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| What to use to hold things to solder? |
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| jtruc34:
I am going to have to solder a few SMD parts to 30AWG wire, and it is quite important that things don't move to much. In general, everytime I have to solder wire to something, I should have something to hold that wire because I have to hold the solder wire and the soldering iron. I've usually used a typical helping hand, with a cast iron base and two crocodile clamps. It has two major problems : the crocodile clips are really not durable. After two months of non-intense use, one has begun to fall appart and the other's parts don't line up anymore. The second problem is that it has a lot of play, and if I wanted to remove it I would have to tighten the screws very much. I'm not sure if it has to do with the fact that this unit was of very poor quality (it is actually from CFH, which I don't think is a very high quality brand), or wether those helping hand are inherently badly manufacture. Furthermore, if I type "helping hand" on TME, I don't find anything. Those things don't seem to be super common, or maybe TME labeling is too specific. What would be some alternative or what would be a better brand? I don't really know what's typically used in those circumstances when the budget is higher than nothing for the whole soldering equipment... Thank you for answering |
| JxR:
--- Quote from: blueskull on May 22, 2019, 03:12:54 am ---PCBite if you can find it. --- End quote --- Found this: https://sensepeek.com/ Is this it? I've still never found something I really like for doing work under a microscope. I currently just use a stick vise: http://www.stickvise.com most of the time, which does work fairly well. The PCBite looks low profile enough though that it might be nice to have. I also have a Panavise. Its pretty versatile, when I don't need magnification. Kind of bulky though. |
| Cliff Matthews:
Helping-hands alligator clips tend to last longer when both jaws are covered with heat-shrink (less damage to objects and less time fussing because the teeth don't line up correctly) YMMV. |
| Berni:
--- Quote from: JxR on May 22, 2019, 03:43:13 am ---Found this: https://sensepeek.com/ Is this it? I've still never found something I really like for doing work under a microscope. I currently just use a stick vise: http://www.stickvise.com most of the time, which does work fairly well. The PCBite looks low profile enough though that it might be nice to have. I also have a Panavise. Its pretty versatile, when I don't need magnification. Kind of bulky though. --- End quote --- Yep can buy PCBite sets and get them shipped the next day. Came across them at a trade show in Germany, was pretty impressed and we bought two of them with a discount coupon code from they gave out at there booth. So far we are impressed with them. They are well made from anodized aluminium and they grip the board really well. For small boards you only need 2 of them to hold your board. The magnets grab onto the steel sheet really well (You can pick up the whole thing by the board and wave it around and it doesn't budge), they don't get in the way at all and will stand up to hot air guns no problem. The big benefit of PCBite however is that it grabs boards of any shape. We end up making a lot of weird non rectangular or even curvy boards and this grabs onto it solidly in every single case while our vices are often completely useless. My coworker absolutely loves it and i think he never used a vice to hold a PCB ever since we got these. These are not as low profile as you might think tho as the posts are pretty tall, but that doesn't bother me at all. Those "flying probes" also work quite well, but they are only usable as DMM probes. The signal integrity of the setup is so bad that it garbles anything highspeed on a scope. I need to experiment with bringing a coax right to the tip, or even better replace the tips with ones that include a active probe (Would improve the bad grounding problem) Oh and that low profile vice thing i might buy for myself. The boards i do at home are usually rectangular so that would work fine. |
| ebastler:
--- Quote from: JxR on May 22, 2019, 03:43:13 am ---Found this: https://sensepeek.com/ --- End quote --- I can't figure out from the photos what "PCBite" actually does. There seem to be holders for a PCB (magnetic posts going onto a steel base plate). Also, "probes" with a gooseneck -- these seem to have permanently attached tips for taking electrical measurements? But do they also provide clamps with a gooseneck, which can hold whichever wire or small part you may want to position relative to your PCB? |
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