[Elecraft] Tools to work with:

[Tom Hammond NØSS]

Bruce Bodine wrote:

>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?

Then, Ron D'Eau Claire replied:

>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.

I agree with Ron on almost all of his comments, above. However, I do find 
that a small (MOVEABLE) tabletop vise (Panavise or VacuVise) are helpful 
for smaller PC board, such as many of the K2 accessories. I say this 
becasue the larger K2 PC board have enough mass to them that they'll pretty 
well stay in place when I'm soldering to a component lead. However, the 
smaller (lighter) PC boards kinds tend to 'wander' a bit when I hit the 
lead with the tip of the soldering iron.

Personally, I do not care for the Panavise 'arms' which are designed to 
HOLD PC boards, preferring to merely open the main jaws of the vise up and 
slip the board in between them. Easier access and insertion/removal. And 
LOTS less 'flopping' of the (vise) arms bank 'n forth.

>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.

The rubber floor tread is GREAT because the grooves in the tread help to 
keep devices from rolling away from you, and off onto the floow where 
they'll never be seen again.

>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.

ABSOLUTELY! And you don't need the visor which is lighted... just something 
to forget to turn off and run down the batteries.

I have two articulated lights, one (40W-60W) incandescent, the other one of 
the magnified circular fluorescent lamps. One lamp attaches to either side 
of my desk. Both are turned on when I'm building.

>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.

I NEVER use the magnifier in my circular fluorescent lamp... being on that 
long arm, I find it sways back 'n forth way too much. The head-mounted 
magnifier is the berries though!

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

Good input, Ron.

73,

Tom  N0SS