[dorkbotsea-blabber] Soldering station

[alex at alexcphoto.com]

Great video,.. It took away the little bit of hesitation I had on some elements of SMT, it almost looked easy. (if you have a board made for the part.)

BTW, picked up the Weller digital solder station last night,.. First impression when pulling it out of the box was wow, this is crappy build quality, the face plate plastic has a slight warp to it,.. The red glass has a defect,.. the "box" portion just feels and looks low quality,.. The temp knob is a bit off center.  but then I got to the pencil,.. its light, it flows, the grip is just the right size, the cord is soft,.. and does not hamper movement at all,.. Its minimalist, yet some how perfect. plugged it in and cranked it up to 650,.. Just like some of you said, it reached the desired temp in about 20 seconds. Only did a few points on a project but it seemed to work perfectly with the silver solder i use, regardless of its visual aesthetic issues, i think its going to work nicely.

I guess for 150$ I expected a tank, something that looked, felt, and worked like a pro tool,.. I guess two out of three aint so bad,.. 

Alex

--- mike at dawgdayz.com wrote:

From: "Mike Payson" <mike at dawgdayz.com>
To: "A discussion list for dorkbot-sea" <dorkbotsea-blabber at dorkbot.org>
Subject: Re: [dorkbotsea-blabber] Soldering station
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:10:59 -0700

On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 2:24 PM,  <alex at alexcphoto.com> wrote:
> if I did more
> SMT id probably re consider,.. but so far iv been able to avoid SMT for the
> most part,.. still finding most everything available in TH,.. I am sure that
> will change over time,.. but probably not the next 5 years,..

Soldering SMT is easier than you think. I just did my first SMT board
recently, and for most parts it was quite easy. Soldering a 44 pin
TQFP was a bit tougher than soldering a comparable DIP, but it took
less time overall. I'm pretty sure that if I did it more often, I
would find SMT both easier and faster. Soldering an 0603 resistor is a
bit tricky, but I guarantee that you can do it if I can. It's not just
part selection that is the benefit, but it also lets you build smaller
boards. Some parts are cheaper, too.

Here's a youtube video that covers the basics of soldering SMT. It's
the one that I learned from.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3NN7UGWYmBY

One caveat... If you're using Eagle or a similar program to design a
PCB & you build your own parts for anything, be sure to make the pads
the recommended size or even a bit larger. The only part that I had
significant trouble with was an SMT inductor that I had made the part
for & I made the pads to small. It was nearly impossible to solder,
though I did get it in the end.

Mike
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