Igor Forgor

  • 12 Posts
  • 44 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: January 6th, 2025

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  • This particular project you might be able to get away without soldering if you use a breakout / expansion board like shown and just screw terminal down the wires. If you are feeling a bit more ambitious, you could design a PCB and have it fabricated for you by a service such as jlcpcb or pcbway

    Should you still require soldering:

    There are soldering stations, irons and guns that have automatic or trigger pull solder feed which can help with single handed operation - the cheaper feed solder guns will do well for something larger like through hole for simple projects like this. Id get some heavy weights, some kind of board stand/clamps, and kapton tape in a heavy / mounted to desk holder do you can pull tape off and use it to put on the board to hold things down / together / insulate other parts from slipping with the iron tip.

    If you are just doing wire to wire joints, there are some heat shrink solder couplings that you can put on like its heat shrink over twisted wires and heating it over 150C with a heat gun will solder it together (e.g. electriduct).

    I haven’t personally had much luck with helping hands but ymmv. Soldering mat is good for spilled solder drops or if you accidentally hit the tip on the table. Solder flux (get in a syringe or squeeze bottle) helps a ton with getting a good joint. Also, some isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs / a rag / a toothbrush are good for cleaning the flux off once you are done - if you dont do this, the joint can corrode down the line. You will also want a fume extractor; basically a fan with a carbon filter, similar to an air purifier. This will keep the flux fumes out of your face and lungs.

    A hotplate and some tweezers could also help with surface mount stuff since you can just use the weights to hold it down and poke at stuff while letting the hotplate do the heating /soldering

    To sum it up

    Things you WILL need to solder:

    • solder (leaded probably better; just wash hands)
    • flux (syringe or squeeze bottle)
    • soldering iron/ gun (perhaps with wire feed)
    • some kind of stand/weights for holding the boards / wires
    • tweezers
    • fume extractor

    Things I think would really help:

    • silicone mat
    • isopropyl alcohol and swabs / rag / tissues
    • kapton tape (or other polyamide tape, the orangey stuff) and a dispenser / holder
    • normal heatshrink tubing/insulation

    Nice to have but might not be necessary:

    • hotplate
    • heatshrink solder couplings





  • Craigslist/fb marketplace can be a good way to find garage sales so you dont have to negotiate a meet up time / place or anything. Also look for estate / moving sales. Check along local roads for signs on upcoming garage sales.

    Thrift stores can be ok but can be expensive or not have great stuff if its in an expensive area. Consider going to smaller shops / delis and looking for if they have a section for local business cards; some places will have a section where people will leave a stack of business cards, so you might be able to find smaller thrift/antique shops that way, or find an ad someone has left for upcoming sales.

    Also check: local facebook groups, local library in person / website

    Not sure about other online sites or specific items though.









  • jjagaimo@sh.itjust.workstoMicroblog Memes@lemmy.worldHate's a Rhymes-with-witch
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    10 months ago

    Part of the reason why some farmers voted for trump (not the majority but some) was that american workers would consider farm jobs beneath them, and both americans and undocumented workers could always transfer to other jobs / farms if the conditions were unfavorable. Instead, they want to drive workers towards H2A visa to create modern slavery where workers have their pasports taken, are beaten and their families threatened by American companies

    Trump rolled back protections for these workers earlier this year