Re: Soldering frustrations

Yes -- machining, unlike woodwork, assumes that the workpiece
stays in place and the tools move around. So there's lots of
off-the-shelf hardware to do just what you want if you replace
the mill/drill head with a soldering iron!

You can get something with a depth stop or use a dial gage for
precise height. A solder feeder should be easy. You could
do something like the wire welders use on a smaller scale.

Vey wrote:
Mike Berger wrote:
You could rig something with a machinist's X-Y table and height transfer
stand that would let you position everything as you want, then drop and
raise the soldering iron -- all with mechanical assistance.

WoW! That's a really good idea! When I think of "Drill Press" I don't think miniature, but I guess a lot of other people do. There are tons of them out there. Dremel (Bosch) makes one that the angle can be adjusted in 15 degree increments, so if I had to bring the iron in at an angle, I could.

So let's say I wanted to assemble a board from a kit. First I would stuff the board and put tiny alligator clips on to sink what needed to be sunk. Then I would put either a plastic or rubber, fairly thick foam *** over the parts, then maybe a piece of cardboard over that. Then I would flip the sandwich and put it on the xy table.

I would need some sort of a depth stopper, so that I didn't jerk the handle too far down and break things or maybe a dial down device rather than pull down handle.

And wouldn't it be nice if I could make a solder feeder? Something like the wire feeders they put on wire welders? Or I could just use the helping hands to hold the solder.

Look, Ma! No hands!
.