On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 08:20:07 -0600, Notan
wrote:


Naw, the entire drive shell is a pretty massive 'sink... all
you have to do is get the bit above the melting point of the
solder and that can even be done before it's inserted into
the screwhead.

You still have to heat the screw at least to the melting point of the
silver solder for it to stick.


Yes, but if the case is metal that shouldn't matter.

snip

Am I missing something?

Yes, you're missing that heat density high enough to melt
solder on a bit will not heat up and entire drive enough to
damage it. Ever noticed that things can be soldered and the
rest of the board isn't trash afterwards? Same situation,
except that it's an order of magnitude harder to heat up a
giant hunk of metal enough to do damage.


While the case might be metal, there's a good chance that some of
the internal components aren't... Heat those up and your drive is
dead in the water!

If someone has never soldered anything large in their entire
life, this certainly isn't the best project to start out
with... but generally speaking, it's rather trivial to heat
up a piece and not have it heat up a giant block of metal
connected by a mere millimeter or two of loose contact, very
much at all in the time it takes to melt a little solder.