RE: desoldering (was Re: VAX 9440)

2018-11-14 Thread William Sudbrink via cctalk
Al Kossow wrote:
> Cleaning the Hakko is SO much easier than a
> Pace (there is no glass to burn your
> fingers on).

The newer Pace desoldering tools (SX-90, SX-100)
are much better, both in cleaning (disposable traps)
and usage (the tips simply don't block at all).

Bill S.


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Re: desoldering (was Re: VAX 9440)

2018-11-14 Thread Bill Degnan via cctalk
I have a 605.  I tend to use solder wick though, it has been a while since
I needed a powered sucker.

On Wed, Nov 14, 2018 at 8:40 AM systems_glitch via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:

> Another Hakko 472D owner here. Got mine in pieces as used/nonworking.
> They're easy to rebuild. I've used the 808s at workshops/friends' places,
> there's no comparison IMO. I use the "pencil" style handpiece, we had the
> "gun" style at a previous job, I definitely like the "pencil" style better.
>
> Thanks,
> Jonathan
>
> On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 6:38 PM Ed C. via cctalk 
> wrote:
>
> > I have the combo unit including solder. I do not have any other
> experience
> > with any high-end ware but I can say that this unit does all I need and
> > does it well.
> >
> > On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 7:17 PM Chuck Guzis via cctalk <
> > cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> >
> > > On 11/13/18 7:38 AM, Mark J. Blair via cctalk wrote:
> > >
> > > > Instead, I use two pencil-type irons, one in each hand, working under
> > > > a stereo microscope. The tips are much better, and manipulating each
> > > > tip independently provides great control of what's going on. Only
> > > > drawback is that if you want to use a fancy, expensive iron, now you
> > > > get to buy two of them. If you're tempted by a soldering station with
> > > > two or more outputs, make sure that it can drive both simultaneously.
> > > > There are dual-output stations that have two outputs but can only run
> > > > one at a time, as well as ones which can drive two irons at once.
> > >
> > > After seeing the video on the ZD-985 some years ago on Dave's EEVBlog:
> > >
> > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft50m8UU5WQ
> > >
> > > I've been wondering if it's a worthwhile tool.  Does anyone have one of
> > > these things?
> > >
> > > --Chuck
> > >
> > >
> >
>


Re: desoldering (was Re: VAX 9440)

2018-11-14 Thread systems_glitch via cctalk
Another Hakko 472D owner here. Got mine in pieces as used/nonworking.
They're easy to rebuild. I've used the 808s at workshops/friends' places,
there's no comparison IMO. I use the "pencil" style handpiece, we had the
"gun" style at a previous job, I definitely like the "pencil" style better.

Thanks,
Jonathan

On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 6:38 PM Ed C. via cctalk 
wrote:

> I have the combo unit including solder. I do not have any other experience
> with any high-end ware but I can say that this unit does all I need and
> does it well.
>
> On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 7:17 PM Chuck Guzis via cctalk <
> cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
> > On 11/13/18 7:38 AM, Mark J. Blair via cctalk wrote:
> >
> > > Instead, I use two pencil-type irons, one in each hand, working under
> > > a stereo microscope. The tips are much better, and manipulating each
> > > tip independently provides great control of what's going on. Only
> > > drawback is that if you want to use a fancy, expensive iron, now you
> > > get to buy two of them. If you're tempted by a soldering station with
> > > two or more outputs, make sure that it can drive both simultaneously.
> > > There are dual-output stations that have two outputs but can only run
> > > one at a time, as well as ones which can drive two irons at once.
> >
> > After seeing the video on the ZD-985 some years ago on Dave's EEVBlog:
> >
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft50m8UU5WQ
> >
> > I've been wondering if it's a worthwhile tool.  Does anyone have one of
> > these things?
> >
> > --Chuck
> >
> >
>


Re: desoldering (was Re: VAX 9440)

2018-11-13 Thread Ed C. via cctalk
I have the combo unit including solder. I do not have any other experience
with any high-end ware but I can say that this unit does all I need and
does it well.

On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 7:17 PM Chuck Guzis via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:

> On 11/13/18 7:38 AM, Mark J. Blair via cctalk wrote:
>
> > Instead, I use two pencil-type irons, one in each hand, working under
> > a stereo microscope. The tips are much better, and manipulating each
> > tip independently provides great control of what's going on. Only
> > drawback is that if you want to use a fancy, expensive iron, now you
> > get to buy two of them. If you're tempted by a soldering station with
> > two or more outputs, make sure that it can drive both simultaneously.
> > There are dual-output stations that have two outputs but can only run
> > one at a time, as well as ones which can drive two irons at once.
>
> After seeing the video on the ZD-985 some years ago on Dave's EEVBlog:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft50m8UU5WQ
>
> I've been wondering if it's a worthwhile tool.  Does anyone have one of
> these things?
>
> --Chuck
>
>


Re: desoldering (was Re: VAX 9440)

2018-11-13 Thread Jim Manley via cctalk
All this yammering about fancy desoldering gizmos harkens back memories of
a "desoldering station" consisting of a hot soldering iron ... made of a
hefty amount of copper (the kind you put in a pit of fire to heat up!) and
a long, skinny screwdriver, or two, used to _very_ gently pry up ICs from
each end while you ran the iron along the pins, loosening the IC a bit at a
time until it popped loose.  Clearing the pin holes of solder involved
blowing through them as you heated up the pads ... with your breath,
hopefully before the pads debonded from the PC board!  There's no skill
involved any more with the fancy-schmancy stuff ...

That also harkens back to my days in the Navy when I would go visit the
local Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office (DRMO), previously just
called "The Dump".  That's where all sorts of DoD-owned military and
commercial grade equipment was sent as soon as the new models came along
that the Air Force always got first (it helps when you don't have to drive
your runways full of aircraft and fuel all over the world, like we do in
the Navy!).  Most of the Navy stuff showed up when ships got decommissioned
... a typical ship can stay in service for four or five decades, s ...
anyone need any vacuum tubes, or a mechanical fire-control computer???  Do
you know why the Air Force always builds the Officers Club first, and the
runways last, on a new base?  Congress will _always_ approve more money to
finish a runway on a typically horribly-underbid DoD contract (that their
brothers-in-law always seem to be involved with)!

Anyway, as I was perusing the offerings, I wandered around a corner and
there was a guy sitting over what can only be described as a medieval
blacksmith's furnace.  He was recovering the gold and other precious metals
from boards and ICs by basically heating everything and collecting the
metals as they dribbled out of the cracking, charring non-metals!  He
appeared to be positioning the materials over time to achieve various
melting temperatures, which allowed him to pretty accurately collect each
metal in sequence as the materials heated up.  I can only wonder whether he
wound up with a medical retirement, as I don't recall him wearing any kind
of respirator, and it was being done in a large warehouse structure.  Come
to think of it, I'm surprised _I_ didn't wind up with a medical retirement,
given the amount of time I spent in those places finding all sorts of great
stuff!

Speaking of inheriting Air Force hand-me-downs, a little-known factoid is
that Admiral Grace Hopper (co-author of COBOL and an operator of the
Harvard Mark IV) used to send her enlisted people around the Pentagon in
the evenings to snag things left in the halls by Air Force offices to be
carted off by the janitors.  That included all of the furniture in her
basement-level office and even the American Flag there (complete with heavy
stand and oak pole with an eagle atop it).  Few able-bodied military
men escorted by armed guards ever wandered around in the basement of the
Pentagon because of the dank, poorly lit (if at all) corridors, let alone a
woman.

However, Admiral Hopper wasn't just any woman, and there are rumors that
the ne'er-do-wells scattered like cockroaches when they heard her coming
(and that was easy to do, as she was always instructing someone about
something very useful in conversations).  I still have a Nanosecond piece
of ~11.2-inch insulated 22-gauge solid wire that she handed out at her
presentations - it's even signed, which means it has little marks that
correspond to where her signature crossed its horizontal midpoint!  She
originally used them to explain to MBA-degreed flag officers why there was
a noticeable delay between the then-new geosynchronous communications
satellites located about 22,300 miles in altitude over the Equator, and
satellite ground stations.

She would show them a Nanosecond wire (the distance it would take for an
electromagnetic wave to travel at the speed of light in one nanosecond) and
then move it along an imaginary line-of-sight from a ground station to a
satellite and start counting, "One nanosecond ... two nanoseconds ... three
nanoseconds ... " until the audience members all exhibited the "Ah-HA!"
moment on their faces.  Then, she would repeat it along another path
between the satellite and another ground station.

Ain't computing history great???

All the Best,
Jim


Re: desoldering (was Re: VAX 9440)

2018-11-13 Thread Chuck Guzis via cctalk
On 11/13/18 7:38 AM, Mark J. Blair via cctalk wrote:

> Instead, I use two pencil-type irons, one in each hand, working under
> a stereo microscope. The tips are much better, and manipulating each
> tip independently provides great control of what's going on. Only
> drawback is that if you want to use a fancy, expensive iron, now you
> get to buy two of them. If you're tempted by a soldering station with
> two or more outputs, make sure that it can drive both simultaneously.
> There are dual-output stations that have two outputs but can only run
> one at a time, as well as ones which can drive two irons at once.

After seeing the video on the ZD-985 some years ago on Dave's EEVBlog:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft50m8UU5WQ

I've been wondering if it's a worthwhile tool.  Does anyone have one of
these things?

--Chuck



Re: desoldering (was Re: VAX 9440)

2018-11-13 Thread Mark J. Blair via cctalk
On the topic of desoldering tweezers: I don't like them. I've done tons of 
rework of components down to 0201 size. I consider 0201 to be difficult, but I 
found that once I could work on 0201 components at all, 0402 suddenly seemed 
easy to work with!

Anyway, the tweezers I've used had poor tip alignment, tips too blunt for small 
components, and of course the whole handle has to be positioned in a plane such 
that both tips touch their corresponding terminals at the same time. And that 
was with high-end Metcal tweezers.

Instead, I use two pencil-type irons, one in each hand, working under a stereo 
microscope. The tips are much better, and manipulating each tip independently 
provides great control of what's going on. Only drawback is that if you want to 
use a fancy, expensive iron, now you get to buy two of them. If you're tempted 
by a soldering station with two or more outputs, make sure that it can drive 
both simultaneously. There are dual-output stations that have two outputs but 
can only run one at a time, as well as ones which can drive two irons at once.

-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X 
http://www.nf6x.net/



desoldering (was Re: VAX 9440)

2018-11-12 Thread Al Kossow via cctalk



On 11/12/18 7:24 AM, W2HX via cctalk wrote:

> Hot air setup is the next thing.
> 

I was doing some board repair this weekend, and used a mix of Hakko 472 vacuum 
and
hot air equipment. I was having trouble clearing the holes completely with the 
Hakko
so I heated the board with a 1" hot air nozzle, pulled the part, then used an 
Edsyn
Atmoscope to blow the holes clean.

Cleaning the Hakko is SO much easier than a Pace (there is no glass to burn your
fingers on).

I'm not impressed with Weller vaccums either, though to be fair it's pretty old 
tech.