Keysight knows how to hold a soldering iron!

[Justin_]

Hey so I saw a Keysight Oscilloscope Facebook post where they had a woman holding a soldering iron so I shih posted "WOW SHE IS HOLDING THE SOLDERING IRON THE RIGHT WAY!!!" in reference to the photo below and they actually liked it. I don't know, I just found it entertaining.

[Tomorokoshi]

Let's see:
- Holds soldering iron the right way
- Many tools all over the desk
- Actually holding solder
- Fluke DMM there as well
- Board held up in a stand

The only thing missing are the safety glasses, the fume extractor, and the static bracelet.

Ha! Who am I kidding! Those are missing in a lot of workbenches anyway!

[691175002]

Do people really use bulky irons like that for pcb work?

A bulky handle makes me think the tool is better suited to plumbing or stained glass, but I might be spoiled.

[kalel]

That should be the responsibility of whomever is "designing" the scene, to ensure that everything is placed as should be and held as it should. Unless none of that is important for the specific image.

In any case, we can't say it's the model's responsibility to know how to solder unless the image is of a real workplace worker actually working on a project.

[Cubdriver]

Not only is she holding the iron properly, she also appears to be using actual SOLDER with it, rather than the more typical test probes or screwdrivers or <anything else except solder> that you normally see in this sort of image.

Nice to see that Keysight paid some attention to the details.   

-Pat

[mikeselectricstuff]

Fluke DMM there as well

Fluke DMM, in a Keysight post.... 

The only thing missing are the safety glasses

Safety glasses ?

[bd139]

Having been in moorfields eye hospital for a night after a soldering blim landed on my eye, yes safety glasses.

[amyk]

Do people really use bulky irons like that for pcb work?

A bulky handle makes me think the tool is better suited to plumbing or stained glass, but I might be spoiled.

At least it looks to be temperature-controlled, not just a direct mains iron. Possibly a Weller?

Here is the full stock photo: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-soldering-a-circuit-board-in-her-tech-office-royalty-free-image/517234414

But I agree, a Hakko or similar 936 clone would look less anachronistic today. Oddly enough, I couldn't find any stock photos with that style of iron.

[NiHaoMike]

If you look closer, you'll notice that the "engineer" painted her nails. That's very uncommon with hardware engineers since painted nails don't stay nice for very long after handling PCBs. (Out of all the hardware engineers I know in person, only two paint their nails!) It's quite a bit more common with software engineers.

Do people really use bulky irons like that for pcb work?

A bulky handle makes me think the tool is better suited to plumbing or stained glass, but I might be spoiled.

Skip to 4:25.

She shows off the huge soldering iron she uses to solder together battery packs. I'd imagine it would be just as useful for soldering very high current PCBs.

[Ampera]

Depends on what sort of PCB work. Can't see it well, but if it's all through-hole (not on a modern board, but maybe we have a retro computer nerd here?) then it doesn't really matter that much.

[nanofrog]

Looks like a Weller WLC100 to me, which is nothing more than a fire stick + light dimmer.

[vk6zgo]

Do people really use bulky irons like that for pcb work?

A bulky handle makes me think the tool is better suited to plumbing or stained glass, but I might be spoiled.

It doesn't look any bigger than a Weller WTCP.
There are still a lot of those being used for PCB use.

I find they are easier to manipulate than some of the more modern irons.
AND they have enough reserve to not wimp out on boards with large areas of copper.

In my last job, we had a cheapo rework station for the really small stuff & a Weller for everything else.
I often didn't bother to turn the other thing on, as the Weller was quite capable.

In the previous job, we had  earlier versions of the Hakko.
These would often be unable to make satisfactory joints on boards with  a lot of copper,  unless we preheated the PCB with a heat gun.

Main problem was poorly designed boards & excessive diameter interconnecting wires, but that's another
story. 

[bd139]

TCP iron here. It eats up everything you throw at it. I can attack big 1960s capacitors soldered to thick copper PCBs followed immediately by 0805's without even changing the tip or temperature. It's easy to control when you've had one in your hand for at least 25 years

[cdev]

Please, all of us. I find it really sad that we're having this discussion about this and that virtually every single stock photo in ads of somebody soldering, especially women, is dangerously wrong.

Please, lets all of us, try to make it a point to teach somebody else to solder properly at a basic level.

[kalel]

Please, all of us. I find it really sad that we're having this discussion about this and that virtually every single stock photo in ads of somebody soldering, especially women, is dangerously wrong.

Please, lets all of us, try to make it a point to teach somebody else to solder properly at a basic level.

Do people learn from those photos? If you search "how to solder", usually you get some reasonable instructions.

[Ampera]

If people take these photos seriously, I doubt they have the mental capacities to even learn how to solder.

[Beamin]

If you look closer, you'll notice that the "engineer" painted her nails. That's very uncommon with hardware engineers since painted nails don't stay nice for very long after handling PCBs. (Out of all the hardware engineers I know in person, only two paint their nails!) It's quite a bit more common with software engineers.

Do people really use bulky irons like that for pcb work?

A bulky handle makes me think the tool is better suited to plumbing or stained glass, but I might be spoiled.

Skip to 4:25.

She shows off the huge soldering iron she uses to solder together battery packs. I'd imagine it would be just as useful for soldering very high current PCBs.

Is that a guy or a girl? The hair has streaks in it which means they have been to a hair place which men don't do but they have no boobs but the hand mannerisms are feminine.

[David Hess]

Do people really use bulky irons like that for pcb work?

A bulky handle makes me think the tool is better suited to plumbing or stained glass, but I might be spoiled.

At least it looks to be temperature-controlled, not just a direct mains iron. Possibly a Weller?

Unfortunately the first one looks like one of Weller's non-temperature controlled irons which use a red enclosure instead of Weller blue.  The second photograph shows what looks like an unregulated soldering iron which would be terrible choice on a board like that.

TCP iron here. It eats up everything you throw at it. I can attack big 1960s capacitors soldered to thick copper PCBs followed immediately by 0805's without even changing the tip or temperature. It's easy to control when you've had one in your hand for at least 25 years

The Weller TCP irons are great.

[Cerebus]

Please, all of us. I find it really sad that we're having this discussion about this and that virtually every single stock photo in ads of somebody soldering, especially women, is dangerously wrong.

Please, lets all of us, try to make it a point to teach somebody else to solder properly at a basic level.

So you want us to go out and give remedial soldering lessons to photographers and art directors? OK, I'll give it a go, but I suspect I know where I'm going to end up sticking the iron.

[amyk]

Is that a guy or a girl? The hair has streaks in it which means they have been to a hair place which men don't do but they have no boobs but the hand mannerisms are feminine.

Both and neither.

[Ampera]

Please, all of us. I find it really sad that we're having this discussion about this and that virtually every single stock photo in ads of somebody soldering, especially women, is dangerously wrong.

Please, lets all of us, try to make it a point to teach somebody else to solder properly at a basic level.

So you want us to go out and give remedial soldering lessons to photographers and art directors? OK, I'll give it a go, but I suspect I know where I'm going to end up sticking the iron.

Hmmm, I wonder how effective a soldering iron would be as a weapon.

Well, if it wasn't attached permanently to a chord. Maybe one of the NiCad ones.

Is that a guy or a girl? The hair has streaks in it which means they have been to a hair place which men don't do but they have no boobs but the hand mannerisms are feminine.

Both and neither.

You could have just said she was trans.

Also AFAIK transgenderism means that you are still one or the other. That's the point of it.

[Cerebus]

Is that a guy or a girl? The hair has streaks in it which means they have been to a hair place which men don't do but they have no boobs but the hand mannerisms are feminine.

Both and neither.

You could have just said she was trans.

Also AFAIK transgenderism means that you are still one or the other. That's the point of it.

Just a perfectly ordinary woman who's a bit androgynous. Voice is clearly and naturally female (trans people take about 20+ years to get this right, if ever), wide hips and hands not 'too big'. I suspect the person who raised the question hasn't met enough women to realise that quite a lot come with small boobs and no staples in their midriff and has probably never met a single trans person in their life.

[MrW0lf]

 



Some extra content for connoisseurs:

https://youtu.be/4QqxlOr7Jh8?t=4m13s

[IanB]

Just a perfectly ordinary woman who's a bit androgynous. Voice is clearly and naturally female (trans people take about 20+ years to get this right, if ever), wide hips and hands not 'too big'. I suspect the person who raised the question hasn't met enough women to realise that quite a lot come with small boobs and no staples in their midriff and has probably never met a single trans person in their life.

Except that by her own biography she is in fact male, transitioning to female. I also think the body shape and movements look very masculine.

[Cerebus]

Just a perfectly ordinary woman who's a bit androgynous. Voice is clearly and naturally female (trans people take about 20+ years to get this right, if ever), wide hips and hands not 'too big'. I suspect the person who raised the question hasn't met enough women to realise that quite a lot come with small boobs and no staples in their midriff and has probably never met a single trans person in their life.

Except that by her own biography she is in fact male, transitioning to female. I also think the body shape and movements look very masculine.

I stand corrected, but my analysis by appearances only stands - I reckon I'd have been right 95+% of the time. Very much a corner case and just goes to show quite how fluid gender characteristics are in practice.