Dennis
03-12-2013, 10:18 AM
Here are some items I have learned to keep within reach. They are quite trivial in themselves, but keep me organised.
A Box Of Pins.
Some of my soldering blocks and boards are soft enough to accept pins, So I am often able to keep parts in contact during soldering, with just a few pins, strategically placed.
Stainless Steel Binding Wire.
Binding wire is quite maddening, but the best of the bunch, so to speak is made of stainless steel. It is supplied soft, but can be further softened by annealing. Its advantage is that it rarely breaks in use and if dropped into your pickle, will not turn silver pink. I use 0.3mm wire, twisted into two-ply.
A washing up sponge.
A washing up sponge lined with Scotchbrite, is not easily lost, so wherever I toss it after brightening my solder strip, it will be ready and present for duty.
BluTack.
Picking up gemstones and other small objects with tweezers is a sure way of pinging them into oblivion, so I keep a cone of BluTack where I can easily find it. Here it is on the top of my control box.
Glue Kit And Kitchen Roll
The twin syringe for epoxy glue can make a filthy mess and it gets worse as it gets older, so I find it essential to have the whole kit ready for use: a sheet of paper, some offcuts of plastic packaging to mix on, some coffee stirrers for mixing it thoroughly enough, saved broken saw blades to apply it with and finally a kitchen roll to deal with any spills.
What tricks do you have? Dennis.
A Box Of Pins.
Some of my soldering blocks and boards are soft enough to accept pins, So I am often able to keep parts in contact during soldering, with just a few pins, strategically placed.
Stainless Steel Binding Wire.
Binding wire is quite maddening, but the best of the bunch, so to speak is made of stainless steel. It is supplied soft, but can be further softened by annealing. Its advantage is that it rarely breaks in use and if dropped into your pickle, will not turn silver pink. I use 0.3mm wire, twisted into two-ply.
A washing up sponge.
A washing up sponge lined with Scotchbrite, is not easily lost, so wherever I toss it after brightening my solder strip, it will be ready and present for duty.
BluTack.
Picking up gemstones and other small objects with tweezers is a sure way of pinging them into oblivion, so I keep a cone of BluTack where I can easily find it. Here it is on the top of my control box.
Glue Kit And Kitchen Roll
The twin syringe for epoxy glue can make a filthy mess and it gets worse as it gets older, so I find it essential to have the whole kit ready for use: a sheet of paper, some offcuts of plastic packaging to mix on, some coffee stirrers for mixing it thoroughly enough, saved broken saw blades to apply it with and finally a kitchen roll to deal with any spills.
What tricks do you have? Dennis.