Silquar or Charcoal blocks?

[caroleallen]

I quite like a turntable, mainly because it raises everything up but it's also useful for soldering the backs of things. I put my broken bits of honeycomb on top.

[CJ57]

I've got a great big turntable that a friend made after I left college. Not the prettiest of welding jobs but it still works and is really useful. I've never used anything else. I have firebricks in the bottom and then honeycomb on top and I still use a zig zag of binding wire for sitting pieces on top of that just as I was taught 40:/ years ago

[mizgeorge]

I tried the silquar and it was nicely reflective, but I found things oxidised far worse than usual, so went back to my cobbled together collection of charcoal blocks, which remains my favourite surface by far. I probably buy one new block a year to give me at least one bit with a nice flat surface, and the older ones generally work their way down the chain until they're just little lumps that get stacked into interesting shapes, including the occasional little igloo

[Patstone]

I quite like a turntable, mainly because it raises everything up but it's also useful for soldering the backs of things. I put my broken bits of honeycomb on top.

I do the same, turntable with honeycombe on top of block that came with it, and then a charcoal block on top, at least you can see all round it. I must admit I like the sound of using a Quality Street tin, really its just the emptying that interests me.

[medusa]

Are you using natural charcoal or compressed charcoal the latter will outlast natural charcol many times

I've found that in terms of charcoal, I prefer the natural stuff, not least because when it does break up I can re-use the bits. I seem to rapidly turn compressed charcoal to dust very quickly, probably because of bad technique.

I've always used charcoal blocks on a fire brick inside a quality street tin minus one side,how high tech can you get. When they break I just carry on using the bits and level them off with a sheet of wet/dry.

I currently use a charcoal and magnesium block on honeycomb which sits on a big sheet of asbestos free soldering sheet. I prop up another behind the set up to reflect back heat. I find using the honeycomb it takes forever for stuff to get hot unless they are really small.

I tried the silquar and it was nicely reflective, but I found things oxidised far worse than usual, so went back to my cobbled together collection of charcoal blocks, which remains my favourite surface by far. I probably buy one new block a year to give me at least one bit with a nice flat surface, and the older ones generally work their way down the chain until they're just little lumps that get stacked into interesting shapes, including the occasional little igloo

OK, that settles it. sticking with charcoal!