Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #01568



To: TurtleTek@aol.com, beam@corp.sgi.com
From: "The Mesiti Family" mesiti@pbq.com.au
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 18:58:52 +1100
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Soldering Iron Quality


OK. here's how I do it. Put the tip of your soldering iron on both the pad
and the lead, and wait a second or 2 for it to heat up. Then melt a bit of
solder by pushing it into the joint between the two. pull both the iron and
the solder away at the same time, and you should have a good joint. Good
luck!




____________________________________________________________________________


ICQ#24602841
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Cavern/9282/

----------
| From: TurtleTek@aol.com
| To: beam@corp.sgi.com
| Subject: Soldering Iron Quality
| Date: Wednesday, March 17, 1999 12:59 PM
|
| Greetings List,
|
| With all this talk about how much my robots suck, I'm begining to wonder
if
| this has something to do with my soldering iron, solder, or soldering
method.
| Just to note, although the PhotoPhobe is my first robot to not work, it's
not
| the only one that has problems. Most of my other bots don't fire at their
| trigger voltage many times, and the solder joints look terrible.
|
| Now, about my iron. I use possible the crappiest iron out there. When
getting
| starting in electronics, I bought that little collection on tools at
| RadioShack, called the "Starters set" or something like that. It included
a
| little 120 volt, 30 watt "pen" soldering iron. I still use it, even now.
You
| can't tell me that a $150 iron is no better then what I'm using.
|
| My bad method can also be to blame. Most of the time I give in to the
| "easyness" of just melting a glob of solder on the tip and using that to
make
| joints. I know from my beginner days that this is "SO INCREDIBLY WRONG"!
It
| results in cold joints, unrelable connections, messy flux, weather
disasters,
| and sunspots. Well, I've tryed to do it like I've been told is the only
right
| way but "holding the tip to the site of the joint for a few seconds and
then
| applying solder till it flows around the connection" but this doesn't
work! A
| few seconds? I have it on for an entier minute and little or nothing
happens.
| Yes, I tin the tip.
|
| Sorry if this seems a little angry but I can't help thinking that RAT
SHACK
| HAS SCREWED ME OVER AGAIN!
|
| -TurtleTek

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