Workbench Cleverness

[Leevibe]

I'm always trying to come up with new ways to make pedal building easier.  Sometimes I do the dumbest things out of habit, sometimes because it hasn't dawned on me that there's a better way.  I only recently saw Chromesphere's video on the use of blue tak and am realizing all of the reasons I need a ball of that stuff on my bench.  I hadn't thought of any solution like that before.

I thought it would be good to get your ideas.  What genius things have you come up with that make the process easier?  It would be great to see pictures of your inventions.  Or just let me know your way of doing whatever it is that you have figured out.

I've got a few.  One of them centers around the fact that I'm a bit color blind.  Enough that I can't reliably read resistor codes, so I test them.  I came up with this little rig because I got tired of trying to pin resistors down on my bench using the DMM probes or having to hold it all together in my fingers.  This way I just grab a resistor and set it down in the little notches.  I have the clips soldered slightly open, so they're not actually pinching the leads, but they're closed enough to get good contact.  There's enough continuity coming through the machine screws that I get good readings.  I like it because it's one handed and fast.  If I need to measure something with the probes, I just pop the leads off the spade connectors and pop the probes on.

What are your little tricks and tips?  I would love to get some new ideas.

[Leevibe]

OK, here's another one I do. This is how I clamp wires to LED's when I use flying leads. I suppose if I had blue tak I wouldn't need the vice!

(sorry if it's bad form to reply to my own post)

[chromesphere]

Thanks Lee! im finding since using blue tack I use my helping hands about 5% of the time now.  Its also pretty much the only way to solder smd in my opinion.
Paul

[catfud]

blue tack [...is...] also pretty much the only way to solder smd in my opinion.

Wow, nice idea, but the parts are so small - do you mean you roll the blue tack into really thin strips to hold the components down when soldering them?

[chromesphere]

Nah I meant hold the pcb still on the table while ur soldering the components. Works well for me.

[Leevibe]

Thanks Lee! im finding since using blue tack I use my helping hands about 5% of the time now.  Its also pretty much the only way to solder smd in my opinion.
Paul

I hate helping hands. I was always fighting with them. My wife bought me a hobby vice for Christmas a couple years ago and I haven't used HH since.

When you solder components that are pressed into the BT, does the heat ever do anything funny to it?

[Hangingmonkey]

I tried using blu tack after reading a previous thread about it. I used it to hold a few diodes and resistors in place on some vero and the heat from the iron made it all sticky and I couldn't remove it properly, ended up looking unintentionally gooped

[muddyfox]

I've never had that happen, I'm thinking you may be heating the component for too long or with too high a temperature?

[Hangingmonkey]

Probably, either that or I need to try a different brand of blu tack. I had the iron on 300C. What temp does everyone else use?

[muddyfox]

I'm normally at 350 so that limits my guesses to
- overdoing it - more likely, as with a higher temperature you can be in and out quicker
- different blutack

[Leevibe]

Someone should do a blue tack shootout

[Beedoola]

cool! Keep the pics/ideas coming 

[billstein]

Probably, either that or I need to try a different brand of blu tack. I had the iron on 300C. What temp does everyone else use?

I have some real Blu Tac that works great, then got another brand from Homebase that gets all goopy with the same temperature and technique.

[pickdropper]

I've often said that many engineers would be totally lost without BluTak.  It is so useful for so many things.

I've certainly set things on it and soldered , but I am not a fan of using it to hold down components on the board.  It gets soft and sticky and can leave residue on the board.  I do solder at a high temperature, but my dwell time is generally very short.

[rullywowr]

I had trouble with some cheap yellow stuff.  I also use it sparingly for holding things down too.  Sometime resistors and diodes mostly.  More often I tack one leg in and then the other. The putty helps hold the board and reposition quickly.