by Andy on April 27, 2010
All-Spec Industries is now stocking the Steinel HG 350 ESD, Steinel’s newest lightweight heat gun. This ESD-safe heat gun is ideal for heat-shrinking, desoldering and soldering.
Steinel 34735 heat gun features:
- 3.5 CFM airflow
- Temperature: 750°F and 930°F with included reducer
- LED light to illuminate work area
- Molded safety rests prevent nozzle from burning or melting worktop
- Safety hanger for convenience
- Red indicator light to warn of hot nozzle
- Three-stage switch – OFF/COLD/HOT
- Five accessory nozzles to choose from
- Ergonomically shaped soft grip handle
- Lightweight – the gun weighs less than 2 lbs
by Andy on April 26, 2010
We know you guys like videos and most of the time, it’s easier to learn from a video as opposed to a blog article or white paper.
While trolling YouTube for interesting videos, I found the YouTube channel for BEST Inc. It turn out they frequently upload how-to soldering videos to their YouTube channel. The topic of the videos range from repairing a damaged PCB corner to PCB pad repair using epoxy.
Not only does BEST Inc supply PCB repair products, training kits and repair kits but they also offer solder and rework/repair training courses through their IPC Master Certification Solder Training Center. BEST Inc offers both instructor and operator classes as well as customized classes, plus their training courses are trusted by corporations such as IBM, Rockwell, Northrop and more.
Here’s an example of one of their informative videos…the video demonstrates how to repair PCB laminate.
If you’re looking to repair a PCB, we do carry some BEST Inc PCB repair parts including circuit frames and eyelets…we also carry a few repair kits.
by Andy on April 23, 2010
In the past, we’ve talked a lot about general soldering, extending the life of your soldering tips, etc… but we’ve only touched on desoldering.
Desoldering is the exact opposite of soldering; it’s the process of removing solder and/or components to repair, troubleshoot or salvage parts from a printed circuit board (PCB).
There are a variety of tools you can use to desolder including removal fluxes, pumps, irons, braid and more.
Desoldering braid is a product made of clean, oxide-free copper that helps completely remove solder from components and PCBs. The heat of a soldering iron melts the solder on the board; the liquid solder is then absorbed by the braided copper wire. Many people use a drop of flux to aide in the removal of the solder.
Here’s an instructional video on both desoldering with braid and soldering the component back into place.
Here’s a close-up video of just desoldering using braid. Note: there is music with the video.
All desoldering braid is not the same. In fact, there are variety of types of desoldering braid within one manufacturer. For instance Chemtronics has Chem-Wik and Soder-Wick…Easy Braid has Quick Braid, One-Step, Sea Braid and several others. The type of braid you buy depends on the application, solder and flux.
Confused about what desoldering braid you need for the task at hand? Contact our Customer Service Department for help.
by Andy on April 15, 2010
Within the past month, Cooper Industries and Danaher Tool Group have announced they will combine certain aspects of their tool manufacturing businesses to create a global tool company.
Details of the agreement have not been published but each company will own equal halves of the company and will include elements of Danaher’s mechanic hand tools and Cooper’s hand and power tools as well as their wireless technologies. The goal of the new company is to offer a comprehensive tool portfolio on a greater scale with very little overlap.
This deal is still pending approval from regulatory bodies but a final decision should be announced sometime during the second quarter of 2010.
Be on the lookout for updates to this arrangement. Both companies are innovative and powerful; it will be interesting to see what the two companies can accomplish once they join forces.
Danaher is a Washington D.C. based company that creates and manufactures products for a variety of industries including medical, industrial, commercial and professional. Well known Danaher brands include Fluke, Allen, Armstrong, GearWrench and many others. Danaher Tool Group’s News Release
Cooper Industries was founded in 1833 and since then, the company has created eight divisions such as Cooper Bussmann, Cooper Lighting, Cooper Safety and more. Known Cooper brands carried by All-Spec include Weller, Erem, Kahnetics, Xcelite, Apex, Utica and several others. Cooper Industries’ News Release
It’s been a busy week for everyone, but things are progressing well and the end is in sight. We are now running on a new central server with room to grow. We apologize for the outages, broken/missing communications, and sluggishness of the web site as we move the core of the business operations onto new hardware. The last few fires are being extinguished and we’re starting to look at overall service enhancements now. You should notice an increase in web site response for searches, order submissions, and other data intensive web tasks. This performance increase will compound after we finalize additional hardware enhancements within the next few weeks.
The shipping confirmation e-mail has been fixed. The order status tracking link at the bottom of the page has been corrected. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. If you would prefer a ”web page” version of the content, let me know by posting a comment.
Until all hardware enhancements have been made, you may periodically experience slow web site response times between 8PM and 12AM ET Monday-Friday. This is due to data processing and file backup procedures. An IT announcement will be made when all changes have been completed.
Thanks for your business!
Glen Batchelor – CIO/CTO
