In a message dated 8/1/00 5:47:48 PM EST, [log in to unmask] writes:

<< Let me know if i missed the plot somewhere,
 Ed & Steve have had close encounters too, 'm sure

 paul >>

Hi Peter!

Paul has everything right...not much out there to stop a splash when it's
already going. We've all done it before, yours truely included...turning the
pump switch on and then noticing almost at the same time the pump rpm's are
at warp speed. As quick as you can yell; "OH SH*T!!!" you've got solder
splashed all over the place. It usually happens only once or twice to a
person, then you know that everytime you flip the pump switch you'll check to
see the pump is set to zero before powering it up...I don't think there's to
much out there that will prevent "mental lapses" such as that, I'm including
myself in that, because like I said, it's happened to me before.

One thing that I've done to help the clean-up from such a "faux pax" (it's
going to happen) is to the line beneath the floor of the solder-pot with
cardboard....much easier cleaning-up spilled solder, instead of trying to
scrape it of a tiled floor.

It seems some machines are more prone to pump itself on the floor than
others... don't want to mention names, but the machine I have now won't do
that unless someone is really psychotic...

The other times that I've had a problem with solder splashes, a detector
wouldn't made any difference at at. One was fairly recently (within the past
year), when myself and another technetter lowered a pump and nozzle assembly
into a freshly charged pot  (the nozzle had been out in a Oklahoma rainstorm,
tornado warnings and all) we thought we had dried the thing out completely,
but surprise, surprise! As soon as the 500-degree solder hit a pocket of
moisture inside a passage of the turbulent nozzle, we had a fountain of
solder spray hit the ceiling...never seen a ol' guy with a bumb knee move so
fast! Neither one of us was burnt (thank God!!). The time before that was
when I was out in California...Loma Prieta earthquake...lost about 100-200
lbs out of a Econopak pot...pumps weren't even on then...hehehe.

-Steve Gregory-

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