MOTM

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@...