Give me a solder gun, and I can produce ...
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Re:One of my favorite quotes (Score:3, Insightful)
Solder "gun"? (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been soldering for nearly 60 years, but "passable" is the best I can manage with one of those horrid things. Give me a fine-tipped temperature-controlled soldering iron, on the other hand...
Re:Nearly MIL-Spec Soldering (Score:1, Insightful)
As a hobbyist I don't build anything military, nuclear, or health related. Just my opinion, but I'd have to be pretty full of myself and my projects to think that I my widget can justify the continued mining and purification of lead.
All metal refining is dirty to one level or another, but lead is especially so. The fact that it's so cheap doesn't lend well to corporate interests in preventing releases to the environment in the air or water.
And it doesn't matter how cool a device is, in thirty years it'll probably be irrelevant. All products have a life cycle and will eventually be disposed. That lead that was once so important for it's ease now winds up in an incinerator or a landfill contributing to poisoning. And the kicker is that lead free solders aren't nearly as bad as that article suggests anymore, and most issues result from mixing leaded and lead-free solders, such as using lead-free solder to join components with lead on the leads and pads. With practice, it's nearly as easy to get good quality joints and in the face of newer formulations featuring doped tin, you can still get that old school shiny look.
Re:missing option (Score:4, Insightful)
mine doesn't have a power cable, you insensitive clod!
(it's a butane-powered iron. I find it easier to work with silver solder on gas than electric irons)
Re:missing option (Score:5, Insightful)
I hate how shitty tools are often labelled as 'for beginners'.
Get yourself a 100W (or greater) Goot (or equivalent) soldering iron if you're just starting out. You'll have enough things to worry about already, don't let a shitty tool cause you even more grief.
Re:One of those little skills (Score:4, Insightful)
Just remember you have to get all the unused flux off the board or it will gradually eat things.