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<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>Hey Team,</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>You may remember that I started a subthread
about soldering through-hole vs SMD. Well, today I decided to actually
time myself with a stopwatch.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>I timed two different sets of through-hole
resistors.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>The first set was 60 of all one value (10k)
that I buy in boxes of 5000 on tape, so I can bend and cut them very
quickly. My system is as follows:</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>1) I cut 5 strips of 12 resistors each from
the box.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>2) I bend the strips in half so that the
resistors are close packed (they come spaced out).</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>3) I use long straight needle-nose pliers to
bend all 12 resistors at once, about 2 mm from the resistor body on both
sides. This gives 0.4" lead spacing.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>4) I cut all of the leads (in groups of 4)
so that about 1 cm remains on each side.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>5) I stuff all of the resistors, being
careful to orient them all in the same direction.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>6) I solder them all.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>7) I snip them all.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>8) I inspect against a strong
light.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>The entire process for those 60 resistors
(on two different PCBs) took 17:40. That's about 18 seconds per
resistor. This is a little longer than I was expecting, but I am soldering
a little slower these days. It seems that I'm having a little bit of a
problem getting the solder to flow, so each joint takes maybe one second longer
than it should. I think my (Chinese) solder skimped a little on the
flux.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>The second set was 59 of all different
values, from two different boxes containing 59 different little bags in
order as they go on the PCBs -- one box of 23 bags for a 12-stage Dome filter,
and one box of 36 bags for an 18-stage Dome filter (one of the resistors on the
12-stage filter is actually 0 ohms, so that's why there are 1 fewer
resistors). My system here is as follows:</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>1) I take the bag out of the box, tease out
one resistor, put it between my lips, reseal and replace the bag.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>2) I grab the resistor body between my left
thumb and forefinger and bend the leads with my right thumb and
forefinger. This gives 0.4" lead spacing.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>3) I cut the leads to 1 cm on each side and
set down the resistor on my bench in order.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>Steps 1 to 3 are repeated as needed to get
all the resistors needed for one row of the PCB (there are two rows on each PCB
-- rows of 12, 11, 18 and 18 resistors).</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>Then, steps 5 through 8 from above are done
once for each PCB.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>The entire process for those 59 resistors
took 34:45. That's about 35 seconds per resistor.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>So, obviously, the biggest time-suck of
through-hole parts is actually retrieving the parts from their bags. I
believe that the stuffing, soldering, snipping and inspecting only took about 13
minutes for both sets (although I must confess that I didn't time those steps
separately).</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=184254202-02062022>I'd like to conclude this post by saying
that I do not enjoy "racing against the clock" as I did today -- I didn't really
work faster than I normally would, but I was a bit more relentless than
usual. I like to take a more leisurely time, since this is a relaxing
pastime for me. I should also mention that I listened to one of my
favorite pieces of music while doing this challenge: Messiaen's organ cycle
"Meditations sur le mystere de la sainte trinite," and that made the time pass
very quickly. Highly recommended listening -- I prefer the Jennifer
Bate set on the Beauvais Cathedral organ on Unicorn-Kanchana, but the
Olivier Latry set on the Notre Dame organ on Deutsche Grammaphon is also
excellent, but perhaps a little harsher, and maybe a tad too fast in
places.</SPAN></DIV></BODY></HTML>