Mail Archives: geda-user/2013/10/25/14:30:53
On 10/25/2013 07:04 AM, Rob Butts wrote:
> I just got one of these and the directions are horrible. Does anyone
> have or use one of these who can walk me through the setup and operation?
Well, I have one that has all the same knobs but in different places.
It isn't really rocket science.
The air connectors are push-in, you'll need to make/find an adaptor to
hook the supply up to your shop air. Then, you'll want a foot switch or
other switch wired up to the trigger. Mine came with a nice finger
switch that clips onto a syringe, and I use that more than the footswitch.
After that, experiment and see what works :) Ok, that's not too helpful.
I have the dip switches set for one timed deposit per contact closure of
the trigger. The "auto/man" switch on the front changes from continuous
to timed deposit. The pressure, time, and vacuum you just need to find
what works with your syringe, needle, and paste.
One lesson I've learned the hard way is to first go into manual mode and
deposit some paste into a waste container before putting on a clean
needle. The paste at the nozzle of the syringe tends to dry out in
storage. It will clog your needle immediately -- much cursing ensues.
After purging the dry solder from the end of the syringe, attach a
needle, and still in manual mode deposit a little stripe to get the
needle charged. Then switch to timed deposit mode and adjust
pressure/time/vacuum until you get the dot size that you want.
The needles don't have to be very long, and in fact, a longer needle
creates a lot more resistance for the paste to squirt through. When I
started out, I bought an assortment off flea-bay of various diameters
and lengths of metal and conical-plastic needles. With most of the
metal ones, I cut them short (quarter inch or so) with a dremel cut-off
wheel.
Cleaning the metal needles is.... annoying. Lots of isopropyl alchohol
soaks, and jam a piece of wire down the needle to clear it. Again,
short needles help with this. With the needle I've been using lately
I'm stripping wire-wrap wire for my cleaning plunger.
I need to find some way to hook the needle directly up to air to clean
it out. I was thinking next time I might pull the plunger out of a
spare syringe and just use it as a way to couple air to the needle so
that I can blast the solder out. Or some other way to kludge it up to
an air blast.
HTH
-dave
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