Share tips you have come across

[Watcher]

Excellent idea Larry! Where do you get the acrylic strip from?

[Jiggy-Ninja]

@Jiggy-Ninja
The Hakko soldering iron tips are great.
It is nice to have an assortment of shapes and sizes for different soldering jobs.

As I mentioned in a previous thread, this is my new goto soldering iron tip of choice:


Edit
I shouldn't have used goto
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I can't remember if this was brought up in here or in the previous thread, but Hakko has some great references about choosing tips. This page details the uses of the different shapes in the T18 series (Weller probably has a similar page, I just don't have one). The bent one you posted is type J.

My vote for the champion of the "unexpectedly useful soldering tip" category doesn't go to the crooked type J, but to the type K Knife tip.



Yes folks, this is not a cutting attachment, it is a proper soldering tip. Hakko described it's advantages thusly:

This type has a shape like a knife and is capable of soldering by applying the tip in 3 ways: line, face and point.
It is used for soldering at narrow pitches, correction of bridging and drag soldering.

How to use.

That first image in there is just awesome; through hole drag soldering. I tried it last night on a 20 pin ZIF socket and it with the ability to start heating the next pin while one is wetting it probably took less than 15 seconds to do each half with the fine solder I was using. If I used my thicker roll it would have probably been a hair faster.

I can't wait to try a TQFP or maybe even a lead-less package with this. I just need to make some progress on the parts of my projects that I'm stuck on.

[larryd]

Yes that tip is very useful.




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[larryd]

Where do you get the acrylic strip from?

Trotec
https://www.engraving-supplies.ca/


Two methods I use:
Make them out of a 12" by 24" sheet of the material (1/8 inch thickness).

Manually: use a 1/8 inch carbide router bit with a fence positioned at 1/4 inch.
Run the sheet the full length which gives a strip 1/4" X 24"
You can of course move the router fence to get whatever width you need.

Since the bit is 1/8" you lose that amount of material when you make the cut

Automatic: I have also used a CAM Tool (CNC) to rout the strips to required width.
During this procedure, a pilot hole is also drilled.
The nuts are "V" scored to 1/16" depth halfway between the pilot holes prior to routing.
Finish the pilot holes on a drill press to the size required for the screws,  2-56, 4-40 or 6-32.
After threading, I complete the "V" scored cut using a table scroll saw with a metal cutting blade, but lately I have just been snapping the threaded nut off the strip.

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[larryd]

Further to post #104

Note, the screw is being used as the standoff method here.







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[larryd]

There are several types of bezels available for mounting single LEDs.

I do not care for the metal version that comes with a nut.

I very much like the mounting hardware in #4 and like the home-made version of #2 and #3.

Below are different methods, I usually use:





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[pert]

I do not care for the metal version that comes with a nut.

Why not?

[TomGeorge]

I do not care for the metal version that comes with a nut.

Why not?

Like me probably forgets to put the nut and washer on before soldering to the leads.


Tom....

[technogeekca]

I love this thread, talk about great tips and tricks posted here. I definitely want to see and contribute more to this thread.

I'm going to start off with a real simple one that many of you probably already know and use but here it is anyway.

I always keep my strips of used Solder Wick and have used them for a couple of things.

1- Add solder to get rid of any of the exposed braiding and use it for ground straps.
2- Lay it down on PC Board Traces that don't seem robust enough to handle higher currents and then flood it with solder. It even works great to fix a trace that has actually fried. Done properly it looks good and well no burnt traces.

[larryd]

I have used the silver/chrome  coloured bezels but prefer the black/matte finish of plastic.



I have not tried these yet:



As mentioned these are a good version.



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[larryd]

Twisting wires can help keep your projects more organized and manageable.
Twisting can cause some signal cross talk between wires, however, for short distances and the frequencies seen in Arduino projects this is usually negligible.
The images below present some ideas you might want to use in your next project.










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[larryd]

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[TomGeorge]

Hi,
I use post #116 to make twisted pairs.

I SET the twist by briefly running the heat-gun up and  down the twist before releasing it.
It relaxes the insulation and helps to get even twist.

Tom...

[larryd]

I love this thread, talk about great tips and tricks posted here. I definitely want to see and contribute more to this thread.

I'm going to start off with a real simple one that many of you probably already know and use but here it is anyway.

I always keep my strips of used Solder Wick and have used them for a couple of things.

1- Add solder to get rid of any of the exposed braiding and use it for ground straps.
2- Lay it down on PC Board Traces that don't seem robust enough to handle higher currents and then flood it with solder. It even works great to fix a trace that has actually fried. Done properly it looks good and well no burnt traces.

That would increase the current handling of a trace quite nicely.
Regular bus wire works also and surplus solder.

See EEVblog:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L9q5vwCESEQ

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[larryd]

Hi,
I use post #116 to make twisted pairs.

I SET the twist by briefly running the heat-gun up and  down the twist before releasing it.
It relaxes the insulation and helps to get even twist.

Tom...

Just tried this, works well ! 


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