Let's see your soldering station! (pics and poll)

[Jeff Scott]

LOL, I have one of those huge Atlas booms on wheels, that I use for things like hanging a trouble light while working on something in the garage, or when painting walls in the house.

Cool! I have an old Starbird boom stand that will soon be used to light a large table in our soon to be finished gut reno'd attic.

This one is similar to mine (the base on mine is a bit different as mine is older than this one), I need to get it out of storage and make some good photos of it.
The yoke for the boom is about 5' up and the boom has an AC cord running through it with a connector on the end of it; this was for the "hair light" when we did portraits in the studio, or as a general overhead for product photography such as this:

Photograph Copyright © Jeffrey P. Scott 2007 All rights reserved

 

[beans-on-toast]

Hot marshmallows? Yeah, I hate when that happens.

I was thinking more of one of those spikey resistors. For some reason, I associated it fusilli pasta and hence the Seinfeld reference. It's been a long day...

 

[Passinwind]

I am quite happy with my Fluke 115. It's not bargain basement. A problem with the cheap Home Depot type is that their voltage reference drifts as the battery goes down. I can kinda justify buying pro quality gear because I'm running a factory, but I consider a voltmeter to be a "reference" that I can use to check other test equipment including things like the audio output of my PC.

Wow, I hadn't looked at Fluke prices in a while, they are up there these days. I had a nice stash of factory yard sale ones with minor defects acquired when a former girlfriend was a tech there. A lot of my tech friends in Seattle worked similar deals too. I have a 179 now, which I got for 125 bucks new on eBay several years ago when there were a few different promotions and rebates happening that I managed to consolidate. As you say, nice to have a reasonably real calibration standard.

I was thinking more of one of those spikey resistors. For some reason, I associated it fusilli pasta and hence the Seinfeld reference. It's been a long day...

Those things are very sharp, no joke. I've been meaning to build a proper cage and switching network for them for some time.

BTW, the Pace unit at the back of that pic is a full blown desoldering station, but I guess that belongs in its own thread.

 

[GBassNorth]

I'm in! Will need to take a photo of the soldering staton tomorrow.

 

[Ric5]

Here's some pics of my workbench

 

[B-string]

There are signs of sick minds here.......or is that only for desks?

 

[okcrum]

 

[cjj]

OK, not a great shot, but...
Metcal soldering stations are fantastic!

 

[bb5000]

I started up a part-time amp repair service last year, so here are my solder stations, the Weller is of course the primary one.

...and here's my DIY tube tester for B+ > 600V..

 

[FretNoMore]

I do my soldering on my kitchen table, bringing whatever stuff I need for the job and then stowing it away again. No pic I'm afraid, an empty table isn't very exiting.

 

[beans-on-toast]

BTW, the Pace unit at the back of that pic is a full blown desoldering station

I noticed that. They are very nice, I used to use one. It had a vacuum iron that removed the solder like it was never there.

 

[gumtown]

I currently have a Fender Bassman 100 on my work bench at the moment too.
Had blown HV diodes, and both treble pots with a short to ground.
Input jacks required bending the pins to make switch contacts again,
now it's running sweet.
Mates rates repair for a '2 dozen' box of beers.

 

[beans-on-toast]

I started up a part-time amp repair service last year, so here are my solder stations, the Weller is of course the primary one.

...and here's my DIY tube tester for B+ > 600V..

Nice job on the tester! Looks like you put a lot of thought into it.

 

[mikeyjm2]

I need to purchase a new meter too. Mine stopped working. I need recommendations for them also, but that's a new thread.

Yeah, maybe OT on this thread but...

Don't know how much you want to spend, but I swear by my Fluke 787. Great for simulating 4-20mA signals in addition to all the usual VOM stuff. Maybe the 4-20mA signal simulation is not all that useful for musical equipment tinkering, but that's not really why I bought it. BTW, I didn't pay anywhere close to that price. I got it used from ebay, but condition was new enough that it still had the clear protective film over the LCD.

To the topic of this thread...

My "station", such as it is, is actually my kitchen table. Just a simple handheld Hakko like this with the old plastic stand and sponge for tip cleaning. Again though, my purpose with it isn't specifically musical equipment although I have used it for that on more than one occasion. Sorry no pic but it wouldn't exactly be glamorous even if I had one.

 

[fdeck]

Yes, a microscope is nice to have. I've got one on the other end of my workbench. It's handy when inspecting solder joints. Short of getting a full blown microscope, a good magnifying glass is helpful.

 

[Jack MN]

 

[FerK]

That's some shop ! Are those Hilti impact drivers on the shelf?

View attachment 627541 I solder on the bench to the left.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Yes, a microscope is nice to have. I've got one on the other end of my workbench. It's handy when inspecting solder joints. Short of getting a full blown microscope, a good magnifying glass is helpful.

A dissecting microscope is a nice way to go. USB based microscope cameras have come way down in price, under $100. I often find myself wearing an Optivisor.

 

[bb5000]

Nice job on the tester! Looks like you put a lot of thought into it.

Yep, it handles most things.. It operates with dual-rail, so I have 2 voltage levels to start with, HT1 & HT2...the switches at the bottom engage Zener diodes to drop
the voltage for each level. So HT1 ranges between 350V - 700V, HT2 between 250-400V. An octal socket for rectifier tubes gives me a third rail. HT3, with the voltage
that the rectifier tube provides.
The power tube sockets are for different test scenarios (anode/screen voltage): HT1/HT2 , HT2/HT2 , HT1/HT1 and HT3/HT3 + a socket for EL84 (Ht2/HT2).
The preamp tube sockets are for different types: 12A** (12V heater), 6922 etc (6V), 6S* (octal tubes), EF86 (in triode mode).

The meters show: HT1/HT2 (selectable), HT3/Preamp plate (selectable), cathode voltage, bias voltage.
The bias voltage has a range between 0-60V, with 2 knobs (one for fine-tuning). Both the power tube sockets and preamp tube sockets can be fed with a fixed bias voltage.
The preamp tubes have switchable plate and cathode resistors (even a bypassed cathode resistor which then relies on the bias voltage). This allows me to check the
current draw for a triode in different setups and compare that to new tubes or datasheets.
It's possible to inject a signal to the preamp tubes and send the output to an oscilloscope.
I also added an octal socket for continuity test (not in the picture).

 

[beans-on-toast]

this was for the "hair light" when we did portraits in the studio, or as a general overhead for product photography such as this:

View attachment 627905
Photograph Copyright © Jeffrey P. Scott 2007 All rights reserved

Both the bass and the photography are spectacular Jeff!