Electronics Work Bench - Tools, Third Hands, Lighting, Solder

[Marrold]

Good Morning,

The electronics bench could do with some love. The two illuminated magnifiers have just about had it, and wont stay in position even with tightening, adjusting, and swearing. We could also do with some more clippers, needle nose pliers, third hands etc and I believe theres only a roll of ROHS solder on the bench

If I need to purchase the bits and expense them I'm happy to do so. Does anyone have any suggestions, objections or preferred suppliers etc?

Cheers

Marrold

[Adrian Godwin]

The magnifiers have always been pretty rubbish. They're balanced by friction rather than springs and have a very short life if adjusted often.

The only ones I recommend are those made by Luxo. Expensive but sometimes available on ebay (there's a fgloor standing one at the moment at £29 which is a great bargain, but awkward for the bench).

I'd like to add small screwdrivers (crosshead and flat) to the list please.

Rapid electronics is probably a good source., Avoid Maplin for tools.

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[Calum Nicoll]

Great idea! I reckon it would be v useful to have a roll of thin (say 0.4mm or less) solder, a litre of alcohol for removing flux (possibly in an easy to dispense bottle), and something to clean (qtips?). Also I don't remember seeing any solder wick. Also a pack of fine tweezers - eBay has some good sets of 6 or so for 10 quid.

Ideally also would love another tip for the metcal iron, and also a decent hot air station - all the ones we have seem to put out v little air - I had a 858d at home which the space also has - but the one in the space always puts out way way way less air and i suspect it's broken.

[Mr Ed]

On Wednesday, 19 July 2017 10:12:00 UTC+1, Marrold wrote:

Good Morning,

The electronics bench could do with some love. The two illuminated magnifiers have just about had it, and wont stay in position even with tightening, adjusting, and swearing. We could also do with some more clippers, needle nose pliers, third hands etc and I believe theres only a roll of ROHS solder on the bench

If I need to purchase the bits and expense them I'm happy to do so

I'd buy only the cheapest cutters etc that money can buy to be honest. People will use the flush cutters to hack through M3 bolts, ruining them. The expensive ones will get ruined just as fast as the cheap ones, but cost a lot more. If you're happy to wait, you can get then for under $2 each from Aliexpress.


-Ed



[Marrold]

Hi Ed,

Yes the intention is to get some cheapish items as their lifespan isn't expected to be huge. 

A few suggestions have been made off-list

Third Hands - http://cpc.farnell.com/duratool/d00269/clamp-tool-with-magnifier/dp/TL1047802

More Solder Sponges / Steel Wool

Calum- I'm not an expert in hot air, but the few times I've used the station in the space it seems to work, I've been able to remove fairly large components and replace them without any issues. Have you had any problems?

Cheers

Matthew

[JJ]

If you're ordering basic stuff from CPC there's a good chance they're in a promotion, so if you've got time then where the order code is in the form aannnnn try suffixing two more digits aannnnnmm where mm is the typically in the range 02 to 17.  At worst it tells you it doesn't exist or the promotion has expired but at best you could get up to about 40% off.  There's no way to predict the currently valid suffixes as they comes from the order codes in the promotion catalogues, though sometimes I make a note of each one with the expiry date, but 02, 04, 05, 07 and 08 seem to be quite common.

[Adrian Godwin]

I'm not sure it's worth getting 3rd hands. They're universally rubbish and new ones probably won't be any better than the old ones.

A small vice is better.

On Thu, Jul 20, 2017 at 7:57 PM, JJ <jj.so...@gmail.com> wrote:

If you're ordering basic stuff from CPC there's a good chance they're in a promotion, so if you've got time then where the order code is in the form aannnnn try suffixing two more digits aannnnnmm where mm is the typically in the range 02 to 17.  At worst it tells you it doesn't exist or the promotion has expired but at best you could get up to about 40% off.  There's no way to predict the currently valid suffixes as they comes from the order codes in the promotion catalogues, though sometimes I make a note of each one with the expiry date, but 02, 04, 05, 07 and 08 seem to be quite common.

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[henry...@ntlworld.com]

I think something like this would be more useful.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/SN-390-Adjustable-Printed-Circuit-Board-Holder-Frame-PCB-Soldering-and-Assembly-Stand-Clamp-Repair-Tool/32797605533.html?spm=2114.search0104.8.14.vuFVW9

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[Adrian Godwin]

Yes, though we already have a panavice with circuit board clamps, and someone may want a smaller unit that will be helpful in soldering small plugs - which the helping hands would do, if they were any use.

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[Kimball Johnson]

I have a box of similar - I meant to bring some in - would 3 do? they are designed to be bolted down to secure them, and have both PCB holder and a vice that can be attached to the base

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[Andy Selby]

On Thursday, 20 July 2017 21:42:31 UTC+1, Adrian Godwin wrote:

I'm not sure it's worth getting 3rd hands. They're universally rubbish and new ones probably won't be any better than the old ones.

Try making your own with coolant pipes, croc clips and a 3D printer.
 https://mkmakerspace.co.uk/coolant-pipe-helping-hands/

[Chris Hemingway]

As a infrequent user of the bench for SMT stuff, other things would be some more tweezers (theres about 2 pairs left, and there a bit bent), kapton tape, and solder wick. I bought more solder wick and flux last week and have left them in the SMD box, but we could do with some thinner solder wick as well. Some scalpels would also be nice for cutting traces etc.

Agree about the snips, there very easy to abuse, its not worth getting nice ones, maybe just ensure they are standard size? (e.g. 120mm, not the tiny christmas cracker ones).

The bulb in the white microscope has also gone missing, does anyone know what type it is? It says 12V 10W on the base, but I don't know the fitting, image attached. Im currently balancing my phone on the top to illuminate things.

[henry...@ntlworld.com]

Looks like a GU5.3 to me. I've a 50W GU5.3 bulb, but that would overload the transformer.

[Michael Cullen]

I was doing a bit of soldering yesterday - mostly pin headers to some Dev boards but also removed a few SMT 0-ohm links. Some notes:

* Heat gun works absolutely fine
* Precision gold soldering station seems to have a dead iron
* Metcal iron on right works fine
* Metcal on left heats up, but not nearly enough to melt solder

The two Metcal ones were the other way round but I swapped the irons over to both confirm my suspicion that one wasn't working right and also because I was working towards the right of the bench. The fault followed the iron rather than the base.

The only working lamp seems to be lying on its side at the back of the bench! The magnifier to the right of the bench also seems dead. In general there isn't nearly enough lighting.

The working soldering iron in the list above has quite a large tip - the precision gold one would have been nicer if it were working due to the sharper tip (especially for working on the surface mount links!)

Flat head screwdrivers seem to be in short supply - they're either too big or too small for the PCB terminal block I was trying to use!

For completeness I'll add that the fan was working as expected and the rigol scope was working fine as well. No reason to suspect either of these wouldn't but I figure it's worth mentioning as a snapshot of the state of things right now.

Oh, one more thing, there doesn't seem to be a proper set of multimeter probes around that isn't permanently attached to a meter (most of which have dead batteries) there's one red one that doesn't look in the best of shape, but no black one. Plenty of banana plug leads but nothing pointy enough to poke around a circuit easily.

Michael

[Adrian Godwin]

I think the decent probes mostly got stolen along with the decent meters.

If someone gets a chance, could you try swapping a few more parts of the metcal iron ? It's got three  components : tip, coil and handle/lead. It's most likely the coil that's at fault but it would be useful to find out.

[Marrold]

Hi.

Thanks for the info Michael, I will pop into the space tomorrow evening and if anything is salvageable on the broken irons. As Adrian mentioned hopefully its just the tips and coils which are 'consumables' 

Cheers

[Michael Cullen]

Yeah more than likely. They're consumables but have been consumed!

[Marrold]

Hello,

I've collated the responses both on and off list and sent over a provisional list to the trustees for approval. 

I checked out the soldering irons, one of the Metcals had a dead coil (ordered) and I suspect its the same for the 'precision gold'. The controller shows an error that indicates an issue with the iron, and the continuity is fine along the cable, so it must be the element / coil.

Does anyone know where it came from? I have a feeling it just appeared one day.

Cheers

On Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 10:12:00 AM UTC+1, Marrold wrote:

[Calum Nicoll]

Thanks much for working on this Marrold - exactly the kind of member LHS needs more of! Cheers, Calum

[henry...@ntlworld.com]

A few irons and some solder were donated to the space by a non-member, a couple of months ago, through me.

I think one was a Weller WS50, and there were 3 or 4 others.

I can't remember the name of the donor off-hand, but I can look it up, if you really need to know.

I did, of course, thank him for his kind donation.

[Marrold]

Greetings.

I tidied the electronics bench over the weekend and many of the tools on the work bench have been replaced, so we now have two fully functional soldering irons and lots of shiny new hand tools (Screw Drivers, Snips, ETC). I still need to sort out some new solder, lighting and other consumables. 

Please could everyone do there best to keep it tidy and organised!

Thanks to Andy T for sorting it, the trustees for approving it, and the general membership for subsidising the improvements.

Cheers

Marrold

On Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 10:12:00 AM UTC+1, Marrold wrote: