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DIY Effect Makers (club?)

#262
Yepp. Always try to bend those legs up.
Also the solder joints don't look that neat (might be cold ones). A little less solder would work out & when done they should look really shiny.

If you want to practice further get drawing pins w/o these little plastic hats, a piece of wood and some copper strand. Put the pins in the wood and now you can build stuff with it and thereby practice soldering. :)
 
#263
At the suggest of Spunkle,...I've moved to a higher temp and much happier with the results. The bottom row of resistors is done with a higher temp (WES51 set to ~70 can I assume that's around 700 degrees?)

9e228c98.jpg


f05772b8.jpg


It would also seem that tinning the tip is not necessary,..neigh makes a mess out of the IC board as you can see on the pads on the adjacent row. I did my my best to heat up the lead from and let the solder flow with the lead in between the solder and the iron tip.

Tinning may be necessary for working with wires,...but not so much on ICBs and PCBs. Logical?

Also I big thanks to all the help and encouragement I've been receiving from here and abroad.
 
#264
That's looking better. These days I use my flip down magnifier when I solder those tiny pads and it's a huge help for me.

I keep the tip tinned so it doesn't burn, just enough to coat it and then I wipe it off, it shouldn't leave any additional solder anywhere. Just a thin film is all you should need.
 
#265
zenrad said:
That's looking better. These days I use my flip down magnifier when I solder those tiny pads and it's a huge help for me.

I keep the tip tinned so it doesn't burn, just enough to coat it and then I wipe it off, it shouldn't leave any additional solder anywhere. Just a thin film is all you should need.
Click to expand...

That's the word on the street,...I've been flicking the excess solder off,...but I'll just wipe from now on. I also tin the tip before I put the iron back in it's stand,...and before I put it up for the day.

I noticed that it say that you should used distilled or deionized water to dampen the sponge. Is that really all that necessary. I can see why (minerals in the water),...I just don't have any distilled/deionized water laying about. Would plain old brita/PUR filtered water be alright?

EDIT: Actually I think I'm going to pick one of these up:

hakko-599.jpg


I've also been using a magnifying glass,...but I may pick up one of those lighted magnifier deals. The glass on the 3rd hand tends to cast a shadow from the overhead lighting.
 
#266
I've used straight tap water on a sponge for years now. I wouldn't worry about that at all. I've been known to, on occasion when the sponge had "walked off", to use a paper towel and wet it from a sink or water fountain if necessary. Only on one or two service calls though... :D
 
#267
Good looking soldering Zenrad. The 3PDT switches you've done look neat and tidy.
Regarding the pots/wiring for the instrument guts, although I'm not usually a fan of grounding to the back of the pots (prefer to tack a solder lug somewhere in the cavity, and route leads to it), here's a little trick for getting a good bond without cooking the pot,
  1. Take some 150 grit sand paper, rough up the back of the pot to expose some raw metal, then clean the outside of the pot with a little rubbing alcohol and a rag.
  2. The roughed up metal ensures a good grip for the solder.
  3. Then, take one of your leads, and strip the end but leave a good inch or two of bare wire on the end.
  4. Tin this end of the wire.
  5. Then feed the wire in from the front of the pot, through the lug you'd usually bend to touch the pot body (the one to gnd), then solder.
  6. Then take the extra bare wire and solder it to the back of the pot where you roughed it up.
This is a very secure bond and also makes you not have to bend the solder lug which can cause problems.
:)
 
#268
warwick.hoy said:
That's the word on the street,...I've been flicking the excess solder off,...but I'll just wipe from now on. I also tin the tip before I put the iron back in it's stand,...and before I put it up for the day.

I noticed that it say that you should used distilled or deionized water to dampen the sponge. Is that really all that necessary. I can see why (minerals in the water),...I just don't have any distilled/deionized water laying about. Would plain old brita/PUR filtered water be alright?

EDIT: Actually I think I'm going to pick one of these up:

hakko-599.jpg


I've also been using a magnifying glass,...but I may pick up one of those lighted magnifier deals. The glass on the 3rd hand tends to cast a shadow from the overhead lighting.
Click to expand...

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

I just use steel wool and it works wonderfully. It doesn't have that neat container to catch the solder spit-off but it's ccchheeaapppp or free if you work at a restaurant/know a dishwasher at one :D
 
#271
cb36053f.jpg


Electro-Harmonix LPB-1 (Clean Boost) Clone. I'll post gut shots after 24 hours,...but there isn't anything spectacular about this other than it works (the LED no so much) which is amazing to me; that I built it and didn't mess it up (except for the LED).

The story on the LED is GGG forgot to include one in the kit and they don't spec out the LED in the build literature and rather than hassle GGG and wait,...I just went to Radioshack and made a judgement call and bought a set of bright whites. While admitting a lot of ignorance with LEDs,...I could have reversed the polarity,...or the resistor value in the circuit may not be jiving with the LED. Any enlightenment is appreciated. :)
 
#272
warwick.hoy said:
Electro-Harmonix LPB-1 (Clean Boost) Clone. I'll post gut shots after 24 hours,...but there isn't anything spectacular about this other than it works (the LED no so much) which is amazing to me; that I built it and didn't mess it up (except for the LED).

The story on the LED is GGG forgot to include one in the kit and they don't spec out the LED in the build literature and rather than hassle GGG and wait,...I just went to Radioshack and made a judgement call and bought a set of bright whites. While admitting a lot of ignorance with LEDs,...I could have reversed the polarity,...or the resistor value in the circuit may not be jiving with the LED. Any enlightenment is appreciated. :)
Click to expand...

It's probably a reversed polarity. The short leg of the LED is - (cathode) and the long leg is + (anode). If you've already cut the legs the cathode would be the side with more metal inside the plastic part.
 
#273
warwick.hoy said:
While admitting a lot of ignorance with LEDs,...I could have reversed the polarity,...or the resistor value in the circuit may not be jiving with the LED. Any enlightenment is appreciated. :)
Click to expand...

Put a voltmeter across the LED:

9V - open-circuit (unlikely) or wrong polarity (likely)
0V - short-circuit
1-3V - probably correct, should be working unless the current is way too low (resistor too high?)
 
#275
Stu L. said:
I've used straight tap water on a sponge for years now. I wouldn't worry about that at all. I've been known to, on occasion when the sponge had "walked off", to use a paper towel and wet it from a sink or water fountain if necessary. Only on one or two service calls though... :D
Click to expand...

Heh. I've been known to spit on a rag. Works fine, just smells ick.
 
#276
jimmy rocket said:
It's probably a reversed polarity. The short leg of the LED is - (cathode) and the long leg is + (anode). If you've already cut the legs the cathode would be the side with more metal inside the plastic part.
Click to expand...

UncleFluffy said:
Put a voltmeter across the LED:

9V - open-circuit (unlikely) or wrong polarity (likely)
0V - short-circuit
1-3V - probably correct, should be working unless the current is way too low (resistor too high?)
Click to expand...

Without busting out the multimeter,......

BAM!!!!

234b0e1d.jpg


Booyah. Turns out I reversed the polarity.

Thanks for all you help guys. I'm going to be making up a beavis board for my next project.

The Amazing Beavis Board

EDIT: Here is a gutshot.

0301838e.jpg
 
#277
So I just started to mod my Civil War Muff Clone. I cut out the first two diodes this morning, and cannot stop playing with it. It's so perfect. Next I think I'm going to remove the tone stack and replace it with a 3 band EQ. Yay for 7 knob muffs!
 
#278
Talk to me about drilling enclosures. I have access to a drill press (actually a friend has one that you just attach a corded drill to,...and my boss has a heavy duty press) and plenty of clamps and a vise.

I'm more interested in measurements. I took some caliper readings on the holes of a pre-drilled 125B but it seems like there is a little bit of deviation between manufacturers of parts, specifically pots and DC input jacks. Also,...how much leeway should I give myself to actually fit in the parts. I'd like to keep "Machinist tolerances". I feel like it would be better to take readings on the parts and then give the drilling say an extra millimeter.

I want to do up some drawings and perhaps make a template. What does that entail? Have one made at a machine shop out of a milled piece of thicker aluminum or steel?
 

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