Hi Everyone,
I've been using a piece of foam to put on my table so I can put pcb's on it when I solder. It's job is to keep the board from sliding around while I'm soldering it and it does a good job except it is too thick. It is also not very heat resistance as the couple of times the iron has hit it by mistake is has some holes, burns, etc. My question is, is there a thin heat resistance material that that can be used for this purpose that won't slide around?
Thanks,
Alan
Cork board may work.
I use something like that. The coating doesn't seem to burn, even with the iron left on it. Just clean the surface with some alcohol before and after to keep it fresh and free of bumps.
That looks pretty nice, does it have a good non slip grip to it?
That looks pretty nice, does it have a good non slip grip to it?
I have been using those sheets with my baking for years. They have fantastic grip even on tefflon coated pans. The only time they get slick is when there is oil on them, a light scrub with dish soap and it comes right off. Just remember that the use of petroleum products will corrode/destroy them. As a cheap place to find the really good and thick ones, check around for a local restaurant supply store such as "Standard Restaurant Supply" or Bintz. I havent used them for holding PCB's (not a bad idea now that I think about it), but I have a preference for the fiberglass reinforced ones with all my baking. (like this one below)
I would be very reluctant to use any silicone mat that isn't specifically sold for ESD safe applications.
It may be worth looking at carbon fibre heat resistant plumbers mats, e.g
http://www.amazon.com/Steiner-Carbonized-Fiber-Blanket-31618/dp/B000FNUFRA. If working with through hole and you are having big problems with component retention, you could always put it over a piece of foam. As long as the edges are wrapped over the foam to contact the bench ESD mat, it wouldn't even need to be conductive foam.
The problem with some vices is that they raise the board high up off the bench, making it uncomfortable and less easy to solder (wrist has nowhere to rest) and if using a microscope the eyepieces are that much higher which might not be a reasonable working height for you.
Most of my stuff is on small boards, a couple of square inches perhaps, and I use a selection of small drill press vices which only raise the board a couple of centimetres or so. The mobile phone fixtures I use too, but the lips at board edges are quite deep so care has to be taken if parts are mounted close the board edges on repairs.
Hate any sort of PCB vise... they raise the working height too much. Plus, not easy to reposition/rotate the board or flip the board several times (insert components, flip, solder, repeat....)
I just have a rubber/ESD mat on my workbench. Heat resistant (though not indestructible). Can get many good years out of it, and easy to replace if it becomes too dirty/marred/scarred.
I use:
A few sheets of scrap printer paper for anything with a normal iron & not needing the microscope.
An ebay metal chinese PCB holder standing on a piece of scrap wood for microscope or hot air work.
The paper is handy for noting pinouts and stuff down, soaking up flux/ipa mess, sticking leftover tape to, and if it gets a mess a couple of sheets go in the bin and that's it!
Hate any sort of PCB vise... they raise the working height too much. Plus, not easy to reposition/rotate the board or flip the board several times (insert components, flip, solder, repeat....)
It needn't be too hard with a little ingenuity. I built my vise / holder using one of the cheap mobile phone PCB holders on ebay, eg.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Cellphone-Mobile-Phone-PCB-Fixtures-Repairing-Circuit-Boards-Holder-Tool-UK-/261373015157?hash=item3cdb0bb475(many other listings) as a source of parts.
Base plate is 150x150mm stainless (pre-cut from ebay, just needed to round the corners). The rods are 3/16" leaded mild steel square section, 300mm length from ebay. The rods are drilled and tapped M3 with standoffs to bring the PCB height to ~25mm. I added an extra screw and pillar to the joint between the two rods (half lapped, drilled and threaded again).
The max jaw opening came out at 105mm so I can support eurocards. I think 150mm square is the largest practical size given the 3-point support. The height gives enough space for most electrolytics when inverted but still low enough fo fit under my stereo microscope without needing to adjust the column. The screws are countersunk to allow the whole thing to slide reasonably easily on an antistatic mat, no feet. I replaced the clamping screw with a flat ended thumbscrew, the original is ground to a point which means only a couple of threads actually engage. The build means that there's a support block left over that can be used as a spare for the thumbscrew one.
All three jaws slide so it's easy to re position the board or pull back the sprung one to lift the board out and turn it over.
The second photo is a rather extreme usage case just to illustrate holding capacity.
How do you work on the bottom side of that board? The height of the components would interfere with the rod/clamp.
Another Panavise user (
376,
315, and
303 heads with a
300 base). Used a steel plate for the base mount.
You can also DIY some helping hands that actually work from segmented CNC coolant hose, such as
Loc-Line. Take a look
here for some links to examples (photo of the Desk Squid).
Base mounted tweezers can be useful as well, such as tinning wire.
How do you work on the bottom side of that board? The height of the components would interfere with the rod/clamp.
I said that the second photo was an extreme example, just to give a visual cue of scale (I was silly to include it
). Actually it is quite useful for holding items like that for testing, more stable than just sitting them on the bench.
The holder will happily support a single eurocard (100x160mm) at convenient soldering and microscope height, and will still go down to about 20mm square. Yes the middle clamp rod is higher, with about 5mm clearance, but that is still plenty for dip packages and most passives / actives. It's normally easy to find a path across a board that's clear of tall components to accommodate it. I could have fabricated taller jaws if I'd wanted, but I was concentrating on up scaling the (mostly useful) phone pcb holder to decent sized boards.
Still a decent sized holder that fits my need for microscope use and came in at about £10-15 (I could have scrimped on the stainless if I'd wanted to get it lower).
(I was silly to include it )
A quick snap of a more typical usage example...
So far the mat has been working well, but it will produce static readily if you lift it off a surface or roll it. Not sure if that is an issue, I haven't had any problems yet.