It didn't explode....... YET (aka niges amp)

[Derek]

I can do this Saturday, what time you talking?

[nige2000]

10ish onward is fine

[jkeny]

I see from the pics some macho dudes do smd work without a magnifier :)

[nige2000]

I see from the pics some macho dudes do smd work without a magnifier :)

in the pic i was soldering on the precision zfoil resistors for feedback and gain setting on the bottom layer of the amp board
the top layer we did in my diy reflow oven with reasonable success maybe 80% perfect
the solder joints look fantastic in such instances and a touch up with the iron on the others
i tried the first few on the hot plate and the hot air but most of the jfet sot23 parts were moving to hopping off the boards just before reflow

i don't particularly find the magnifier essential for applying paste, component placement or soldering at least so far
although i have some difficulty in poor lighting situations, i need good light
Pearses waldmann magnifier was very efficient in checking solder joints and bridges provides lots of confidence in whats been checked

Pearse was also doing a much better and tidier job of applying solder paste to the boards using it than i was without

[jkeny]

Jaysus, I looked up the price of Waldmann magnifiers €500 & up
I bought a good magnifier with in-built light in Maplin for €20

[nige2000]

Jaysus, I looked up the price of Waldmann magnifiers €500 & up
I bought a good magnifier with in-built light in Maplin for €20

ive a couple of what i thought were decent led magnifiers myself the waldmann just embarrasses them badly
although id love one id just wouldn't get enough use out of it

[jkeny]

I guess Tony must do a lot of smd work then :)

[jrling]

Seeing that 50 Euro note (aka £50 at current exchange rates) getting near to the hot soldering iron is making me nervous.

Is that the day's wages for the volunteered assemblers?

[randytsuch]

Seeing that 50 Euro note (aka £50 at current exchange rates) getting near to the hot soldering iron is making me nervous.

Is that the day's wages for the volunteered assemblers?

I figured it was to bribe the inspector.

BTW, we have fancy magnifying lamps at work, they are great for working on SM parts.
At home, I have a magnifying visor. It gets to job done, and is much, much cheaper. $20 versus hundreds of dollars.

[nige2000]

Maybe an offering yo the DIY electronic gods
In hope that no components would release the magic smoke on first power up

I'm lucky so far I Dont really need magnification
But I'm sure that in a production environment industrial spec magnifiers would be quite the time saver