Soldering

[JPSpen]

I went to a 3 week course on soldering and putting plugs together when I built minuteman missles for GE.very picky about their soldering

Those were  the good old days before wave soldering.. I took a NASA course in college...They were a little picky as well...It's nice to be a NASA approved solderer...

That was a nice certification to have when things were actually troubleshot and repaired at the component level...Not much of that going on anymore..

John

[wa1udg]

Wave soldered through hole components are being replaced by surface mount computer placed bits  which are  then cooked in an oven to melt the solder/stickum,  bring new meaning to the label "no user serviceable components inside".  It is so inexpensive to make these boards that the units containing them are serviced by stuffing in a new one.  One hopes that someone looks at the dead ones to find any engineering blunders  which might result in failures.  The boards can be serviced but to place and remove the parts you need a suction device snf s good magnification system.

[Darwin_R65]

but you want just a coat, not a blob

did my NASA approved High reliability Hand Soldering course in the RAAF and we used to joke "the bigger the blob the better the job".

The HRHS habits have stayed with me and even with "no clean" solder I still have to clean away the flux residue so i can inspect the joint correctly. I would never make a good TV tech as I get too perdantic, and wouldn't survive in the world of "time = money"

John

[wa1udg]

I've seen a number of cold soldered joints hidden in "big blobs".  A lead can run right through one and be held in place only by the flux.  This is just a hobby for me, not many getting paid would work on 50 year old tube stuff.  Still, even in the newest Japtrack stuff there are a few old fashioned "interfaces".