Jeff Liebermann wrote in
:

On Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:46:36 -0600, Jim Yanik
wrote:

I use a small fan to blow gently across my work,directing unhealthy
vapors away from me.

Duz that really work with small components? I tried a recycled CPU
fan with an alligator clip for mounting and found that even the
slightest breeze causes difficulties soldering or desoldering. My
home workshop does have a heater so I use a small electric heater and
fan. When soldering, I have to turn it off.

the fans I've used were no problem.I didn't keep it close,it was about 20"
away,and only gave a slight breeze(on Low). the "whisper fan"(4.7" muffin
fan,low CFM) was very good for that,but it was salvaged from an old TEK
scope,and I had to kluge a mounting for it. a CPU fan would be rather
annoyingly noisy,too.

Also, I wasn't joking about the toxic smog from soldering super-glue.
The stuff really reeks and seems highly irritating. Fortunately, I
don't use much when soldering. Gently blowing it around the shop
seems like an invitation to accidentally stick my head into one of the
floating clouds of burnt super-glue. Without a fan, at least I know
where not to put my head.

Well,my fan worked well with the fumes from soldering,I can't see it being
any different with cyano fumes.

I bought a small fan from Wal-Mart for less than $10.You can
get clip-on or one with a base. Or,like I used to do,wire a power cord
and switch to a 120VAC "whisper fan" from an old instrument.(cooling
fan,very quiet)I even use one for chopping onions in the kitchen; No
tears!

Methinks tears from cutting onions is a basic ingredient of much of my
cooking. Crying is part of the recipe.

NAH.
tears make it hard to use the knives without nicking myself.... ;-)

I've used the Pace vacuum desoldering system,too,while at TEK.

I found an old Pace something desoldering station for peanuts at a
thrift shop. They didn't know what it was. Works really nice.
However, it's not a hot air desoldering system and is therefore fairly
useless for SMT parts.

Not inexpensive,though.

No kidding. I replaced a few parts and had sticker shock. I now use
vinyl hoses, fuel filters, and brazing tip cleaners, instead of the
official Pace equivalents.

And I still preferred my Antex 15w iron with a filed-down non-clad tip
for soldering the small SMD stuff. The smaller SMD Pace tips
(iron-clad)rotted out too quickly.

I once tried to re-plate my collection of burned out tips. I also
made some from scratch. The core metal is copper. On top of that is
a layer of iron, then nickel, and finally solder plate. First, filing
and an acid cleaning bath. I then slowly electroplated some iron, in
a ferrous chloride plus calcium chloride bath, onto what was left of
the tip. Electroless nickel dip followed. I also tried some
electroless silver. I then masked off the tip, and hard black chromed
the rest of the tip. It worked but wasn't worth the cost and effort.

Yeah,that IS a lot of effort.

A new tip was considerably cheaper. The tip life appeared to be
dependent on the thickness of the nickel or silver layer. Electroless
plating just doesn't apply a thick enough layer. Silver seemed to
last a bit longer. I was thinking of trying again, this time plating
the nickel or silver layer.

I'm not sure if the Pace tips are copper-nickel-iron, or the more
common copper-iron-nickel. They may even be solid iron with no
plating, which would certainly oxidize and pit rapidly. That might
explain the short observed lifetime. I would check my Pace, but I
only have the thru-hole desoldering tip.


the PACE SMT tips I had at TEK were iron-clad,except for the really
expensive IC removal tips. Not usually a problem except on the tiny
tips.they would quickly lose their "wettability" and be terrible for
soldering fine pitch leads.At least with the plain copper Antex tips,I
could refile and retin them until they were too short.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com