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I swore my soldering iron was busted for 3 months until my neighbor asked one simple question
I kept blaming my $25 Weller for cold joints on a guitar pedal build, reflowed the same 12 connections maybe 8 times and even ordered a replacement tip. My neighbor who does HVAC work glanced at my bench and asked why my iron was set to 750 when I was using lead-free solder that flows way hotter than the 60/40 I learned on. Turns out I had been reading the dial wrong the entire time because the numbers rub off after a few months and I just guessed at the position. Re-tinned everything at the right temp and the pedal fired up first try, which honestly made me feel worse than if the iron had actually been dead. Anyone else ever fix a problem by admitting they never read the manual that came in the box?
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the_karen4d ago
I used to roll my eyes at the whole "read the manual" thing because half the time those pamphlets are just safety warnings in ten languages. But then I spent two hours fighting a printer that wouldn't connect until my kid pointed out I had the cable in the wrong port, so now I'm a believer. Your solder story is the same deal, it's never the tool, it's us being too stubborn to check the basics. I bet that neighbor felt like a genius while you felt like a goofball. At least the pedal works now, that's what counts.
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