<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Jason,<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">We do SMT stuff in my shop. We have a pick n place and oven for assembly, but the repairs, rework and final assembly is done by hand. </div><div class="">We have hot air, which works nicely for ICs but blows the 0603 passives away like dust in the wind.</div><div class="">I have a Weller induction based soldering station with a really fine tip and a tweezer attachment. This thing is great. My industry friends love to talk about Metcal, but like the Weller.</div><div class="">However, that’s not necessary. The other workstations in my shop are basically the same iron that you have (our have a digital temperature readout I don’t recall the model) It works great for 95% of what needs to be done. I recommend you use lots of flux pen and solder wick. We use water clean flux and scrub with a toothbrush and distilled water after soldering something. It looks much nicer than a bunch of crusty flux on the board. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I have a magnifier with light around it. Just a glass, not a digital, camera thing. I tried the camera and screen thing, but I found it really hard to associate my hand with what I was looking at. A lot of the time I don’t need to magnify, and we use mostly 0603. I guess it depends on your eyes. Tweezer are my best friend. I have cheep ones and I have to have 5 pairs because all day long I keep losing them. I put them down on every table I stand in front of.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Mark</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On May 19, 2016, at 8:09 PM, Jason Proctor <<a href="mailto:jason@redfish.net" class="">jason@redfish.net</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class="">thanks for the info, all.<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">i have a Weller WTCPT iron, which has been a trusty servant. can i make this iron more suitable for SMT stuff, or are other irons (i see Metcal is popular) just more appropriate?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">any tips for steadying oldish hands while doing delicate work? i did wonder whether our EMS had a setup where nothing was hand-held. do such arrangements exist?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">thanks much!</div><div class="">Jason</div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br class=""><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, May 19, 2016 at 4:57 PM, charlie wallace <span dir="ltr" class=""><<a href="mailto:charlie@finitemonkeys.com" target="_blank" class="">charlie@finitemonkeys.com</a>></span> wrote:<br class=""><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><p dir="ltr" class="">Trinocular boom from amscope with usb camera or a mantis from eBay<br class="">
Metcal from eBay<br class="">
Solder sucker <br class="">
Wiha esd tweezer set<br class="">
Chip quik</p><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5">
<div class="gmail_quote">On May 19, 2016 4:54 PM, "MTG" <<a href="mailto:grant@musictechnologiesgroup.com" target="_blank" class="">grant@musictechnologiesgroup.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution" class=""><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">+1 on the scope, -1 on the USB camera. And I have exactly the same situation regarding taking *my* scope to work and back. They actually have one at work but it has no light. I use 10x most of the time on the microscope and rarely x30. My scope was not much over $100 USD and I've no complaints.<br class="">
<br class="">
<a href="http://www.amscope.com/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" class="">www.amscope.com</a><br class="">
<br class="">
GB<br class="">
<br class="">
On 5/19/2016 4:35 PM, Gordonjcp wrote:<br class="">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br class="">
Binocular microscope is great, cheapy USB camera<br class="">
</blockquote>
> microscope is perfectly okay (we use them at work<br class="">
> when I take *my* binocular microscope home), decent<br class="">
> non-magnetic tweezers and a good soldering iron with<br class="">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
not too small a point.<br class="">
</blockquote>
<br class="">
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