20120815

Custom Metcal Soldering Iron Stand

We recently picked up a Metcal MX-500 Soldering Station. If you've never seen these, they are pretty much the BMW 7-series of soldering and rework stations. They have a fascinating principle of operation - the thing is basically a 50W 13.56Mhz radio transmitter and uses inductive heating, like a steel foundry. These things have an amazing heat capacity, and use a clever mechanism based on the Curie point to regulate the temperature very accurately.

Anyway, once you have one of these, you rapidly acquire a big collection of cartridges. The cartridge/tip sets the temperature and will allow the same iron to do everything from 0402 SMT parts to #12 house wire. In my OCD quest to organize and make my board manufacturing side business more efficient, I decided to build a tip rack that would bolt on to the stand.  Here it is:


I started with a block of scrap Aluminum, cut it out with the band saw and milled it out our 1955 Bridgeport M-series.

There's room for about a dozen tips, and best of all, they are permanently attached to the base with a couple of 8-32 screws.

Since there are some spare holes now, this probably just means that I'll fill it up.

There's a rather extensive catalog of accessories at the OKI site, including some bizarre SMT rework tips and lots more. These units are $600+ new, but they can be had on the usual auction sites for around 1/2 that in good condition.

Arclight









by

5 comments:

  1. It turned into the standard engineering throughout the industrialization period. Important http://www.brockmoor.co.uk/about-us.html steel can now be made at shabbier expenses, as streamlined progressions are effectively achievable.

    ReplyDelete

  2. I needed to thank you for this awesome read!! I certainly getting a charge out of each and every piece of it I have you bookmarked to look at new stuff you post. steel foundry

    ReplyDelete

  3. You can browse remote fastening instruments like Butane Solder Irons, Solder Torches and Rechargeable Solder Irons or possibly an Instant Cool Solder Iron is on you list. Obviously don't
    best oscilloscope

    ReplyDelete

  5. With regards to trusted patching frameworks, there is just a single name that rings a bell - Metcal. Why Metcal? Since Metcal knows binding frameworks. Its items, from Metcal patching iron to fastening tips, are very much designed, with security and administrator profitability as the primary concerns. I find this very good website for the craftsman scroll saw, If you want you can visit this site.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)