11 Sep
2011
11 Sep
'11
11:34 a.m.
On 11 Sep 2011 at 10:05, Fred Cisin wrote:
If you get Chuck's help, you can probably also
learn to
solder/desolder Tubas! Not relevant, but lots of fun. My sister
wants me to find an almost irreparable French Horn to remove the valve
housing and make a "hunting horn" - I'm not sure WHY, she has the LAST
Lawson, that he came out of retirement to make for her.
(OT: I've done a couple of natural horns for friends--they're a real
hoot--they play much differently than a valved horn--a more "open"
feel, as you don't have all of those resonance-destroying valves to
deal with. Intonation is a real struggle, but horn players seem to
enjoy rising to the challenge. Great for Mozart, maybe not so much
for Wagner.)
Fred's statement about crappy tools is good. I know a fellow (patent
attorney with Micron) who collects tubas--and I mean he really
collects them. He's got a couple of William Bell's instruments (Bell
played with Sousa's band). He reports that to him, they're nearly
unplayable, but Bell could get great sounds from them. He opines that
Bell could probably have gottent great music out of a dented garbage
can. The skilled people know their tools and can work, if necessary,
with really terrible tools and still do a creditable job. A really
good tool allows an lesser-skilled person to do a decent job, whereas
a terrible tool in the same hands would produce garbage.
Try out LOTS of different solder suckers. For a
beginner, a big blue
spring loaded "Pullit?" may be substantially easier to get started
with, even though once one has skill, a gentle pump is more
controllable and easier to use FOR AN EXPERT.
Druid over on Erik's vintage computer forum is recommending the combo
iron-sucker setup such as ebay item 380167588806. It's probably okay
for removing DIPs, but it looks like too blunt a tool to be useful.
But Dru does a lot of repair, so maybe there's something to his
claims.
The big (not the smaller models, which are almost useless) of the
Edsyn Soldapullt is a frequently-used tool in my toolkit. Keep it
lubricated and clean--the difference in suction between clean and
dirty is amazing. Before starting a piece of work, I clean mine out
and then lube with a spritz of aerosol lithium grease.
Play with solder wick. Many/most? experts may have no
use for it, but
it is GREAT for helping a beginner get the feel of removing solder.
Solder wick is great for hand-soldering SMT packages, such as QFP--
it'll clean up solder "bridges" very nicely. But I find it pales in
comparison to the sucker when removing solder from through-hole
stuff.
Use round wooden toothpicks, solder wick, and whatever
else might work
for YOU, and clean those holes COMPLETELY.
And sometimes a hole won't clear because of a small piece of broken
off lead, no matter what you do. Those holes are *carefully* cleared
with a #70 wire drill in a low-speed Foredom handpiece (don't use a
solid-carbide drill--you'll just end up breaking it off).
You do what works.
--Chuck