework-...
| analog31 wrote:
| Gotta start somewhere. I've been doing electronics prototyping,
| and some light manufacturing, for 40+ years. In that time, the
| technology has changed dramatically. Had I tried to keep a
| fully equipped shop throughout that time period, I'd be broke
| today. Instead, I choose my battles in terms of what
| technologies I want to work with, and what tools I need.
|
| Likewise with bicycle tools and music gear. ;-)
|
| Nonetheless, your list contains many things that a person is
| likely to want or need, and that are not exorbitant or too big
| for a small shop. My surface mount tooling is still fairly
| limited, and I don't own a logic analyzer. I do share many
| tools with my regular household tool set.
|
| Another thing I'd mention is a basic stereoscopic inspection
| microscope, like maybe 10x, or adjustable if you want to
| splurge. Maybe it's my age, but vision aids are close to the
| top of my must-have tools. Nothing is getting bigger.
| jrockway wrote:
| He seems to be mostly interested in building through-hole
| designs, which avoids the need for a lot of that specialist
| equipment. I do think you need a good desoldering solution for
| through-hole work, though, and he should talk about that a
| little. (For me, solder braid is always ... a relief? You
| struggle for a while and it does finally work once you are
| frustrated enough. Solder suckers are nice when they work,
| though!)
|
| I kind of see where he's coming from but on the other hand, if
| you have some budget for hand tools, surface mount work is not
| as hard as you think. The Universe wants it to work; you heat
| up a board with surface mount components and solder paste on
| it, and entropy pulls the components to their correct position.
| So instead of waging war with the laws of physics, they're
| there to help you. A light touch and magnification are all you
| need.
|
| I don't have a hot air station (or reflow oven) and I'm
| perfectly happy building surface mount designs. There are some
| things I can't do -- super small passives, BGA chips, etc.
| That's easier to design around than through-hole only.
|
| My tip for the send-to-fab-and-wait workflow is to get someone
| to "code review" your design. Maybe they will find a dumb
| mistake and save you a week for a new revision.
| ofalkaed wrote:
| >Solder suckers are nice when they work, though!
|
| They are great things once you learn their quirks.
|
| Cut a notch in the nozzle that is slightly smaller than your
| iron's tip, a few uses will mold that notch to your iron's
| tip so you can keep the iron on the joint when sucking
| without affecting the seal.
|
| Add more solder to the joint before sucking, this will help
| get a good seal as the sucker's tip will sit in that solder.
| The sucker will have no issues getting the excess.
|
| Don't force sucked solder out through the nozzle, if the
| piston is more difficult than normal to depress than unscrew
| the end to clear the solder, forcing it through will only
| distort the nozzle and shorten its life.
|
| Take the time to clean and lubricate at the end of the day.
| Bits of solder which get trapped in the sucker chew up the
| o-rings and ruins the vacuum. Take it apart, run a small
| stiff bottle brush through the body a few times to remove any
| solder, remove any solder in the nozzle, clean the plunger.
| Apply petroleum jelly to all threads and the plunger,
| reassemble.
|
| If function quickly degrades after cleaning/lubricating than
| your o-rings are worn, replace them. O-rings are cheap, keep
| a supply on hand.
| jrockway wrote:
| All good pieces of advice.
|
| I also want to throw out a recommendation for this sucker
| in particular: https://www.engineertools-jp.com/ss02
|
| I kind of impulse-bought that recently and had to repair a
| device where the AC line cord was damaged and is soldered
| directly to the board. I heated up the joint and sucked out
| what seemed like a gallon of solder in one go; the wire
| then just fell out with no problem. I was very very
| impressed. For $22, worth having in your toolbox if you
| ever interact with large quantities of solder that may be
| to removed.
| iseanstevens wrote:
| It Does mention solder paste/flux types and application.
| [deleted]
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