[BC] Soldering D-sub Pins

[Gregory Muir]

Jason

That's in the lab.  In the field I use a Weller iron, a small vise and a 
cigarette lighter to shrink the tubing.  And you're quite correct regarding 
the attention thing.  I've used 100W American Beauty irons found at 
transmitter sites and still managed to come up with Spartan solder joints. 
It's mostly in how much care you use when doing the job.

For everyday use you can't beat the Weller temperature controlled stations. 
And now that there are several other knockoff varieties available on the 
cheap, a reasonable good iron can be had a much lower cost.

Eyesight?  Well... I can't give excuses.  I'm getting old and everything is 
going fuzzy.  But it only slows you down a bit.  My three pairs of glasses 
helps but I usually pay the price when I discover I left one pair behind 
after I have come down off the mountain.

While I'm bantering, I'll pass along a few findings for you.  There is a 
little company located down in Mesa, AZ that has some fairly good prices on 
tools, etc.  Their name is Circuit Specialists 
(http://www.circuitspecialists.com/).  They handle the Xytronic 
(http://www.circuitspecialists.com/level.itml/icOid/7483) line of soldering 
equipment which I found to be very reasonably priced and of good quality. 
The only problem is that availability of the replacement tips for the irons 
is not as widespread as Weller and such.  Yes, many other companies handle 
the same line but I chose this outfit because of their good pricing and 
availability of a few other items that are of importance in our work.  One 
of them is a coax connector crimp tool kit that gives you nearly every die 
you will need for crimping a wide array of connectors for only $65 
(http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/3929).  This is the very 
same handle and type dies that others (Ideal, etc.) sell under their 
rebranded name for upwards of $100 for just the handle and one die.

Another hint:  If you check out the "free gift" thingy they have, you will 
find that you can get a free DMM with orders over $50.  I was very skeptical 
about the quality until I obtained one and placed it up against my HP 34401 
6-1/2 digit bench DMM and found it to be dead nuts on all settings.  Now I 
buy from this outfit every chance I get just to obtain a free DMM to give to 
the other engineers for their tool kits.  The only drawback is that it is 
not a true RMS machine on AC, the cheap test leads are prone to breaking 
within a years time and the meter's obvious susceptibility to RF fields 
around transmitters (isn't that why you carry your Simpson 260?) but for 
free or $25 (if you decide to purchase one), that stuff can be overcome.

That wasn't a sales pitch.  I simply look for vendors who offer fair prices 
for their products.

Greg


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "JYRussell at academicplanet.com" <jyrussell at academicplanet.com>
To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2008 7:19 AM
Subject: Re: [BC] Soldering D-sub Pins


>I can't afford any of that fancy stuff.
>
>   So, it's a Weller iron, a small vise with a pair of adjustable alligator
> clip arms from Radio Shcak.
>
>   Even if the iron's a bit hot... taking a minute and paying attention to

<snip>