[Elecraft] Soolder fillets

[Alexandra Carter]

> I was a certified NASA solderer, and no NASA soldering course I ever 
> took required fillets...It was quite the opposite, minimal solder was 
> required in the interest of saving lift-off weight...It was estimated 
> that minimal solder in the Apollo program saved 450 pounds in entire 
> launch vehicle...OT?...Yes...

We had an ex-NASA guy where I worked when I was a student, he talked 
about the NASA soldering technique, and yes it seems to closely match 
the Elecraft soldering technique! They were given an amount of solder, 
and told to solder a board, install a bunch of components I guess, and 
then at the end of that, graded on how much solder they still had left! 
I hope they looked at the quality of the connections too, I'm sure that 
was a factor too. When I read in the Elecraft manual about how to 
solder their way, I was reminded of this guy. So, we're learning to 
solder like some very respected builders when we build our Elecrafts!

> My Hakko 808, which I dearly love, will NOT remove all the solder 
> completely through to the other side of the board...

Your Hakko 808, which you dearly love, is the modern version of the old 
OK Industries solder sucker, a very good one, BUT, for real 
solder-sucking bliss, get a Pace! Also learn to do daily maintenance on 
your Pace, since they need it - they're the Ferraris of the 
solder-sucking world, and you need to replace the tip daily, filter 
often, clean out the handpiece filters, and have a good understanding 
of how that baby works inside and how to keep the vane pump happy. 
Expensive, high-maintenance, but the best solder-sucking I've ever 
seen!

73 de Alex NS6Y