"Nate Nagel" wrote in message
...
On 08/16/2010 05:56 PM, tony sayer wrote:
In articleQ7OdnZbA56RZMvTRnZ2dnUVZ_uydnZ2d@earthlink .com, Ralph
scribeth thus



Seems its a dying craft making any of your own gear now.

Anything on You tube on soldering at all?..

meh? I still solder quite regularly, because if nothing else, I'm far
more likely to have solder and heat shrink handy than I am butt splices
and a crimping tool.

Also, the tool makes a huge difference. I (heart) my ancient Weller
soldering station, the constant-temp tips make life so much better.

This is an aside to the discussion on soldering, but it might be of some
general interest. A relative of mine is the manager of a fairly large
electronics manufacturing plant here in the US. Yup, they make electronic
devices here in the USA and have been kicking Pacific Rim, China and Mexican
exports in the rump for years. The devices are major and fairly custom made
for each customer. The result is that our intelligent and educated shop
people are flexible in what they can do, where Pacific Rim only exceed where
it's highly routine.

That aside, he took me on a tour of the plant one day while it was in
operation. The each circuit board, once components are in place, is
rigorously tested by computerized probes that can identify and isolate
specific components that are either bad or didn't get soldered in properly.
The boards are flagged and sent to the "repair" benches. There, about a
dozen people with soldering irons desolder the component and replace it by
hand. The boards then go back to be tested and certified for installation
into the "big iron." Each station had at least 5-6 soldering irons of
various wattages and tips PLUS laminar flow air hoods to extract any fumes.
The lighting was very good, also, as you'd suspect.

He told me that the dozen or so people who man the repair stations and
soldering irons are some of the most highly paid of the hourly workers,
since it takes a combination of manual dexterity, attention to detail and
patience to get the new components in place properly.

Nonny