As a disabled person with only one working hand

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,845
@dl324 Wow! that's half the price Amazon wanted...
That was the third place I checked. The others were around 15% or more higher.

Before I bought any aids, I used to hold a couple things with my left hand, iron in the right, and solder between my lips. When I was a technician, I didn't give lead poisoning much consideration (and I was a nail biter back then). 99% of lead taken into the body of an adult will be eliminated in waste in a few weeks (much slower in children). I'm slightly more careful now, but not paranoid about it like the EU.
 

SamR

Joined Mar 19, 2019
5,031
Don't see any significant advantage of the Weller over the $20 AmScope one. Both seem to have the exact same board holding devices. The cheapo one I use can be a pain to adjust and this looks better:
1621399305028.png
But looks can be deceiving. Sure looks more flexible. I usually grab a couple of the upper corners of the board and brace the bottom against the benchtop for stability or suspend small items in the air.
 
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Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
I went ahead and ordered the glue. I also have some Duro cement that might work (I'll hold it in reserve).
 

Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Magnets are a major tool for me. Especially the 5/8" x 1/16", I put them on the bottoms of things to use with my steel worktable to help them stay put..
 

ericgibbs

Joined Jan 29, 2010
18,766
hi W,
A very basic holder which I sometimes use, is a piece of wood 4" * 6" * 1" thick which has 3 or 4 strong rubber bands, stretched around the width of the wooden block.

Easy for holding bits in place while being soldered, slip the work piece under a couple of bands.
E
 

Jim@HiTek

Joined Jul 30, 2017
59
You didn't mention, or I missed it, what type components you're talking about for the most part. Surface mount, or through hole?

Don't find them anymore, but for through hole, they used to make a board holder that had a top hinged cover with 1/4" thick foam. They also offered a 1/2" thick foam sheet for larger parts. You'd stuff the board from the lowest profile to the highest and between stuffings, you'd close the cover and clamp it, flip it over and solder. Mostly one handed operation.

Many techs would make their own using wood for the frame, brass hinges for the cover. I saw them in electronic assembly rooms all the time back in the day. Many of them built by the company. With pick and place assembly of surface mount these days being much less expensive, that sort of explains why they're not still on the market.

If you're mostly doing surface mount, they make all sorts of glues specifically for holding a part in place until it's soldered. Must be some available at most electronics suppliers.
 

Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Being a child of the eighties as far as electronics go I prefer through-hole, works for protoboards too.
 

Ian0

Joined Aug 7, 2020
9,668
One area thats very difficult is stripping and preparing the ends of wires for soldering onto connectors,
Even with working fingers I find some types of cable very unco-operative when trying to strip and tin - usually microphone cables it seems.
What works reasonably well is to release the stripper before it has pulled the insulation off completely, then tin as much as possible of the exposed wire, (with the remaining piece of insulation holding the strands together) then snip off the end.
Obviously this requires tinning with a soldering iron, not a solder pot.
 

Irving

Joined Jan 30, 2016
3,843
Even with working fingers I find some types of cable very unco-operative when trying to strip and tin - usually microphone cables it seems.
What works reasonably well is to release the stripper before it has pulled the insulation off completely, then tin as much as possible of the exposed wire, (with the remaining piece of insulation holding the strands together) then snip off the end.
Obviously this requires tinning with a soldering iron, not a solder pot.
I did have some success with partial stripping like that then putting the wire on a silicone (sticky) mat and rolling the insulation in opposite directions. Works OK for smaller single wires as long as I can control the stripper which is a bit hit n miss. Doesn't work for larger cables (hard to get a tight twist) or ribbon cable (obviously).
 

Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Forcepts are great tools for handling wire and some components but I find the tiny ones almost impossible to unlock. So I came up with this...
Forceps 2.jpg
Forceps 1.jpg

Like I said magnets are my friends. So is super glue and my Dremel.
 

bassbindevil

Joined Jan 23, 2014
824
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