Verifying components and particularly, resistor values with a DMM before soldering them in place is good practice that apparently not everyone follows. Desoldering/rework is not my greatest strength so I follow that rule religiously. Also, matching values across channels makes me feel good whether it makes any difference or not.
The lead bender tip reminds me that I had a 3 or 4 piece set disappear into the ether. Gear dedicated to electronics hobby work is well segregated from work gear and nothing ever goes missing... certainly not a set of somethings. I guess I finally have a project for my 3d printing buddy who always ask if I need anything made 👍
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The lead bender tip reminds me that I had a 3 or 4 piece set disappear into the ether. Gear dedicated to electronics hobby work is well segregated from work gear and nothing ever goes missing... certainly not a set of somethings. I guess I finally have a project for my 3d printing buddy who always ask if I need anything made 👍
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I had some of the Kester solder, had been using silver solder, so tried it again. Yes as @rhthatcher suggested without flux this is really easy to use. Is silver solder better, don't know and not going down that road, now if some other OCD wants to........
bunch of cleanin' sissies
yeah, I'm using no-clean flux only for smd work, and cleaning it with alcohol just for cosmetic reasons
for everything else, old good solder with 1-2% of Cu is no brainer ........ and no cleaning
The idea of Cu or Ag solder is very appealing, but is that because you can or have you experimented? I know of a vendor that claims they listen to different solder in different joints, I remain skeptical. Maybe I'm just happy living in ignorant bliss. That being said if I felt there was an improvement in sonics, but then we start 
confirmation bias......
confirmation bias......
Flux residue is supposed to be "Acceptable - Class 1,2,3" per IPC-A-610. I personally don't send out gunked up boards myself on anything I service at work (Railroad Industry, stringent Class 3 PCB assemblies). We had one technician that never cleaned anything and I dreaded getting his units back in for repair. They were always a corroded mess on any area he did work on. Usually the damage (oxidation, corrosion, electromigration, etc) was hidden beneath a connector or a chip. Maybe he replaced the flux in his flux bottle with battery acid... I don't know.. Fortunately audio is dumb and forgiving for the most part and still usually works in the muck and gunk as long as you have the right part in the right place and haven't inadvertently created a short somewhere, or zapped something sensitive with ESD.
Alpha Metals Fluitin Sn60Pb38Cu2 (1532 family of products) is good enough for my work
as I wrote before, thinking of cleaning obly if working on something as FM tuner FE ........ but stopped doing that sort of work years ago
use good drek, no worries
as I wrote before, thinking of cleaning obly if working on something as FM tuner FE ........ but stopped doing that sort of work years ago
use good drek, no worries
Any alcohol above 90 percent wont be for long once opened. You can get 99% anhydrous lab grade alcohol, but once opened it begins leeching water right out of the air and will stabilize around 95%.
Russellc
Always measure. Too ez to confuse 100 R with 100k, and so forth. That, and even if you sort them correctly, they sometimes come ",pre mixed up" from the place you bought them.
Ugh? Did not know such a thing exist till I googled it. I'm getting one!! Thanks!!
Well... if we're getting geeky... there are lots of alcohols. Most Isopropyl above 90% 🙂 I've found it to be closer to 65% equilibrium back in the day FWIW... of course that depends how and where it's stored.
Anyway... I use a lot of this stuff. Works well. I like the helpful tip above of providing links, and I never put in a suggestion. Lots of alternatives.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07J62C1K5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I also buy this for when I'm doing bigger stuff.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08G57WSV2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
Mentioned in the original post in looser terms...
I've had fantastic results cleaning using 99% Isop. and a cheap ultrasonic toothbrush. I use a lot of Isopropyl to "wash" away the redisue after scubbing with the toothbrush. I put the alcohol I'm going to use for that cleaning session (usually quite a bit, say 4-5 oz) in a safety bottle so I can get some spray action going. Works really well. I use Kimwipes if needed, but usually a scrub and spray a few times over makes it all shinny and new looking.
[Edited: be sure you have good ventilation as that Isop is strong]
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07D6KZZQL?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title
I don't double fist though, maybe I should 😀
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B097RFPPYT?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title
[Edited: be sure you have good ventilation as that Isop is strong]
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07D6KZZQL?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title
I don't double fist though, maybe I should 😀
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B097RFPPYT?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title
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I decided, from now on, to prevent all of my OCD moments and urges, simply resorting to best solution - I'm not going to build anything, and will entitle Pa to do that for me
While (hopefully short) waiting for each one Toy he's building for me, I'm going to play changing colors of my Beach stretchers ........ Man got to have some Hobby
While (hopefully short) waiting for each one Toy he's building for me, I'm going to play changing colors of my Beach stretchers ........ Man got to have some Hobby
Even with cap on...nature hates a vacuum. I have made it, and I measure it. Will not stay at 99.
Well, not entirely true, 180 is easy. 190 requires about an 8 ft column. That's as high as I have gone. Above that requires equipment I do not possess.
Lead forming toolsThought I would share a couple of things for other beginners;
1. A very inexpensive and useful tool is a lead bender. These can save a lot of time and enhance the look of your build.
2. My first few builds were done w/out fluxOn my current build I began w/out and then started using it, far superior results w/.
I said a couple, but the use of flux does require flux cleaner, I'm looking at options but @poseidonsvoice has suggested Chemtronics as well as his OCD 😉 method in this post
Lastly double and triple check as you go, fixing mistakes is at best time consuming and at worst can ruin a part.