Self taught solderer here too. I used to hate soldering - what changed that was buying a decent soldering iron with temperature control. They're not $15, but they're under $100, and worth every penny. Other learnings: - use a damp sponge to make sure the iron tip is always shiny (like liquid mercury). - don't bother with flux - you don't need it if you're keeping things clean and following this final most important tip: - heat the parts, not the solder. Let the iron heat up the parts you want joined with solder, then touch the solder to the parts (and not the iron). The solder will flow, making a perfect joint. That last point is crucial. You'll need less heat to make a joint, meaning less melting of components (or 3D printed plastic). If you apply solder to the tip of the iron it actually cools the iron, which means you'll need to keep the tip touching things longer, pumping more heat into your stuff. And if your iron doesn't have temp control, you're doomed. Heating the parts (and not the iron) also ensures a proper connection. When you just feed solder into the tip you could easily just be making a blob of molten solder without heating the joints. The blob could cool around the leads, but not be fully fused to them, making a cold solder joint.
Everything is right here... except for the flux. The only reason electronics solder works is it's flux-core. i.e, the flux is inside the solder. If you're dealing with really small parts, or fine wires, a quick dab of flux from a flux pen will make things soooooo much easier.
True - I'd meant to mention that a good flux core solder is a must. When I first started soldering very fine stuff (like surface mount stuff), I also used a flux pen, but got to the point where it didn't really make all that big of a difference. As long as my iron tip was "wet" (aka clean, and tinned), it worked just as well.
Awesome, thanks for the tips! I'm at around the $50 soldering iron range. I'd love to get one of the Weller ones we have at my work but they're super expensive. Some day. I'll have to try the wet sponge too--I have seen sponges in a soldering context but never really knew what they were for. Thanks again!
@@TabletopMachineShop a brass-mesh tip cleaner works exceedingly well and doesn't cool your iron, it's pre-fluxed to help wet off the solder quickly. you just stab your tip in twice and go back to work. gotta check reviews to make sure it's genuine though, and not some brass colored kitchen scrubber. edit: oh and make sure you're using well-leaded solder, 30-40% lead at least, hell of a difference. kits you buy from china are unleaded
What i dont like is how quickly the tip oxidizes, when there is some time between each solder joint i have to clean it before each time. I also havent bothered with extra flux, there is some in the solder and ive always soldered new and clean parts
Interesting project with a great practical application. Typically, LED's don't need to be run as high as their nominal operating current, especially when used as indicator lights. They will last considerably longer if they are run at 5-10mA less. I would use resistors nearer 560 ohms. The power dissipated by the resistors will be low enough to use 250mW ones (quarter Watt), at just under 130mW. However, you may find the LED's insufficiently annoying for your purposes at my suggested operating current!
These ones are certainly sufficiently annoying, but I would like to bring the brightness down a notch just because I think I'm overdriving them a little bit. I should arrange some kind of user testing to optimize irritability and power consumption haha!
Nice build and smart install method for the switches! It would really annoy me (too much) though. Will V1.2 have an audible reminder like cars for seatbelts? With an increasing volume and reducing interval?
@@TabletopMachineShop Good luck! "whatever audio" and allen key does make me think of the tv show QI, to be specific: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-C2fW0WfE-_U.html Doesn't work as well for you though (first name doesn't come close) for me it could work, Stefan/Steve it is close enough that someone could shout it to get my attention.
Completely dumb and extra. I love it. Things I would change. Use 5V and or a usb connector. Use a single resistor (5 - 3.5) / 0.02 = 75 ohm or higher. Even if multiple leds are on they will be slightly dimmer but still bright enough for this. Hence a smaller simpler build without really sacrificing the design. The molded resistor holder is a neat idea. And 10:00 thats call dead bug style circuits.
Your printer must be better than mine then haha. It goes down to a 1.5mm hex hole, so I guess if a printer can do that it shouldn't have a problem with any other features
@@TabletopMachineShop Yeah, 1.5mm is a bit tricky, but certainly possible. It'll just require a smaller nozzle (0.2 should do the trick) and lower printing speeds. It's all a about the settings. Thanks for the reply. Have a good one mate :)
Don't actually need perfect hex holes. Could be a square with 2 walls for correct hex width than make the other two walls of the square wide enough apart for the allen keys vertices width to fit. Don't need all walls of the Allen key to register. I do think any normal fdm probably can print a holder like this but I'd do some geometric tricks or changes to make it a lot easier for fdm.
I'm not sure about this idea, but mabye you can use a low current and send it through the allen key instead of using swiches? So like the allen key is like a key switch in a way. Therefore if if the circuit is incomplete the LED lights up? Would probaly require some type of IC. Would remove the bulky switches? this would probaly work well with the circuit board idea. Allen keys would have to be conductive for it to work so might and coatings might interfere with conductivity.
I agree -- the metal flaps were taking up way too much space, but I certainly do think the plastic contact will wear out first, so based on that I may change the design to accomodate them
LOL, this made me laugh and realize I need something similar for every tool, but also tie it in to the home automation system and prevent me from turning off the shop and bedroom lights before the tools are back :P As for what flux does, its main purpose is to remove oxidation, and displace oxygen allowing you to solder before new oxide is formed. Beware left over flux can be corrosive for the circuit, to varying degrees depending on the type of flux, so cleaning residue off is always a good idea.
wouldnt one Big LED be sufficient if you wire the switches in row? so if one switch is not pressed the led will light up and its probably way easier to solder
No. You need to wire them in parallel. If you wire multiple held open switches in a row then you need all of them closed to complete the circuit. Or wire the switches in the held closed manner and use an inverting circuit, which could be a simple transistor.
@@TabletopMachineShop then build a useless machine , it will satisfy your needs and its fun to watch. lol ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-66Tlc1354So.html
Hard wire it in with a 14500 battery backup. Making it considerably larger won't really be a downside either. Use larger resistors for the current draw won't kill the battery as fast.
I want to make it larger for things like... oh i don't know.. a sound board and speaker! The only constraining factor is how expensive it is to print. A backup battery is a good idea.. maybe I could pair it with solar
Love it. Good idea, can be used for any tool too. I could really use this with my socket sets... Turn the light out, programming of a dad gene. Weirdly though, now I go to my parents and every single light in the house is on. I guess my folks think CFL's make up for it. Great little project Greg, keep on keeping on!
You should try a resin uv 3d printer some time ... they have the resolution to make that. In my experience they can be as if not better in accuracy to SLS.
Thanks! I still have a bit of work to do before i upload to shapeways and patreon, but I think it's got potential as something people can do themselves
I used to solder for a living decades ago. The absolute number one top thing you can do to make soldering easier is to keep a damp sponge in a heavy container next to your soldering iron hand. Wipe all the crap off the iron using the sponge and tin the whole surface of the iron with solder and keep it that way. Having a clean iron makes it super simple to get heat into the parts. If your iron is too dirty for the sponge to get it clean enough to tin, a little help with some fine sand paper while the iron is cold will fix that. You can also use the sponge to swipe off excess solder between joints to make each joint consistent. Doing this will immediately make soldering hugely more simple.
Flux helps clean the metal being joined. Yes, the fumes will help kill you faster :-P Store the soldering iron tip with a ball of solder on it so that part corrodes, not the tip. Newer tips don't have a lot of active material on them so the fine sand paper will not always work now days. Older irons had thicker platings for the active areas, or were made with materials that could be reactivated.
If the tip is copper, it will still tin when clean, even if the original coating is gone and once it's tinned properly, it will never be a problem as long as you keep it clean and tin it every time you use it.
@@Pest789 A lot of folks never filed and tinned their grandparents's old soldering iron with a block of Sal Ammoniac. Although, I don't know if I would use that iron on micro-electronics. Ever use a Weller polishing stone to recover a tip?
@@WaltonPete He should use a larger resistor to limit the current so that the LED is dimmer. Light of LED is proportional to the power draw, P=I*V, voltage across a diode is almost constant, so the brightness is proportional to the current, inversely proportional to the current limiting resistor.
The leds are running at (12V - 3.5V) / 330 = 0.026 Amps or 26 milliamps. For most common leds of that size thats 6 milliamps more than nominal max, causing them to burn brighter and burn out quicker. Most common leds of that size are super bright and because of how the eye perceives brightness logarithmically, totally unnecessary. A resistor of 500 to maybe 1000 ohms would be more than enough, for 17 to 9 milliamps. These leds will light up a room at 10 mA and are visible at a pin point down to like 0.1 mA.
