At 09:48 PM 07/05/2000 -0000,
andy@... wrote:
>Do I need a heat gun to shrink the tubing?
Not necessarily.
>Can I use something else, like passing the soldering iron nearby?
Some people do that, but I haven't had very much luck with that technique.
>Is there a cheap way of doing the heat shrinking?
I use a Bic lighter (hard to get much cheaper than that!). I have a
feeling that's a safer technique than using a gas stove's open flame. You
just want to avoid letting the actual flame touch the heatshrink tubing and
wire insulation, but that requires no steadier a hand than most of the
board soldering.
>Is there a lot of heat shrinking done in
>the other kits that would justify buying a quality heat gun?
Not enough for me. In a private exchange with Andy, I mentioned that I
consider certain of the recommended tools for MOTM assembly to be
absolutely essential (good soldering iron, good cutters & pliers,
workstation with vise clamp) and some to be helpful to use, but optional
(lead bender, for instance), at least for me. I'd definitely put a heat
gun in the latter category - certainly useful, but not necessarily
essential. Of course, YMMV and all that ...
-Doug
ceres@...