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| Tricks of the Trade - knowledge for every day life |
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| IDEngineer:
One of my most important "tricks of the trade": The correct version of the tool you need is expensive for a reason. Buy it. |
| Berni:
--- Quote from: IDEngineer on December 21, 2021, 09:46:40 pm ---One of my most important "tricks of the trade": The correct version of the tool you need is expensive for a reason. Buy it. --- End quote --- Yeah one always has to learn from personal experience that buying cheep tools can end up more expensive in the end... since that way you end up buying the cheep AND expensive tool before getting the job done. |
| Psi:
He's a tip for getting PCB and stencil alignment when applying SMT paste to boards at home. When doing single PCBs one at a time Get a non-framed stencil, they often come with cardboard on each side. Use double sided tape to attach 5 PCBs in the center of the cardboard in a + pattern, do not use tape for the middle one so that is removable, you will paste this one. You are effectively blocking the center PCB in with a taped down PCB on each side so it cannot move. Now align the stencil and tape that down along the top edge. Now you can paste a PCB, hinge the stencil up, remove the pcb and place a new one in its place. If you're careful the alignment will stay the same. When doing an entire panel of boards It's easier to just put some 3mm alignment holes on both the PCB panel waste area and the stencil. Then you can put some wood underneath and drill two holes into the wood using the PCB holes to get them in the right place. Then you can use some drill bits as alignment pins through the stencil, pcb and wood. That will hold it all alignment while pasting. |
| Kasper:
--- Quote from: IDEngineer on December 21, 2021, 09:46:40 pm ---One of my most important "tricks of the trade": The correct version of the tool you need is expensive for a reason. Buy it. --- End quote --- I'm slowly getting to the point where my time has enough value to be worth spending more on tools if they save me time but generally I'm cheap and it seems ok. Most of my tool purchases though are for woodworking and other home reno type stuff. Concrete drills however are worth extra money. My $200 dewalt POS could not get through some old concrete. My neighbor recognized the sound of the crappy drill and brought me his. That went through easily. Soldering iron also seems worth an extra bit of money to get a good one. I've had my iron and its 1 tip for almost 20 years and quality makes a big difference. Ironically my soldering oven was as cheap as can be: $20 IR toaster oven bought used and it seems fine. |
| IDEngineer:
You have to be careful with tools. I go cheap for tools with few or zero moving parts. Harbor Freight is a great source for hammers, open end wrenches, pry bars, screwdrivers, etc. But a HF torque wrench actually damaged something once so I don't buy anything considered "precision" there. The one exception is gas engines and engine-powered tools. The Chinese have reached incredible reliability with their gas engines. I have a HF power washer with a 4-stroke engine that we bought ~15 years ago. It gets used once per year for a specific application for a few hours. Otherwise, it's stored drained of fuel in both tank and carb. Every year that sucker starts on the very first pull after I fill its tank with gas. Remarkable. I also have one of their 2KW inverter generators. Runs flawlessly for 75% less than the near-identical Honda model. And you can't beat HF's el-cheapo DMM's. Every home should have one, if only so when your friend calls you for advice you can save yourself a trip by letting them be your remote eyes and hands. "Now put the red probe here, and the black probe there... what does it read?" I collect those things using their "Free with any purchase" coupons and give them away to friends like candy. Otherwise, I generally lean toward the better end of the quality spectrum. It just seems to pay off. Stuff just "feels right" and "works right" and you get the job done faster so you can get back to real work. |
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