The fume setup is because after first session my air quality monitor went nuts. I’m pretty sensitive and wife complained too, so decided to fix before proceeding. The fan alone just recirculated the fumes, so added the ventilation tube, plus extra box fan with carbon filter.
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Success! Now after session the pm2.5 seems to peak around 30 rather than 300. About as much as cooking with a bit of charring.
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First experiments a few weeks ago were... ok. Did a few simple wire joins.
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Some experiments with/without flux and a misguided attempt to tin stranded wire before a join.
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Screwed up badly attempting to solder leads onto a motor. Ended up ripping the delicate copper lead off because I couldn’t quite figure out how to do it quickly with a light touch. 😢
Setting this aside for now. This is advanced green belt stuff. I’m still yellow belt.
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Latest: tried soldering parts onto a perfboard. This was easier than the motor but harder than wire joins. They tell you to heat the joint first for a couple of seconds before adding the solder. Easier said than fine. These are bad joints but at least I didn’t damage parts.
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Initially I was bad at cleaning and running the tip. Either I’d end up with tiny beads on the tip, or a large blob.
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But I’ve discovered tinning the tip is not optional. Heat transfer is nearly non-existent if you don’t. Here’s crappy current state after post-session tinning.
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I think the trick is to let the tinning blob flow around and down the cone/chisel tip? Dunno. Definitely not like applying paint. More like trying to get a drop of water to coat an oily toothpick tip. To be investigated further 🧐
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Are you tinning the tip with solder? Try tip tinning compound. Dip the hot tip in a small tin of paste until some melts, stay for a few seconds. Helps a lot. amazon.com/dp/B00NS4J6BY/
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