Well, ain't dat da schits! Pretty clever. Are there different types of tips?
I learned how to solder watching my father building Knight Kits and Heath Kits on a card table in their bedroom, for his constantly-evolving hi-fi system. I recall he used a piece of cardboard to inventory the transistors, resistors & etc. sticking the thin rigid wires through the cardboard. He explained to me how the color bands on the transistors 'name' the piece's value.
When he built a DynaKit Mark III mono amp, after he had built a Klipschorn folded-horn enclosure with Electro Voice components, we had the 'best hi-fi in the neighborhood,' even though it was mono, until he built another Mark III and bought a Bozak floor-model speaker to go with the Klipschorn design. My friends would bring their new L.P's to the house to hear them on our hi-fi, "yours sounds better than ours!"
Philip, I didn't see any other tips but I wasn't actually looking. I think it has to have that bend in it but it looks like it's a standard size tip. It has no threads so any
My father was focused on history so our Grundig Majestic hi-fi was plug and play. It had a 33/45/78 turntable and we had to use inserts to play 45s. We had a rather large HO train layout in the basement with a control panel that mimicked the track layout. We had little pushbutton switches that controlled a solenoid at each track Y. Dad twisted and taped all the connections and became super frustrated when it didn't work. My parents left the house for a few hours when I was 9 and I grabbed dad's soldering gun. Soldered and taped the connections and the switches started working. Dad thought it was a miracle until he checked under the control panel. All he said was "You shouldn't have done that."
I’d be interested in how that works for you Bob! Hell I managed to keep both appendage’s, and I still **** at soldering……………
Fred, I like this gun because it's very light. The solder feed is a bonus.
You lay the resistors out on a piece of corrugated cardboard and then use a thinner piece as a temp spacer under them when you mount them to give some air cooling space. That's what I remember from Heathkit instructions anyway.
Roger, I think the thin stuff was shirt cardboard when it was new or came back from some of the laundries.
Who remembers learning bad boys as a mnemonic for the resistor color code?
@Wiz02, I do remember the banned mnemonic but can't remember who taught it to me.
Guilty! Learned it when I was 10....
Gil, probably not something to be passed on to our sons and grandsons.
Yeah, soldering is always something I've struggled with. Holding the iron, the solder, and the wires I'm soldering always seems like a three-handed job. I, too, am interested in how that goes!
Tom, I have a couple of third hand things that appear to be designed to hold a roach. One even has a magnifying glass.
Definitely. Still goes through my head, but in these "sensitive" times I don't vocalize it.
Andrew, there were a lot of insensitive mnemonics, not to mention the n-word babies in the candy store when I was growing up.
Wish Heathkit still sold those kits! I built a tube checker in VoTech, I was 17, used it on and off for a few years then put it away now I’m 66 and using it more and more as I’ve started to restore old radios in my retirement.
Dennis, Heathkit was the high end seller. My go-to was Lafayette and eventually Radio Shack. I miss the corner store tube testers. Having the tube testers in our local drug store meant I could test and purchase tubes on Sunday -- back when blue laws prohibited most stores from being open on Sunday.
I learned bad boys in electronics shop class in high school and used it quite often when I was designing and building circuits. While I wouldn't hesitate to vocalize it today, I can't believe a teacher would use that in a lesson, even back in the 70s.
@Wiz02, I rebelled at some stuff taught in school. When your last name is spelled Heine and pronounced Hine (or Hin-ah in Germany), the whole 'I' before 'E' thing seems stupid.
Oh yeah! I've had one of those, too! Until about two years ago, I had one in the old Mercedes, it lasted about 8.5 years. Got it for a fair price back in the day, too, sub-$200.
@Squankum, it was my first AGM battery and I guess 7 years is OK but I can't bring myself to spend more than $200 for a car battery. It was bad enough the first time I had to pay more than $100.
Darn Bob I forgot you were a top notch Caddy repair man. I too am interested in how well the soldering gun does.
Shorty, I fee lucky that Liane doesn't like driving the Caddy. However, she did try her best to spring the door hinges on the driver side door on the '72 Corvette (and break the mirror and dent the passenger door on the PT Cruiser. I'm so glad there are paintless dent remover shops in today's world.
Bob - re: that soldering gun.. I tried one back when I was doing radio/computer electronic repairs in my shop at home (we won't delve too far into the radio repair stuff). It just didn't work for me, but at that time I already had about 30 years of bad soldering habits (early on I found out that wetting the joint with a little solder aided in heat transfer for getting a good bright solder connection. That'd get ya slapped in the side of the head some places for melting solder BEFORE heating the joint fully (for shame!).
Drifts: I was lucky enough to have a dad that was damn good in a lot of things besides his mechanic and toolmaker professions. He loved electronics, had a bench in the basement with radio parts and audio stuff. He started on Heathkits With one of their first shortwave radios and then a good old Heath VTVM. He encouraged me to get involved , I built some stuff for a Science fair (a AM transmitter to listen to records through an AM radio) . Over the years I helped him build everything from an ignition analyzer, a really good for it's time hifi (all Heath except for the bass speaker (18 inch Jenson theater speaker), a heath-Thomas electronic organ for my mother, a Heath color TV (Zenith picture tube!). I've got a large stack of manuals, everything from my Heath crystal set to an AR-14 stereo receiver).
Gonna go find my Heath coffee cup.. (sorry for the long post)
Gerry
Gerry, I would have a permanent hand print on the side of my head. To this day I put a drop of molten solder on a wire junction to speed up the process. Especially when I'm working outside on low voltage wiring.
