[Elecraft] Tools to work with:

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Having never tried my hand at kit building I am wondering what does
everyone prefer to use for securing the boards while soldering and what
type of magnified task lights do people use ? I have been reading the
posts for some time and am getting close to placing a K2 order but I
want to have the right tools to work with. 
--------------------------------

I work on a simple wooden tabletop. I've worked with Panavises and other
"board holders" both professionally and as a Ham but have never found
them very useful. But there are those who won't touch a board unless it
is in a holder of some sort. In short, there is no "wrong" or "right"
way about holding a board, as long as you don't damage it or the
components.  Develop a procedure that is comfortable for you and follow
it. I do use a bench that is normally higher than most, to bring the
work up closer to my face. That way I'm not bending over all the time to
get close to the board lying on it. I suppose a vise of some sort might
be attractive if I couldn't get my work closer to my face any other way.


You WILL want a ground handy. A ground strap on your wrist and grounded
work surface are NOT necessary. But  you will need to ground yourself at
times to be sure you are not carrying a static charge caused by
squirming on your seat or walking about. A metal edge on my wooden work
top is grounded. I reach over and touch it whenever I'm about to pick up
a sensitive part. Also, you do want to avoid work surfaces that can
collect a static charge. Many years ago a lot of Hams and service techs
put a bit of carpet on the bench to keep parts from rolling around. I'd
not do that today for two reasons: First most parts would disappear in
the carpet and secondly it would be easy to produce a pretty big static
charge on the carpet moving your hand across it. I have worked many
hours on a bench covered with a simple piece of vinyl or rubber floor
tread, however, with no problems at all. The black surface makes it
easier to see most hardware and other parts if one is dropped. 

What you DO want is a ground handy. It must be something that you KNOW
is grounded to touch to "discharge" your body just before picking up an
FET or most of the IC's. Just touch it before picking up one of those
parts. Some of them are easily destroyed if you are carrying a static
charge when you pick them up. 

Elecraft did a good job of putting warnings in the assembly instructions
so you know when you are about to handle a sensitive device.  Also, I
notice that in the KPA100 instructions Elecraft is warning people to
ground yourself before picking up a fully-assembled Control Board.
Normally, devices are quite safe once they are inserted in the circuit.
It sounds as if perhaps the Control Board leaves some sensitive circuits
unloaded until it's mounted in the K2. 

I've always found that a good magnifier is far more important that
perfect lighting. I've done a lot of service work "in the field"
sometimes with only a tiny flashlight in my teeth for light, so perhaps
it's just that I'm used to less-than-perfect light. Still, I won't turn
off a nice work light if it's handy <G>. What is MORE important to me is
good vision. My 60+ year old eyes don't focus up close easily any
longer. I wear glasses for reading. I augment them with an "Optivisor".
That is a binocular magnifier that comes in various powers that fits
over your glasses. It is held on your head by a band so you can flip it
up out of the way when you don't need the extra magnification. My
"Optivisor" has 4X power lenses in it and works fine for me. Search for
"Optivisor" using Vivisimo.com or Google.com and you'll find sources for
them. 

For some really close checks, I also have a small powerful magnifying
lens that I can use. 

What I personally have found useless for this work are common circular
lights with a magnifying glass in the center. The magnifying lens seems
to be cheap and has a lot of distortion. Worse for me, it requires that
I position my head on one side and my work on the other "just so" in
order to see anything. And it gets in the way of a soldering iron. 

Enough of my opinions. You'll get a lot of good input from other here.
Have fun!

Ron AC7AC
K2 # 1289