On 2008-01-31, Don Foreman wrote:
On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:56:01 -0600, Jon Elson
wrote:

Ignoramus19508 wrote:
On 2008-01-30, Don Foreman wrote:

The name (SMD2000) suggests that it is intended mostly for use with
surfacemount devices. Very little solder is used per connection with
these tiny devices and soldering irons (as by Pace) are quite small.
A better choice for larger connections, like switches in a welder,
would be a heavier iron (Weller?) and a manual soldersucker as
"Soldapullt".
http://www.hmcelectronics.com/cgi-bi...uct/2920-0019/


No, these things (at least with the right handpiece, like the
SX70) can remove an INCREDIBLE amount of solder in one slurp.
Remember, companies won't pay $2500 for something like this if
it didn't actually work. One nice thing about this sort of unit
is it has a temperature-controlled heater with temperature
readout of the tip, and the heating tip is also the sucker, so
you don't have to switch quickly from soldering iron to sucker
before the joint cools. Another nice thing about the high-end
Pace and Weller gear is that individual replacement parts are
available, so you can replace any single piece that wears out or
breaks.

Iggy wasn't replacing a high-power switch, but an electronic
switch on the control circuit board.

It was a larger-than-microscopic thru-hole component on a fairly
low-tech board, was it not? I've not seen anything in a Miller welder
that looks much like the innards of a cellphone...

The leads of the switch were rather fat.

Those Soldapullt things are a JOKE compared to a Pace dsoldering
system.

I routinely salvage some expensive 68 pin through-hole
connectors on 6-layer boards. I can just barely tell which pins
are connected to the ground plane and which aren't when using
the Pace.
With a soldering iron and a soldapullt I would never be able to
desolder one of those ground pins, the solder would freeze
before I could get the soldapullt on it.

Jon

I certainly won't refute your good experience with the $2500 tool ...
but if you didn't have the $2500 tool available to you then you might
benefit from a Soldapullt lesson by a technician who is proficient
with one.

No argument here.

I also doubt that repair of circuit boards in Miller Welders is
strongly comparable to the rather more sophisticated and challenging
work you do with 68-pin connectors on 6-layer boards.

In fact, this is what I like about these boards, they are 1) very low
tech and 2) easy to repair due to good part placement 3) easy to
identify components, which look mostly off the shelf.

My repair was, obviously, the most trivial kind, but I appreciated
repairability of these boards.

i