# Lost arts (electronic soldering for me) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 28, 2008, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888 "2008-10-28T02:33:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888/21 "2008-10-28T16:24:25Z")
Sweetie knows how to do electronic soldering. He repaired his nieces’ screaming flying monkey doll (don’t ask) and was Best Uncle Ever for an evening. He repaired a friend’s keyboard and retrofitted it with a couple of potentiometers to take advantage of analog capabilities that the manufacturer left untapped. One of our next when-we-have-time projects is to collect some garage sale electronic toys and try some [circuit bending](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_bending). ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888/22 "2008-10-28T16:50:37Z")
So was that DVD player RoHS or not? RoHS = “Reduction of Hazardous Substances”, a program which eliminated lead and several other substances from electronics. Older units used lead-based solder which melts at a lower temperature; newer units is a silver-based solder which melts at a higher temperature and needs a different tip on the soldering iron (I think). I know my work went through a vast two-year change redesigning the entire product line to eliminate lead solder, and we got all new workstations and parts. It’s time for me to get into hardware again. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888/23 "2008-10-28T17:08:11Z")
Soldering is a lost art? Where? Millions of Chinese girls are doing it for pennies per day. And I do it all the time just for fun and tinkering. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888/24 "2008-10-28T18:00:14Z")
_Black Knight_ is the best (oldschool) pinball ever. \*Indiana Jones \*is the best of all time. Just so you know… ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888/25 "2008-10-28T18:03:30Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > _Black Knight_ is the best (oldschool) pinball ever. \*Indiana Jones \*is the best of all time. > > Just so you know… Funny, I own Black Knight and Black Knight 2000. Just sayn’… ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888/26 "2008-10-28T23:47:06Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > And cancer. Lead poisoning is nasty, but I don’t think it causes cancer. Right? ---
**Author:** ![hamster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a8b319/32.png) [@hamster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hamster)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2008, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888/27 "2008-10-29T02:05:55Z")
Well, don’t be so hard on the box stores, they are just following the money. It’s far cheaper to just spin a new board than do board level repair on consumer electronics. I, however, work on medical lasers, and let me tell you, soldering is not a lost art. I do everything from surface mount to through hole, and I have a really nice station for doing it. Certainly, the number of people doing things by hand is going down, but there are still a lot of pros out there doing it. If you need parts and tools, I’ve found [digi-key.com](http://digi-key.com) and [mouser.com](http://mouser.com) to be good part vendors. Good work on fixing stuff yourself. Have no fear, if you know where to look, the goods are still there. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888/28 "2008-10-30T00:27:06Z")
> [@hamster](#): > > Well, don’t be so hard on the box stores, they are just following the money. It’s far cheaper to just spin a new board than do board level repair on consumer electronics. So true. I often try to repair things and end up wasting a lot of time for nothing. And even when I am able to repair it the time spent was probably not worth it from a purely monetary point of view. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888/29 "2008-10-30T00:45:07Z")
Done! Part came today. Let’s see new part X2 =$60. $100 for soldering station, solder, flux, desoldering tool, hobbyholder. I’m still $100 ahead than if I’d ordered the LED upgrade. Satisfaction: Priceless. ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888/30 "2008-10-30T03:22:22Z")
Come to think of it, while we’re on the subject of soldering, I once had a fellow employee wander into my office clutching a development board and ask for my \*\*bottle of nail polish \*\*as a stopgap alternative. That happened a few times over the course of a week or so. 😕 Anyone else ever done or heard of anything similar? > [@](#): > > ETA: that video is frickin’ cool! It is, innit? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888/31 "2008-10-30T04:24:08Z")
> [@lizardling](#): > > Come to think of it, while we’re on the subject of soldering, I once had a fellow employee wander into my office clutching a development board and ask for my \*\*bottle of nail polish \*\*as a stopgap alternative. That happened a few times over the course of a week or so. 😕 > > Anyone else ever done or heard of anything similar? > > It is, innit? 😃 Nail polish isn’t conductive, so it isn’t a solder substitute, but it’s useful for: a) insulating components in close proximity. b) tacking wire down c) protecting circuitry from oxidation d) preventing adjustable components from moving. I keep a bottle of clear nail polish for those situations. ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888/32 "2008-10-30T20:19:40Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Nail polish isn’t conductive, so it isn’t a solder substitute, but it’s useful for: > a) insulating components in close proximity. > b) tacking wire down > c) protecting circuitry from oxidation > d) preventing adjustable components from moving. > I keep a bottle of clear nail polish for those situations. Oooh, thanks for the explanation! That makes more sense; as you can tell, I was pretty confused about it. I’m sure the board looked a bit amusing with black/silver glitter nail polish daubs on it. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888/33 "2008-10-30T20:34:50Z")
This is my [soldering station](http://www.newark.com/88F5891/tools/product.us0?sku=metcal-mx-500ds-11). I use it at work for not only old school type assembly, but for SMT assembly and rework as well. I rarely use the vacuum attachment, opting for good old solder wick instead. Now, if you want to talk about lost arts, I could prolly still whip out a [wire wrapped circuit board](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_wrap) if I really had too. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888/34 "2008-10-30T22:33:19Z")
This makes me all teary eyed; I used to be, at one point in my life, a Certified Solderer\*, which allowed me to work on some Defense Department stuff I never understood. It was a lot of fun, though. \*This was some home brewed title made up by the company I was working for. As far as I know, there ain’t no such thing in real life. ---
**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888/35 "2008-10-31T02:41:41Z")
There are definitely “Certified Solderers”. Up to my retirement some years ago, I worked at a medium sized company that did all sorts of aircraft parts. We had several folks who had gone to an FAA certified training program for soldering, and were therefore allowed to work on aircraft electronics. Without that training, you weren’t allowed to touch this sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888/36 "2008-10-31T02:47:08Z")
I used to lay out printed circuit boards using tape, rub-on pads, mylar, and exacto knives. The last time I did this must be close to 25 years ago. Of course, computers have made that art obsolete, and I’ll I can say is I don’t miss doing it that way one bit. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888/37 "2008-10-31T13:56:35Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I used to lay out printed circuit boards using tape, rub-on pads, mylar, and exacto knives. The last time I did this must be close to 25 years ago. Of course, computers have made that art obsolete, and I’ll I can say is I don’t miss doing it that way one bit. Me too on the tape and exacto knife part. Twenty five years later, I still occasionally lay out boards and yes, it’s now all done via software but it is still very much an art. It takes skill and a keen sense of aesthetic to lay out a multi-layer SMT board with blind and buried vias. No one likes an ugly PC board. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888/38 "2008-10-31T19:29:43Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > I’d been thinking about this lost art, since. It’s a shame that we don’t build things well or carefully enough to be fixed, that this skill is worthless for the most part. > > It offends me that things aren’t built to last, that we replace whole expensive assemblies, or entire appliances just because some little tiny part goes bad. We don’t fix things. We don’t build things with enough value to warrant fixing them. We just replace. If you haven’t seen this, you might like it. I do. [Junk, by Richard Wilbur](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=171790) The unusual meter is actually the very old [strong-stress rhythm](http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/479409/prosody/50847/Strong-stress-metres). ---
**Author:** ![Sky\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Sky\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sky_King)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888/39 "2008-10-31T19:54:12Z")
Going back to the original question, I think actually DOING many things is becoming a lost art. My main hobby is building and flying model airplanes, primarily radio controlled ones. Until maybe five years ago modelers took a lot of pride in building…even the ones who weren’t particuarly good craftsmen. Now almost-ready-to-fly airplanes are well enough built and cheap enough that almost no new modelers and few older ones bother to build anymore. Most pilots don’t even have the building skills to repair minor crash damage, so it’s a matter of pitch it and buy a new one when something unfortunate happens. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2008, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888/40 "2008-11-01T03:43:50Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > “Don’t worry honey. Daddy breaks things, too. We’ll order a new piece and try again.” I got hit with a freak apartment dust storm, and suddenly my eyes are all watery for some strange reason when I read this line. Just because as a kid I broke a lot of stuff. Never have I gotten a response as eloquent or nicely put as that one you just gave your daughter. I always just got yelled at, and that’s what I was totally expecting from you- just perhaps a sigh and a rant or something like “kids will be kids” and perhaps a muttering on now you gotta go get another one or something. That answer you gave was beautiful, and it BLEW my MIND. My horizon was literally broadened. Thank you, sir. I hope to use that one someday and to share that perspective with my own kids someday. Thanks for teaching me something new. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-arts-electronic-soldering-for-me/469888.md?page=1)