Anthony Burch asked:




Before you start to hand solder a quad flat pack (QFP) to a printed circuit board, you will need several tools and items. This article describes what is needed for the process, including safety items, consumables (materials that are “used up” during the process) and tools.

Whenever doing any soldering, the first thing to consider is safety. In particular, the protection of eyes, hearing, lungs and skin.

The first safety item that I recommend is a face respirator. You can get a face respirator at your local hardware store. There is a selection of filters that you can buy for these, including ones for dust and paint fumes, and so on. I recommend getting the filters that are for agricultural use because they provide good general purpose fume and chemical filtering. They will help to protect your lungs from soldering fumes.

Another way to deal with soldering fumes is to use a bench-top fume extractor. These are great, but personally I just use a face respirator, which is effective and low cost.

Still on the subject of air safety, it is important to make sure that your work area is reasonably well ventilated so that there is not a build up of solder fumes where you are working.

Eye protection is a must at all times. If you use a head magnifier, this will protect your eyes and give you magnification at the same time. When you are not wearing a head magnifier put on a pair of safety glasses.

You must also protect your hearing, especially when using an air compressor during the circuit board cleaning process. Air compressors can definitely be a hearing hazard while they are running. I like to use yellow foam ear plugs for hearing protection. Alternatively you can use ear muff type hearing protectors. For extra hearing protection you can use the foam ear plugs and the ear muffs at the same time.

For protection of your skin, I recommend using latex gloves. Make sure you get the powder-free ones so that you don’t get any talcum powder from the gloves floating onto your boards and solder. You can buy these gloves at the supermarket. They may be labelled “powder free latex gloves for food handling”.

Now we will look at consumables. Consumables are the materials that are used up during the process, such as flux, solder and cleaning solvents.

One of the real secrets of doing quad flat pack and other types of surface mount soldering successfully is to use “gel flux”, not “liquid flux”. Liquid flux doesn’t have enough solids content, or rosin content, for this process.

It is also important to get the “no-clean” type flux, which is inert and non corrosive. Don’t buy the water soluble type flux because it is corrosive and can damage your board if you aren’t able to wash it all off properly after the soldering process.

Any brand of electronic soldering gel flux will do a good job, such as AIM or Multicore. One way to buy gel flux is in a syringe package. This is the most convenient way to buy it. Alternatively, you can buy it in a tub and load it into a syringe for dispensing.

For cleaning the boards after the soldering you will need some methylated spirits (also called “metho”) and a plastic container of some kind. The plastic container can be a lunch box, a food container or an empty ice cream container. Choose the size of the container depending on how big your circuit boards are and how many you want to put in to wash or soak at one time.

And of course you will need some solder. You can get a reel of tin-lead rosin cored solder from your local electronics shop. Any kind of wire type tin-lead electronic solder is fine.

As a side note, if you want to do lead free soldering then of course you will use lead-free solder instead. The process for lead-free soldering is exactly the same, except that the temperature of your soldering iron needs to be higher. You can use the same gel flux as for normal tin-lead soldering. In general, I recommend that you stay with tin-lead soldering unless you specifically need to do lead-free soldering for a project.

Next we are going to discuss the tools that you need.

First of all, just a quick note – you don’t need to buy a “hot air rework station”. They are expensive and you don’t need one for this process. What I recommend that you do get is a soldering iron with a “reservoir tip”.

A reservoir tip means that the soldering iron tip has a concave cavity where you feed the solder in and it stays there, by the magic of surface tension. Then when you place the iron onto the circuit board, the solder in the cavity flows onto the pads and pins of the chip.

The reservoir tip is the best type to use for this kind of soldering but you could also use a normal wide chisel tip on the soldering iron. As long as the wide chisel tip can hold a little volume of solder for the soldering process.

The next tool is a vacuum pickup tool. This is simply a little suction cup with a squeeze bulb attached. You can use different sized suction cup fittings depending on the size of the component that you are picking up.

You will also need some kind of brush. My favorite is a horse hair brush, which is a brush made specially for brushing circuit boards. However, you can use any other kind of natural fibre or nylon brush. For example, a small automotive parts cleaning brush, a toothbrush, or maybe a cosmetic nail brush.

Another item that I have found invaluable is a hypodermic needle. It’s a needle that is normally used with a syringe for intravenous injections. It is extremely useful to have one of these on-hand to fix any problems with quad flat pack bent pins, in case you have a little accident and drop or bump your chip.

To turn the hypodermic needle into an extremely useful tool, simply use fine pliers to make a small 90 degree bend on the end of the needle to make a little hook or grabber for the pin legs.

You can get hypodermic needles at your local pharmacy. Just ask at the counter.

I recommend getting an air compressor. Personally I have a 1500 Watt, 24 litre air compressor that I got at a hardware store for less than a hundred dollars. An air compressor is a great investment for anyone doing electronics work. It is useful for cleaning boards and components. It can blow away dust and also move flux residue.

I also recommend using an in-line separator and nozzle with your air compressor. A separator is simply a cylindrical device that connects in-line with your air hose and nozzle. It separates out any moisture from the air that is coming out of the compressor, so that the air that comes out of the nozzle is relatively dry.

Finally, it is important to consider anti-static handling. Anti-static handling means making sure that any static electricity build-up in your body is not discharged through the chip or board. There are various ways that you may build up a charge in your body, including going for a short walk across a carpet.

To prevent from zapping your chips with a discharge through your fingers or hands, you can wear a grounded anti-static wrist strap, or at the very least make sure that you dissipate any static charge in your body first. You can do this by touching a grounded metal object on your workbench, such as the exposed metal screw on a grounded metal equipment case.

That covers all the items that you will need for soldering a quad flat pack, including safety items, consumables and tools.

Juan Uflerbaumer asked:




Are you using the most convenient tools? If you use tools to get your job done you can find a very good option in the use of air tools, this tools use compressed air to work.
There are a great deal of benefits and advantages using air tools, you can change easily from one specific tool to another, you can save energy and your tools will last more, because they are more efficient and have less maintenance. You also have the use of compressed air to many tasks, blowing off dust, for example.

You can find a wide range of air tools, such as drills, air hammers, grinders, saws, nailers, sanders, staplers, ratchet and impact wrenches, cut off tools and so on. Every common electric tool may be found in air tools version.
You probably are wondering where you can save money on your purchase of air tools as well as on related supplies and products. One resource that is very convenient when you purchase air tools is on an Internet site. There are a lots of benefits to shopping for air tools on online sites.

The biggest benefit to shopping for air tools at online sites is the convenience to search, find, retrieve information, compare, buy and receive your air tools in the comfort of you own business or home. You literally can look for these items completely at your convenience. Buying air tools items can be done twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week.

People literally have saved hours and hours of invaluable time and saved thousands of dollars on purchases of air tools items online.

Generally speaking, you can save a significant amount of time and money on air tools that are purchased through online sites.

Jude Herr asked:




I have to say, growing up in Buffalo, NY with a dad who was a contractor, I was quite sheltered from the fact that “most women do not use power tools”. I really had no clue that there was an kind of sex discrimination in the contracting or power tool world. Naive me, all that I heard about was how my Aunt Ronny helped my dad put the roof on our house and my Aunt Marge was refinishing all the woodwork in her home.

I guess I am lucky because I was brought up thinking that as a woman, there wasn’t anything I could not figure out how to fix or remodel or any power tool I could not use. When I bought my first condo, my dad brought me a suitcase full of power tools on his first visit.

My view of reality and discrimination has broadened but luckily my sense of “being able to fix anything myself or use power tools” has stayed the same. I am surprised when power tool manufacturers put out a line of power tools specially designed for women. Personally, I would never purchase a pink tool – or one to fit a woman’s hand. I really just want the best quality tool for the job. There are small men who use tools.

I get it though. I have many girl friends who don’t even know how to hang blinds or even own a hammer for that matter. There are many women who weren’t as fortunate to have the upbringing I did, and the dad I did and did not learn how to use power tools. I have my Real Estate license in Colorado and have helped many of my single women friends purchase their first home, on their own. With more and more women owning homes, there is a definite need to cater to women in the DIY and Home Improvement field and I am all for it.

Articles like Ms. Fix-it in the Wall Street Journal state that “Home Depot has introduced “Do It Herself” clinics for women interested in learning how to use a stud finder; the classes are evidently a success since, as NPR has reported, in some locales the store is becoming known as a hot singles spot. Even schoolgirls are joining the revolution. The Girl Scouts now offer a Ms. Fix-It badge for members eager to learn how to rewire a lamp or fix a leaky toilet, and an outfit called Vermont Work for Women has introduced a summer program called Rosie’s (as in Rosie the Riveter) Girls promising hands on instruction in the skilled trades.”

It’s these types of informative articles and the paradigm shift that is happening in our society that will change the Google search for “women and power tools” to practical.

Robert J. Carlton asked:




Specialty router bits are useful in a variety of woodworking projects. One of the jobs specialty router bits can be used for is cap pieces. These can be created with a raised panel or stile bit. Bit specialization determines the amount of cuts that can be made on a single pass Tiny router bits can be used to create small pieces of furniture and adding detail furniture.

Router tables are classified by the bits that are used in conjunction with them. These bits are used to make elegant and attractive shapes in ordinary pieces of wood. Professional woodworkers have used these tables for a long time. They can also typically be found in the average amateur handy man’s workshop too. As classy trims and moldings on home furnishings become more popular, more people are investing in quality woodworking materials. People are saving money and picking up a new hobby by discovering that router tables allow them to make furniture improvements themselves.

Router saws are instrumental in simplifying the process of creating bevelled edges or shaped cornices. Bevelled edges may seem like they are far fetched but once you see how simple they are to make, you will be able to complete them easily. Projects that once seemed like they were to hard to complete can be done with router tables. Once you learn the ropes, you will be amazed at what you can create.

Router tables are made to simplify the learning process. There is no need to be intimidating about building projects. Plans can be found that display the shapes that you can get from various bits notions or angles. Free router table plans can be gotten online.

Router tables and table saws occupy about the same portion of space in workshops. If you have a smaller workshop, you can choose form many of the bench top models. Height adjusters can be purchased to help get your bench to the right level so you can properly use the table. Having router tables in line is the only way to get good control and accurate usage.

The equipment with come with instructions as will any plans you get. Good plans will have all of the basic information about the shapes that they router bit will make. They will also have the addition of the creativeness of the craftsman. These things combined will produce a plethora of design options. Router table plans will also have patterns that will detail how to angle and adjust the wood when putting it through the router.

A router table is the best way to accomplish fence capping, building an elegant fireplace mantle or making your signature crown molding. Get that beautiful custom look with this piece of equipment.

Anthony Burch asked:




Before you start to solder using a toaster oven, you will need several tools and items. This article describes what is needed for the process, including a modification to the oven, various tools, and a description of how to make a low cost vacuum pickup tool.

The first item is the toaster oven. You can use any kind of toaster oven, but generally I would not recommend the very small ones. The medium sized ones seem to work best. Whichever one you get, it must have a glass door on the front so that you can see what is happening inside the oven without opening the door.

You will also need a digital thermometer and a thermocouple. You can buy these from your local electronics store.

The thermocouple looks like a long wire with a connector on the end. The connector end plugs into the digital thermometer outside the oven, and the other end goes around the edge of the oven door and into the oven cavity.

It is also important to have a stopwatch, so that you can monitor the time as the temperature changes inside the oven.

You will need to make the following modification to your toaster oven so that your boards don’t get toasted by direct infra red radiation from the heating elements.

The objective is for the heater elements to simply heat the air inside the oven, so a direct line of infra red heat straight from the elements to the circuit board must be avoided.

The way to achieve this is to get some thin sheet aluminium and make a cut-out shape that just covers up the elements. You can use a disposable baking tray from the supermarket to make this aluminium shield.

The aluminium sheet can be attached by weaving it through one oven the oven rack slides. This will hold it in place.

Make one of these aluminium shields for both the top and bottom heating elements inside your oven.

The next item is a solder paste gun. This is the easiest way to apply little dots of solder paste to the surface mount pads for the chip components.

I use AIM solder cream, but any kind of lead based solder paste is suitable for this process. You can purchase a solder gun and solder paste from your local specialist soldering equipment supplier. I purchased these items from Okay electronic solutions here in Australia.

Now we will discuss how to make a vacuum pickup tool from a small fish tank air pump, which you can get for about ten dollars from your local aquarium shop or pet shop. I will describe the way that I made the modifications.

I removed the case of the air pump so that I could access the air inlet hole of the pump. Then I simply fitted a small plastic nozzle that I got from a syringe dispenser. Attached to that is a short length of 3mm vinyl air hose, which I got from the aquarium shop. Then another nozzle made from metal, which came from another syringe dispenser.

You can get these nozzles from your local specialist soldering equipment supplier. The nozzles generally come with some syringe dispensing kits but you may also be able to purchase them separately.

To use this low cost but effective vacuum pickup tool, simply turn on the pump and bring the nozzle down onto the top of the chip component. The component will be sucked and held onto the end of the nozzle. Then bring the chip component over to the circuit board pads which have been dotted with solderpaste. Place the component down. The solderpaste is sticky enough to grab the component and hold it in place. No vacuum release is necessary.

That covers all the items that you will need to solder using a toaster oven, including a modification to the oven, various tools, and a description of how to make a low cost vacuum pickup tool.