Soldering Iron

[flashjazzcat]

a few clicks would have revealed it all, but I'm not as clear as I should be. Also very terse in my response, still. Though looking at both google responses it would have been resolved quickly by a click or two looking at one and then the other. A quick look and then maybe a little hey Doc I think you made a typo or spell correct error, I found the kapton tape. cool.

I didn't get that feeling from the post I read and saw. It did take up over half my screen, and had the tone of that comedy act where the guy goes... what is stupid, and as I read this article it says ___... what does ____ mean. Just saying we can both come off looking badly.

 

Matters of spelling are easy enough to resolve, but if you don't already know what Kapton tape is, no amount of clicking is going to remove all doubt that Kapton tape is what you meant to convey. The onus shouldn't really be on the reader to disambiguate meaning, even when they have sufficient initiative to look things up on Google.

 

I didn't even know the stuff was called Kapton Tape until a couple of years ago, and even after I'd put a name to it, I couldn't spell it because I hadn't seen it written down. I wrote "Captain Tape" in a PM to another forum member and was promptly corrected, and didn't raise a fuss. And typing "Captain Tape" into Google immediately disambiguates the spelling for you.

Edited February 5, 2018 by flashjazzcat

[_The Doctor__]

We all make mistakes, I would have corrected it once asked, but we don't all use half page enlarged pictures about it, with the answer right there.. two click away. A simple question would have sufficed. Sorry I typed wrong or spell corrected incorrectly, like I often do on an iPhone with my thick digits hitting the wrong things. Again you have my apology...

Context is a big clue as to what it is, fully understanding we are talking on the subject of soldering iron and temperature etc. These are big hints.

With apologies it gave two whole choices in the half screen high shot, it says did you mean 'kapton' tape or 'k active' tape right in the post. and if you click on the very first choice, first thing you see is Wikipedia describing what it is and the second item listed is sale of the tape followed by other very descriptive choices and pictures, and of course were talking about soldering but hey that's just me. I wouldn't have made it to the second choice at all, but had I done that I would have known it was way off.

 

Moreover, when I typed in kaptive tape in google... at least for me, it gave only one drop down choice... kapton tape. But it's possible google tailors it's response to me in that way, except it was the only choice. Again this is quite a bit of bustle for a typo correct or mistake. Easily asked or answered, and it wouldn't have bothered me in the slightest. I would've been oops I'm a goof, d*mn iPhone or some such embarrassed answer, corrected myself and moved on.

 

It's a bit of a curiosity though captain tape sounds like a cool name, I'd use that while in the break area to post up a note to tell people that Mister Coffee is broken and vending machine is down. For giggles I will put into google captain tape. It gave me about 19 choices, kapton was among them. Stupid google is at it again, I'm in a filter bubble.

 

In any event it is what it is. Ta da I filled a page.

 

Apologetically, and sorry,

_Doc__

 

of course responding usually means more responses so I shouldn't respond but I did blah blah blah. Old tired grumpy dude screaming get off my lawn some more... That's the problem with cb radio. Two people are talking and somebody has their ears on and gets in on the conversation, forcefully, that's okay good buddy we'll just keep truckin'

Edited February 5, 2018 by _The Doctor__

[flashjazzcat]

Toddtmw already explained that he didn't realise it was a typing error. For someone not already familiar with this stuff, it wasn't clear you didn't mean Captive Tape or something else. I'm not clear why "What is Kaptive Tape? Google wont let me search for it" elicited such a shirty response, unless it's the accompanying screenshot you found objectionable. But the screenshot seemed to me to be an effort to present information which would hasten disambiguation, not an attempt at belittlement or pedantry.

 

Honestly: I don't want to have a disagreement about it, but it seems the other guy ended up effectively apologising for your auto correct not working properly. I know it's no longer socially acceptable to correct grammar or spelling, but hopefully it's still OK to ask for clarification on a word which is not only unrecognised, but non-existent. You could have responded with "Yeah: I meant Kapton Tape" and that would have been the end of it.

 

Anyway: seems you're quite right about variability in Google's responses. This is what I get:

 

 

It follows that we probably can't make assumptions about what search suggestions another person will see.

 

Anyway: I see you made edits while I was writing this. Case closed.

Edited February 5, 2018 by flashjazzcat

[_The Doctor__]

looks like the edit window is about 59 minutes, I saw your post and my edit were about 30 seconds overlapped, so I tried at about 20, 40, and failed at 60 minutes, went to another post and found you have to click by 59 minutes or it tosses your work away. Paying members might have longer I'm not sure. In any event it's nice to know... Something to play with and figure out. Of no real significance but interesting none the less. It didn't even alert me you posted while I was posting it was that close. silly interwebs

Edited February 5, 2018 by _The Doctor__

[flashjazzcat]

Yep: the exact time the edit window closes is five seconds before you click "Submit Modified Post".

[+DrVenkman]

Another good reason to be an AA Subscriber: you get a MUCH longer window to edit posts.

[AtariLeaf]

I had to laugh when I got my bottle of liquid flux and read the back where the first warning is that it's highly flammable

 

I'm assuming it's safe to use but my first thought defaulted to "wait a second I'm using this with a several hundred degree iron. No potential for disaster here"

[+DrVenkman]

I had to laugh when I got my bottle of liquid flux and read the back where the first warning is that it's highly flammable

 

I'm assuming it's safe to use but my first thought defaulted to "wait a second I'm using this with a several hundred degree iron. No potential for disaster here"

 

You read warnings on bottles of lab supplies? #FeelTheBurn

[AtariLeaf]

Quick question on the liquid flux, after I've applied it and finished the solder job, do I need to try to clean the residue of it off the board and it so, what is the best method?

[Osgeld]

If it says no clean then no but I usually do

[AtariLeaf]

If it says no clean then no but I usually do

 

The bottle doesn't say anything about clean up, it just warns me of the 100 ways this stuff can kill me

[+DrVenkman]

 

The bottle doesn't say anything about clean up, it just warns me of the 100 ways this stuff can kill me

 

If you bought the stuff I linked (MG Chem liquid), it's no-clean; that's what the "non-corrosive" means on the label. However, the residue is sticky as hell so I nearly always wet a Q-tip or clean rag with isopropyl alcohol and clean it up.

[Osgeld]

Plus it looks better

[AtariLeaf]

 

If you bought the stuff I linked (MG Chem liquid), it's no-clean; that's what the "non-corrosive" means on the label. However, the residue is sticky as hell so I nearly always wet a Q-tip or clean rag with isopropyl alcohol and clean it up.

 

Yep it's exactly the same, I found a Canadian supplier since the one you linked to wouldn't ship to Canada but I compared and it's exactly the same

 

Thanks for the input, I'll use the alcohol and q-tip method.

[+DrVenkman]

 

Yep it's exactly the same, I found a Canadian supplier since the one you linked to wouldn't ship to Canada but I compared and it's exactly the same

 

Thanks for the input, I'll use the alcohol and q-tip method.

 

It helps in the eventual cleanup to realize that for liquid flux, a little really does go a long way. If you use something like a Q-tip to apply the flux, or even better, a syringe bottle like the ones I linked the other day, you'll use remarkably little of the stuff and it'll go EXACTLY where you want it. You'll have that much less to clean up when the job is done.

[+Stephen]

Quick question on the liquid flux, after I've applied it and finished the solder job, do I need to try to clean the residue of it off the board and it so, what is the best method?

I ALWAYS clean flux residue up. Water based ones are easy. It's the other ones that suck. I have had varying success with pure acetone (which can melt some types of plastic, so be CAREFUL). Others clean well with 99% isopropyl alcohol.

[+DrVenkman]

I ALWAYS clean flux residue up. Water based ones are easy. It's the other ones that suck. I have had varying success with pure acetone (which can melt some types of plastic, so be CAREFUL). Others clean well with 99% isopropyl alcohol.

 

For reference, the MG Chem stuff at issue cleans up quickly and very easily with isopropyl.

[Osgeld]

 

It helps in the eventual cleanup to realize that for liquid flux, a little really does go a long way. If you use something like a Q-tip to apply the flux, or even better, a syringe bottle like the ones I linked the other day, you'll use remarkably little of the stuff and it'll go EXACTLY where you want it. You'll have that much less to clean up when the job is done.

 

on the oppsite side of the coin, using hot air to reflow a fine pitch smt part its actually pretty helpful to having it floating on a "puddle" of flux, I have done DFN (super small parts with no leads sticking out) this way and a hot air handheld station