Soldering Superstars: How many hands do you have?

Simon_M

Because two doesn't seem enough to me.

Just been soldering up a couple of stereo angled Neutrik connectors and it's been very tricky. When I had access to a university's music department we had some cool little jig/stand type things which held the connector and the cable and all I did was solder away but doing this at my kitchen table isn't quite so easy.

Can anyone recommend a decent soldering station for this kind of work?

Danny1969

What you need is a piece of wood ... like a lump of 4 x 2"   with holes drilled in the top for angled jacks and holes drilled in the sides for straight jacks. Then prep the cable so the ends naturally meet the contact they need to. Then tin the cable, tin the jacks and it's a piece of cake

ICBM

Danny1969 said:

What you need is a piece of wood ... like a lump of 4 x 2"   with holes drilled in the top for angled jacks and holes drilled in the sides for straight jacks. Then prep the cable so the ends naturally meet the contact they need to. Then tin the cable, tin the jacks and it's a piece of cake

This... or what I do, which is just to have a scrap jack socket which you clamp into a bench vice whichever way round is most convenient.

p90fool

I have a lump of wood with a bulldog clip screwed to it as a third hand. 

guitars4you

A pair of plyers with a strong elastic band wrapped round the handle can work as a stop gap

Philtre

I use a big blob of blu-tack.

DulcetJones

I use  alligator clips attached to a short length of rigid wire mounted on a heavy base, and a very small vise.  

thermionic

You need a helping hands tool.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71j13RAsx4L._SL1500_.jpg

Kalimna

+1 for the big blob-o-blutak approach....

normula1

I use an old footswitch to hold the plug

guitarcookie1

thermionic said:

You need a helping hands tool.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71j13RAsx4L._SL1500_.jpg

One of these. Less than £10 from Amazon/Aldi. I’ve got one with a light around the magnifying glass which I find really useful. 

robgilmo

My cheap helping hand fell apart.

Simon_M

Well don't I feel stupid! Such simple ideas I never thought of! I've got tons of wood offcuts in the garage so I'll get the drill out tomorrow. Don't know what they had at university but they were very posh.

robgilmo

My next one will have a light around the glass, it just makes so much sense. I've seen mobily phone repairers use like a microscope camera and a little tv screen for the fiddly bits, now that's posh.

robinbowes

I use this:



It's a Panavise Multi-Purpose Work Center - PV-350, with a Adafruit Third Hand Pana Hand Workstation Add-On.

Very handy.

R.

prlgmnr

robinbowes said:

I use this:



It's a Panavise Multi-Purpose Work Center - PV-350, with a Adafruit Third Hand Pana Hand Workstation Add-On.

Very handy.

R.

If you remove one arm do two more pop up in its place?

fretfinder

guitarcookie1 said:

thermionic said:

You need a helping hands tool.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71j13RAsx4L._SL1500_.jpg

One of these. Less than £10 from Amazon/Aldi. I’ve got one with a light around the magnifying glass which I find really useful. 

I’ve got one of these but personally I find it pretty useless for soldering - the base is too lightweight to hold it steady, the clips aren’t strong enough, the wing nuts don’t tighten the joints properly, and the magnifying glass is too small and poor quality. Apart from that they’re great! 

I bought a mini vice like this to try instead and it is equally useless imo, which maybe is no surprise when it only cost about £3.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F123477441093

rico

A word of warning if you get one with a magnifying glass. 

Do not leave it anywhere where the sun can shine on it, I came home from work once and it was focussing the sunlight on a portable battery pack and it was smoking like buggery. A few minutes later it would have got to the lithium ion cells  

Philtre

I get this guy to help me:

guitars4you

rico said:

A word of warning if you get one with a magnifying glass. 

Do not leave it anywhere where the sun can shine on it, I came home from work once and it was focussing the sunlight on a portable battery pack and it was smoking like buggery. A few minutes later it would have got to the lithium ion cells  

I have a good friend whose house burnt down with such issue - Magnifying Glass left on the paper - Recall it made Radio 1 or 2 / Newsbeat etc

octatonic

I use an old pedal for jack plugs.
Keeps it perfectly in the right position.