7 ms·
"Balking at the $50+ charge for turnkey assembly, I opted to take the financially responsible route and pay $200+ for a hot-air rework station to solder it myse
by stn8188 1y ago
"Balking at the $50+ charge for turnkey assembly, I opted to take the financially responsible route and pay $200+ for a hot-air rework station to solder it myself."
Yeah, I feel this :)
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- ctippett 1y agoThat hit home for me too. My DIY cupboard is full of quality buy-it-for-life tools and accessories that I've used only a handful of times (or sometimes not at all).
- ruined 1y agoyou might consider contributing to your local tool library or hackerspace
- ctippett 1y agoGreat suggestion.
- njovin 1y agoWe both know that approximately 24 hours after donating something he will BADLY need it for an unexpected repair.
- loloquwowndueo 1y agoThen he can borrow it from the library he donated it to :)
- jimnotgym 1y agoI'm always worried that some less skilled user will have broken or not maintained it. I don't know how maker spaces get around this
- gdbsjjdn 1y agoUsually they have volunteers who do maintenance. At my local tool library the tools are well-used, but there's also like 10 of everything so you have lots of backup options.
- ruined 1y agomost places i’ve borrowed things will seek some basic assurances that i know what i’m doing, first. for example, when i borrowed a MIG welder, the person at the space asked me to weld some scrap metal in front of them before they let me loose with it.
- Aurornis 1y agoThis is easier than many assume: If you can find the Discord or even an e-mail for your local makerspace and send them a photo, they might urgently send someone to pick it up from you if it's useful to them.
- thiht 1y agoIs a local tool library or hackerspace something common? I’ve never heard of that but that sounds cool
- ruined 1y agotool libraries exist in most cities and a lot of rural areas. many hackerspaces also function as a tool library even if they don’t use the term.
- kleiba 1y agoYou know, for years I have been collecting power tools without having an immediate use for them - because they were for sale, or just because, you know, they're power tools. And a lot of them ended up just sitting on my workshop shelf, some of them never made it out of the box they came in. But then we bought a new house and I started renovating it. I think I have probably used every single tool I ever bought by now, and every time I used one for the first time, I was so happy that I didn't have to go and scout for a good deal first or drive to Home Depot to buy one right now or anything like that. So in my case, it actually paid off in the end to have PTPA (premature tool purchase addiction).
- XorNot 1y agoI've had this happen a couple of times now. There's definitely some jobs where I looked around and realized I'd used just about every tool I have. I think the only disappointment at the moment is my Makita rotary drywall cutter - a reciprocating multi tool is just so much easier to control and makes nice straight cuts easily. Still waiting for the welder to have its moment though.
- kleiba 1y agoA welder, huh? Hm... don't have one yet... hm...
- zrobotics 1y agoThose rotary drywall cutters are the ticket for cutting plastic. I first used one when I was a mechanic before changing careers, and we used one for trimming tough plastics like bumper covers. Takes a bit of practice to get a nice cut, since they are super aggressive, but they make a very nice, clean cut that's far better than any other tool I've tried. I've actually never used mine on drywall, I prefer one of the oscillating tools or a jab saw, but I've used it quite a bit for automotive and electronics work. You can make a front panel for a project stupidly quick with one of those, and it turns out nicer than cutting with a dremel cutoff blade.
- tickettotranai 1y agoI counter by asking if renting them would have saved you money. It's what I do when I need tools I don't usually use
- frankus 1y agoFor just straight up assembly of one-sided SMT boards (i.e. not reclaiming components from a donor board), a $30 plug-in electric skillet and a solder paste stencil from the PCB manufacturer (or patience and a solder paste syringe) works far better than it has any right to. https://www.instructables.com/Simple-Skillet-Surface-mount-Soldering/ https://www.instructables.com/Simple-Skillet-Surface-mount-S...
- Aurornis 1y agoThe hot air station is called a "rework station" because it's very helpful for rework, too. Using a hot plate to reflow boards is fine if you already know everything is correct. Having a real hot air station is very important if you need to change any parts or even fix reflow problems.
- throw-qqqqq 1y agoI prefer a regular soldering iron for SMD. Below 0603 I tend to blow off unrelated components if I’m not very very careful! So for me, a loupe/microscope and a fine SMD iron is the best option. I have some China-model that uses Hakko tips.
- alnwlsn 1y agoNobody believes me when I say that soldering SMD with an iron is easier than through hole. You don't have to keep flipping the board over!
- throw-qqqqq 1y agoTo be fair, it takes a little practice IMO and until you learn how to use flux correctly etc., it can seem very unattainable to ever learn well. I got a huge confidence boost from one of the old engineers with rubbish eyesight. Thinking “If HE can see well enough to do 0603 and smaller, then so can I!” :D A few hours practice on scrapped electronics made a big difference for me.
- 1y ago
- paulddraper 1y agoBut now you have it for "next" time....
- jimmies 1y agoAlternative way to see it: The author had either a $50 solution, or a $50 solution that comes with a discounted hotair rework station for $150… I learned it from Superfastmatt. He needed a piece of plastic that retails for $1500 for his van, so he said: “either I have a $1500 solution or I have a $1500 solution but I get a free fancy 3D printer in the end…” that stuck with me.
- stronglikedan 1y agoLol, was that the thing that jutted out the drive's side and let him put the bed sideways? If so, I missed that quip, but it's great regardless!
- m463 1y agoI've come full circle several times. I have a brake bleeder, an oil change jugs with a cap on top and the side, cellphone tool kits, and more... Sometimes it takes a while to derive the tenets of labor specialization from first principles. How many of us can make more making nets for fishermen than making nets AND fishing yourself?
- XorNot 1y agoSometimes I wonder this and then look up how much it costs to get some job done and realize I'm probably still coming out substantially ahead.
- BizarroLand 1y agoI know my local library loans out tools, I wonder if I can gift my use once tools to them so someone else could borrow them instead of buying?
- viraptor 1y agoYou still need to account for a fun factor. I've got a nas which cost me probably $400 in parts to save on buying a $300 solution. But it's mine, janky, fun and I wouldn't have it any other way.
- 1y ago
- userbinator 1y ago$200 is around 3-4x more than necessary for a decent hot air station these days; I had to check the date on the article as that would've been a more reasonable price 10-15 years ago.
- dotancohen 1y agoCan you recommend a good $50 option for someone getting into the field?
- _shantaram 1y agoYou can get a $15 hot air station and it's fine for getting quite a lot done! Look for clones of the Atten 858D. And come say hi in #electronics on Libera :)
- dotancohen 1y agoI'll look into that, thank you!
- qrsbrrr 1y agoworking class kid here. I feel this too. Card board. Recovered cables. Recovered entire circuits of formerly used boards that fit inside my palm (#jewishConstraints) #Undisclosed parts of my how~yo (how drunk are you willing to get (to train yourself) (while raising a now 23 years old .... "kid" #PGurNOTeventrying #sry4urKId that is already "there"
- tucnak 1y agoChuckled at 40-something kid now, kid! Classic
- vorgol 1y agoI've acquired so many tools like this, and I don't think I've ever looked at them at though I regretted the purchase. Many have enabled me to fix and make stuff down the line.
- ropable 1y agoThis statement also hit home for me when I thought over my woodworking tools. I could buy finished timber for $300, or I could spend $500 on tools and several hours to finish $75 of rough-sawn timber myself. We aren't doing these things to save money.
- Wololooo 1y agoAlmost never, in some cases you can but you need to be really in a nice and usually have access to the tooling for XYZ reasons. Then you would need to factor your labor cost, which is usually more than what would be billed normally in some cases...