I've used an inverted plastic bin before. Less strain on the neck/back that way. Also less chance of damaging the floors.
this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2026
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Why is it when I need to weld 2 pieces of steel together, I just have nothing more than the 2 pieces of steel, maybe a couple clamps, one angle grinder, and a chipping hammer. And the welder of course.
When I need to solder something I have 2 soldering irons, a whole soldering station, 2 dozen alligator clips, a fistful of odd bits of wire, 3 pairs of side cutters, 2 different types of flux, 4 spools of solder, 6 screwdrivers, and 2 cats.
I hate soldering.
Lol I love/hate soldering too.
Wires. Fuck wires. I hate wires. Wires are evil. Wires do whatever they want.
"Hi I'm Mr wire, I noticed you're trying to put me right in this particular location, how about I flex and jump 1 inch to the right!"
"Haha Mr wire, I am on to you, you are trying to flex into that position, so I will align you one inch to the opposite side and use your naturally unruly behavior to my advantage!"
"Did I say I was trying to flex to the right? No no, I'm trying to flex upwards and to the left now"
The gods give us their toughest battles
On the floor?
Someone committed suicide in the last building I lived in, the entire place burned down, I lost all of my furniture. But at least I can solder.
Nature's desk.
Ahh yes, much like how the buttocks is nature’s pocket.
Been there. Stull struggling with desk space sometimes, but at least I have a silicone mat now.
On the floor?
I love soldering projects. I get out my soldering iron, stand, and solder and bring it to my workspace.
Oh, I forgot the sponge to clean the tip. Make another trip and bring that back.
Oh, I need to desolder something too, so make another trip to get the solder sucker.
Oh, and this piece moves around too much. I’ll go get my soldering helper to hold it.
Oh, I didn’t even get the wire?
By the time I’ve plugged in the fucking soldering iron I’ve gotten 2000 steps in and brought most of the contents of my workshop in a messy pile at my workspace.
I have the 14 items that I need to do a basic soldering job scattered all throughout my apartment. Even though I do 100% of the soldering in one small area, I feel the need to distribute these pieces throughout my place, so I must go on a wild adventure every time. I will also make sure to misplace random critical objects while I am in the middle of a job.
"Why don't you use your project desk?"
You mean the place where I store project materials before they are brought to the smaller floor workspace? Nah...
All my soldering shit is in the same box because of this.
If it's all in the orbital of this milk crate I consider it organized
My favorite storage style
Please don't forget the ventilation. Nasty stuff in solder.
Ah a fellow deskfloorian
Soldered stuff and secured with cyanoacrylate, cured with a fan and clothes steamer cuz I'm too impatient to wait 15 munutes
E: I don't know why the goddamn ground pads on these boards is the biggest pain in the ass in the universe and it seems to actively reject solder regardless of what type of flux / solder used. I'm also not too impressed with my right channel lump there but what can a person do at this point, who cares it works and it's snug
Planes will eat up all that heat and spread it out.
Always takes a lot of cooking to get solder to flow on a direct ground plane connection.
Often why a pad will only be connected by a few small&short traces to the actual net plane around it: let's the pad heat properly to let the solder flow.
These are just cheap dude. Literally paid 92 cents. The good ones don't behave this way but I wanted to try the cheap ones. I guess I exploded in frustration without really explaining what half of my beef is... it's that the damn pads rip off with the force of a mouse fart... because they're just... I don't know how it's even POSSIBLE to make something this cheap and have it still kinda work. Got to handle them like Faberge eggs and there's like a three second forgiveness window for applying too much heat... Oy hahahahahah
Ah, sorry. I was trying to explain why "can't get solder to stick" was happening.
I guess I shoulda said "up the temperature and cook it a bit more".
Essentially, pump in more heat than the plane can spread & dissipate. And hopefully you don't cook something else on the board or lift the track/via
I'm not asking for soldering advice, I do this for a living, these are dog shit Bluetooth modules from china, you're not listening.
The fact that I have enough skill to actually solder onto these pieces of feces, and actually have a working product is a testament to my skill. I'm not just bloviating, you don't know what it's like trying to work with these particular ultra-budget ones until you've had them in your hands.
What is with everybody on lemmy, and social media in general, deciding that everybody is an invalid and half wit, possesses no ability, and without asking or investigation decides they need a lecture on some imagined knowledge/skill deficiency. It's getting really frustrating.
Lol, Ok, grandpa, let's get you into bed.
You don't find it obnoxious when people assume that you need advice, while it is clear they are not reading anything you say and aren't able to grasp the situation, while they prioritize dictating to you? Hmm. Let's get you some social skills, kiddie.
No, I generally assume good intentions from others, especially on Lemmy, even when they're not exactly picking up what I'm putting down. On the occasions when it does anger me it's usually because either my ego is especially sensitive that day, or I'm irritated by something else, hunger, life frustrations, etc. and it's bleeding through in my interactions with others.
Thankfully when I find myself yelling at clouds online, somebody usually reminds me to relax, let go of the ego, and the people I'm talking to are just humans, too, and I should exercise the same patience with them as I would like for myself.
Ok. Sorry.
Have a lovely day
Seeing the Milwaukee bit and the Dewalt drill. I too like to mix brands.
Sir, that's clearly a drill.
That's because you're looking at the drill.
Consider looking at one of the two soldering irons.
Oh, those soldering irons.
I believe that is the heaviest soldering iron I have ever seen in 40 yrs of electronics 😂
Which of these two, perfectly normal soldering tools do you deem to be the heaviest you've seen in your life?
Really? Seems like a fairly normal iron. I have two of a similar size and another smaller one. I watched someone on youtoob doing copper gutters on a chateau and he had a very large propane fueled soldering iron. That one was ungainly.
What's the drill tipped with? I don't really understand what I'm seeing there.
edit: talking about 2 different things here
The blue soldering station looks identical to mine, a cheap thing from a cheap store. The tip + some ceramic keep falling out and (I guess mostly due to that) it doesn't work well anymore... yours seems to be fine? The tip in this pic looks almost as bad as mine.