How to know you're red pill or blue pill with a soldering tip on circuits

[95438756]

I'd be banned over on boards.ie for posting this and receive a PM from a mod for scaring and misleading others. Here on gubu though, if it's not your thing read elsewhere or else talk to Joe.

[marhay70]

Well that's 20 minutes of my life I'm never getting back.

[6456739]

Just another video dump. Ok.

[isha]

Soldering (along with many other experiences) red-pilled me. For reasons, many years ago I observed poorly paid factory workers soldering circuit boards and seeing the fine trickles of noxious smoke ( yes, even if lead free solder is used, there is still toxicity) rise towards their bent heads made me feel enraged at a system that creates huge wealth for jerks in suits golfing, and supping, and chortling, and staying well back from bloody war and profiting from the dangerous labour of the working class. Meh. Soldering.

[CelticRambler]

Well that's 20 minutes of my life I'm never getting back.

Just another video dump. Ok.

Well ... as someone who is currently in the market for a new tip for my soldering iron (having illadvisedly used the existing one to try and bash the stem of a rivet out of the rivet gun ... ) and as someone who has suffered the problems yer man describes, that was a most informative video. Nothing like having someone also explain the why? of something instead of simply raving about their preferred technique.

So thanks, Mr. Gugleguy.

[marhay70]

Well ... as someone who is currently in the market for a new tip for my soldering iron (having illadvisedly used the existing one to try and bash the stem of a rivet out of the rivet gun ... ) and as someone who has suffered the problems yer man describes, that was a most informative video. Nothing like having someone also explain the why? of something instead of simply raving about their preferred technique.

So thanks, Mr. Gugleguy.

There are people who can deliver this sort of lecture and there are people who would bore the tits off you, this guy falls into the latter category. If I hadn't been interested in the subject matter, I wouldn't have watched the whole video but I could not absorb anything that was said, the presentation was so boring.

[6456739]

Well ... as someone who is currently in the market for a new tip for my soldering iron (having illadvisedly used the existing one to try and bash the stem of a rivet out of the rivet gun ... ) and as someone who has suffered the problems yer man describes, that was a most informative video. Nothing like having someone also explain the why? of something instead of simply raving about their preferred technique.

So thanks, Mr. Gugleguy.

And there was nothing to suggest this in the OP, just the usual wailing victimhood.

Glad you got something out of it though.

[JayZeus]

I'd be banned over on boards.ie for posting this and receive a PM from a mod for scaring and misleading others. Here on gubu though, if it's not your thing read elsewhere or else talk to Joe.

Would you not just give it an accurate title?

"Why conical soldering iron tips are all but useless for SMT repairs on laptop mainboards"

At least then you'd be giving your fellow GUBU users the ability to decide it's a waste of part of their life to watch that video.

And Louis Rossman is a bit of a pratt too. I watch his stuff as it's somewhat relevant to my customer base at work, but I wouldn't give him the 'view' otherwise.

[knownunknown]

And Louis Rossman is a bit of a pratt too.

Why so? I like his devotion to right to repair.

[JayZeus]

His interest is not in the consumers rights, rather in his own business and securing access to components, schematics and tooling. Don’t be conned by that opinionated hustler.

[95438756]

His interest is not in the consumers rights, rather in his own business and securing access to components, schematics and tooling. Don’t be conned by that opinionated hustler.

ok nooch this was made for you

[jmcc]

Soldering (along with many other experiences) red-pilled me. For reasons, many years ago I observed poorly paid factory workers soldering circuit boards and seeing the fine trickles of noxious smoke ( yes, even if lead free solder is used, there is still toxicity) rise towards their bent heads made me feel enraged at a system that creates huge wealth for jerks in suits golfing, and supping, and chortling, and staying well back from bloody war and profiting from the dangerous labour of the working class. Meh. Soldering.

Factories full of people soldering components into circuit boards may still happen but it is rarer due to surface mount technology. Some of them may be stuffing wired components into boards rather than soldering them. A lot of the maufacturing process, including soldering is highly automated and carried out with special equipment. Due to the size of the components and the multilayer PCBs, testing and some repairs might be carried out manually but testing also is more effective when it is automated. With the EU , there are health and safety regulations that have to be observed. Some of the Asian countries may not have such stringent legislation.

Regards...jmcc

[isha]

Factories full of people soldering components into circuit boards may still happen but it is rarer due to surface mount technology. Some of them may be stuffing wired components into boards rather than soldering them. A lot of the maufacturing process, including soldering is highly automated and carried out with special equipment. Due to the size of the components and the multilayer PCBs, testing and some repairs might be carried out manually but testing also is more effective when it is automated. With the EU , there are health and safety regulations that have to be observed. Some of the Asian countries may not have such stringent legislation.

Regards...jmcc

Hi jmcc,

It was not that many years ago that I witnessed this. There were of course big fancy expensive automated soldering machines, but there were parts of certain processes that were not automated due to cost (I assume) and involved hand soldering. There were rows of people doing it all the time. I felt it didn't look safe to be that close day in day out to residue. There were people doing other processes like adding wiring components, I know the difference.

People talk about health and safety as if it's some magic wand that makes all labour in our civilised countries as safe and humane as possible. It just doesn't.

I have recently come from a short stint working on the floor in a factory in a highly specialised industry where the processes are largely automated. But there remain many tasks that are said to be too expensive to do by machine and which are cheaper to get done by a largely immigrant workforce on 12 euros an hour, working extremely hard and under time pressure to meet production quotas. Processes that I felt were neither safe for the workers from an ergonomic perspective nor safe for the finished product because of inevitable human error and fatigue. In this recent experience I was aware of product design issues that I brought to attention of supervisors but if you're just a pleb, you're just a pleb.

As a peripatetic worker who sometimes needs to supplement my ordinary self employment with various jobs of very many different kinds from time to time I have seen the real underbelly of the labour force. And if passing through as an office worker rather than being on the floor I still have eyes in my head. People in the professional classes speak (constantly ) of regulations and health and safety statements and meeting standards etc, but the reality on the ground is often different. There are ordinary looking places where people are stuffed to the gills with pills trying to stay awake on night shifts, where zero hours contracts, no sick pay, poor salaries, and constant time pressure etc exist. We all got a hint of it with the migrant labourer problems during covid.

Anyway. I know what goes on.

[jmcc]

Hi jmcc,

It was not that many years ago that I witnessed this. There were of course big fancy expensive automated soldering machines, but there were parts of certain processes that were not automated due to cost (I assume) and involved hand soldering. There were rows of people doing it all the time. I felt it didn't look safe to be that close day in day out to residue. There were people doing other processes like adding wiring components, I know the difference.

People talk about health and safety as if it's some magic wand that makes all labour in our civilised countries as safe and humane as possible. It just doesn't.

I have recently come from a short stint working on the floor in a factory in a highly specialised industry where the processes are largely automated. But there remain many tasks that are said to be too expensive to do by machine and which are cheaper to get done by a largely immigrant workforce on 12 euros an hour, working extremely hard and under time pressure to meet production quotas. Processes that I felt were neither safe for the workers from an ergonomic perspective nor safe for the finished product because of inevitable human error and fatigue. In this recent experience I was aware of product design issues that I brought to attention of supervisors but if you're just a pleb, you're just a pleb.

As a peripatetic worker who sometimes needs to supplement my ordinary self employment with various jobs of very many different kinds from time to time I have seen the real underbelly of the labour force. And if passing through as an office worker rather than being on the floor I still have eyes in my head. People in the professional classes speak (constantly ) of regulations and health and safety statements and meeting standards etc, but the reality on the ground is often different. There are ordinary looking places where people are stuffed to the gills with pills trying to stay awake on night shifts, where zero hours contracts, no sick pay, poor salaries, and constant time pressure etc exist. We all got a hint of it with the migrant labourer problems during covid.

Anyway. I know what goes on.

It depends on what's being built, Isha,
The wires on some connectors still need to be soldered as it is cheaper than fitting screw connectors. Sometimes there are fume extractors running but on low end assembly lines, they might be an expensive addition. The harsh reality in which some of these iffy factories operate is that equipment is expensive but people can be replaced cheaply. This also feeds into the product lifecycle where it is often cheaper to replace something like a desktop power supply rather than bother repairing it. A few decades ago, a TV was a substantial investment for most families and there were TV repair shops in most towns and cities. The number of TV repair shops has declined as TVs became cheaper due to cheap Asian manufacturing.

Regards...jmcc

[95438756]

Jayzeus, Ye got Me! You can now watch his pity party

[JayZeus]

I’m not watching that gobsheite.