Mad Mike
Well-known member
I agree no meter is better than none.
At my house more meters is better, they seem to hide like socks and 10mm sockets.
I have a few of these General PDP Template
$18 and do everything I’d ever need.
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What did you do in your garage today..?
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At my house more meters is better, they seem to hide like socks and 10mm sockets.
I have a few of these General PDP Template
$18 and do everything I’d ever need.
30 watts is a lot for an electronics iron.
I havent looked recently but $20 for an adjustable iron is cheap.
Resist the urge to get a cone tip. Everybody starts with them as it seems like a small point is a good idea. They suck. Stick with chisel tips of various sizes unless you are doing smd work.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
I like the adjustable 60w irons. If you’re working outdoors, or in the cold or breeze a 30w will struggle with anything 16 gauge or bigger.
No substitutes for power!
It goes the other way too. Too much power and you burn some traces or components and your life quickly sucks. The electrical equivalent of breaking off a bolt.
For electronics, I use a hakko 951. For soldering wires, I normally use butane irons as the portability is convenient and there is a ton of heat if required.
Wouldn't you need low temperatures for soldering on circuit boards?
30 watts will get pretty hot though I can't recall how hot. I have a couple pewter model kits to assemble that require low temp soldering and at my previous position I watched the techs do a lot of soldering fine wires to small circuit boards and low temp settings were required.
Temp is dependent on the solder and thermal capacity of the iron. The perfect iron would be temperature controlled (with temp measurement in tip) with infinite power. The cheap controllable iron is probably using pwm or voltage control to reduce power but temp will be all over the place. Using chisel tips increases thermal capacity which allows you to reduce iron temp and still get the job done. Small tips need higher temps as as soon as you touch them to the work, they cool off below the temp needed to melt the solder. You can have the same issue with soldering to a ground plane or heat sink where even 100 watts and a big tip can't get heat in fast enough. For big cables, I have the old school weller ~250W. It is good for cutting poly ropes too.
Fwiw, I like eutectic solder(63/37). It melts and hardens at one temperature. Makes it easier to avoid a cold joint where things move after one phase hardens but before the second phase hardens.
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I have one of these and absolutely love it for soldering automotive wire. It's likely too large and powerful for a lot of electronics work, but for me it's great.
Heats up quickly, seems to hold a lot of heat in the tip as it doesn't cool off quickly/dramatically when soldering 12ga wire and recovers nicely.
For me the best feature is the adjustable head. I use a 3.0ah battery with a large base and turn the head 90deg. The iron will now stand up on it's own and allows me to use both hands on the work. This way I can hold the wires just the way I want them as I apply the solder or hold the shrink tube up out of the way so it doesn't prematurely shrink.
I've yet to find a Milwaukee M12 or M18 power tool that I have not been impressed by.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
I have an old Weller commercial unit for electronics. Most of my soldering is automotive wiring, and sheet metal, so I like the heavy irons.
I have an older Weller unit that is so heavy I could use it for home defense. I've been known to set it up in the vise and tie strap the trigger when I needed both hands free for soldering.
I checked if RIDGID has one but no luck. Could come in handy one day.
Mine has a fat elastic around the handle. It spends half its time with the elastic around the trigger.
If you want to start a business and it isn't plumbing, you need to change your tools to red, yellow or blue.
Got some soft panniers for the wife's bike.
She opted for Mosko Moto Backcountry 35s. They're semi-rigid soft panniers that are rack mounted.
We had a few options for racks, Mosko recommends Outback Motortek which is actually a local Okanagan company. They make very good racks and crash bars, but they are permanently mounted.
I've got the SW Motech Pro Carrier pannier racks on my GS, which I really like because they're removable for when we do day rides, so we went with that on Neda's Norden as well.
Although it's not a direct fit with the Backcountry 35s, you can drill some holes in the rack to install the mounting HW. This is what Mosko recommends:
Unfortunately, this puts the mounting bracket pretty high up, which is not ideal if you want to run a drybag on the passenger seat:
Mounting bracket too high. No bueno
So I drilled a couple of other holes that set the mounting bracket lower and further forward.
Green are the stock holes, red are the new drilled holes
This puts the mounting bracket in a much better position, IMO
Now the top of the pannier bag sits flush with the passenger seat and you can place a dry bag across the seat and over the panniers. Also, the bags seemed more centred with the rear axle as well:
A quick release pull allows the pannier to be removed very easily so you can drag it into your tent or motel room
The Backcountry panniers are capable of holding 2x5L drybags mounted on the rear. You can also store extra engine oil or 4x1L MSR fuel cans as well. 4L gives a good 21% additional fuel capacity over the stock 19L tank, which is a good ratio:
Overall 80L of storage on the panniers + auxiliary pockets (AUXPOX)
And the best part, the racks are removable with 4 quarter-turn quick-release screws for a stock look when we're doing day-rides on the trails:
All ready for some hard core touring next season!
She opted for Mosko Moto Backcountry 35s. They're semi-rigid soft panniers that are rack mounted.
We had a few options for racks, Mosko recommends Outback Motortek which is actually a local Okanagan company. They make very good racks and crash bars, but they are permanently mounted.
I've got the SW Motech Pro Carrier pannier racks on my GS, which I really like because they're removable for when we do day rides, so we went with that on Neda's Norden as well.
Although it's not a direct fit with the Backcountry 35s, you can drill some holes in the rack to install the mounting HW. This is what Mosko recommends:
Unfortunately, this puts the mounting bracket pretty high up, which is not ideal if you want to run a drybag on the passenger seat:
Mounting bracket too high. No bueno
So I drilled a couple of other holes that set the mounting bracket lower and further forward.
Green are the stock holes, red are the new drilled holes
This puts the mounting bracket in a much better position, IMO
Now the top of the pannier bag sits flush with the passenger seat and you can place a dry bag across the seat and over the panniers. Also, the bags seemed more centred with the rear axle as well:
A quick release pull allows the pannier to be removed very easily so you can drag it into your tent or motel room
The Backcountry panniers are capable of holding 2x5L drybags mounted on the rear. You can also store extra engine oil or 4x1L MSR fuel cans as well. 4L gives a good 21% additional fuel capacity over the stock 19L tank, which is a good ratio:
Overall 80L of storage on the panniers + auxiliary pockets (AUXPOX)
And the best part, the racks are removable with 4 quarter-turn quick-release screws for a stock look when we're doing day-rides on the trails:
All ready for some hard core touring next season!
A couple of cheap Chinese signs for the garage. 
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