One handed soldering

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frrobert
 
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One handed soldering

Post by frrobert »

I have looked at several of your products which come as kits but have not purchased them yet as they require soldering.

I only have one usable hand for things like soldering and have yet figured out a way to solder items like your kits using one hand. I have figured out how to solder larger items using a "third hand" but not something smaller like shield pins.

Do you sell anything like an auto-feed soldering station for hobbyists? I have seen some industrial ones for $1500 but that is out of my price range. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: One handed soldering

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

We do not have anything like that in the store. I believe that Hakko makes one in the $500 range. But that is still rather pricey for hobby use.

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dhalbert
 
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Re: One handed soldering

Post by dhalbert »

Some discussion here, where someone posed the same problem. I found some other discussions, but that seemed to be the most informative. I think a good suggestion from that discussion is to use solder paste. Apply it with a syringe, say, and then just touch the iron to it. Adafruit has a lot of discussion here about using solder paste, mostly in the context of SMD manufacturing.

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Franklin97355
 
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Re: One handed soldering

Post by Franklin97355 »

This is not associated with Adafruit. http://www.trusonik.com/SSN

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Disciple
 
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Re: One handed soldering

Post by Disciple »

Maybe some person with an eye for design, a 3D printer and a metallic tube, like the steel body of a ball-point pen, could create an attachable feeder for a fraction of the cost (protecting the plastic from the heat, of course). Wish I was that person. Anybody else?

Hallelujah!
Disciple

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: One handed soldering

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

You can use a jeweler's technique:

Use something like a craft knife to cut chunks of solder about 1/8" long. Pick them up with fine-point tweezers, dip them in paste flux, and place them on the spot you want to solder. Then bring the iron to the joint and melt the solder.

The chunks of solder are called 'pillions', and paste flux is sticky enough to hold them in place as you bring in the iron. You'll still want to place the pillions on one side of a joint and heat from the other, but as you work with them you'll get a sense for how much solder you need for a given joint, where to place it, and even how to bend it for better stability.

For quick joints, you can absolutely break the rule that says, "heat the joint and not the solder" by gathering a blob of solder on the tip of your iron and touching it to a well-fluxed joint site. You have to be meticulous about keeping the tip of your iron clean and fluxing the metal you want to join, but with some practice you can make excellent joints.

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frrobert
 
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Re: One handed soldering

Post by frrobert »

Thank you everyone for their suggestions. I guess now I should get some practice boards and see what works and what does not.


franklin97355 I saw that device http://www.trusonik.com/SSN[/quote] last week and it would be perfect it if it works. I can not find any reviews about it besides their own website and the 185 reviews on the website seem to be hard coded and not a link you can click to read the reviews.

So part of me is going this device would be perfect and part of me is going this is too good to be true.

Thanks again everyone.

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