WORKSHOP TIPS

[DODGERN]

That'll teach you to keep your bedroom tidy Joe!

Roger.

[beam me up schottky]

Although not as plentiful as they once were due to the advent of digital photography, 35mm film containers are ideal for storing screws and small components from dismantled equipment awaiting repairs, or even long term storage of whatever will fit inside. They can easily have notes written on them for future reference.
Always have a magnifying glass or jewelers loupe available for examination of suspect dry or faulty soldered joints, it's surprising what escapes the human eye, even younger eyes !
To test infra red remote controls from TV's etc, point the remote into the lens of a digital camera, still or video, they are sensitive to infra red so will see the light from the diode on the remote if it's working.
When removing IC's from PCB's, if the IC is definitely known to be faulty, cut the legs with miniature cutters or a dremel first to detach the IC. Then the legs can be desoldered individually with less chance of damaging the tracks on the PCB.

[glowinganode]

When using a scope on the AC coupled input setting, always touch the tip of the probe down to chassis before attaching it to grid connections or sensitive components. This will discharge any residual voltage on the coupling capacitor.
Rob.

[Jamie-Skinner]

Adding onto little boxes, I find I put all the screws and everything from one set in one box, so things from another set arein another box..
However after I'm done I have to figure out what screw goes where but it's not that bad

[ucl82]

Until it's a few days before you move house and you have fifty sets dismantled and even though the bits are in 50 labelled ice cream containers you don't stand a chance of knowing where most of the screws go!

[Jamie-Skinner]

We're never moving house Not with out garage

[DODGERN]

If you have a wire wound resistor that is open-circuit, you can find out the approximate value. Often older resistors loose their value markings as they fade with the heat from the resistor.
Providing it is the older type, with a 'dipped' coating as opposed to the newer type enclosed in ceramic, the surface can be scraped away to reveal the wound resistance wire. Scrape the surface about half way along the resistor to expose the wire. Using your multi-meter on the resistance setting, measure the resistance from one end of the resistor to the centre. If you get an open-circuit reading, try the other end to centre. Once you have the reading all you need to do is double it. E.g. If you measure 240 ohms then your resistor is likely to be a 470 or 500 ohm.

Roger.

[Retired]

Hi,

In order to keep my bench as clear as possible I made a small shelf attaching it to the bench leg just to hold the soldering iron and added a "power on" panel lamp so that I could see at a glance whether I had turned it off. The iron is very accessible but remains out of the way.

[attachment=2627][attachment=2626]

I also made a wooden enclosure to house a vintage loudspeaker and remotely mounted this as shown to the left hand wall by the bench just leaving a flying lead on the bench. I always sit at the bench and space is very tight.

[attachment=2628]

Kind regards, Col.

[Joe]

I really like that speaker fret-work. It's also good to see you're a fellow Antex XS user.

- Joe

[glowinganode]

It's also good to see you're a fellow Antex XS user.

- Joe

And me, though the first thing I did was replace the mains lead for a longer one.
Rob.