"Stephen R. Gregory" wrote:
> Hi ya'll...
>
> I've not posted in a while because I've been kinda' busy...bringing in a new
> (used) wave solder machine. To put things eloquently, it's been
> interesting...I think my experiences might be some interesting reading.
>
> As some of you may remember, I had a Hollis Future SMT-1 (that was about
> 12-years old and had some VERY questionable care in the past) and I was
> replacing it with a Trieber machine with a newer vintage of only 5-years. The
> Trieber had one more topside preheater than the Hollis had (for a total of
> 5-preheaters, 3-bottom, 2-top), and we also decided to upgrade it with a
> spray-fluxer (from Innovative Concepts http://www.innovconcepts.com/). One
> other plus was that the Trieber had a 20-inch wide conveyer, and the Hollis
> was a 16-inch...wider is better (GRIN).
>
> One minor problem that I discovered in the beginning (me being so new here,
> and of course only after the deal was made), was that the largest opening
> into the building was just 6-feet wide, the Trieber is 7.5-feet wide. (Duhh
> Steve you dipstick, what were you thinking!) What I had assumed (I know about
> the saying about assuming things, so I don't need to be reminded), that there
> would be a door big enough to bring equipment in like everyplace else I've
> worked at...didn't even bother to check if the door width would be a problem
> (but remember I'm in Oklahoma)...silly me.
>
> Anyhoo, when I realized there was indeed a problem, I promptly shat my pants
> (that is the past tense of sh*t ain't it?)...what to do? I surmised while
> filling my drawers...
>
> So I called Ed Popielarski (who I bought the Trieber from, and ya'll know him
> as one of us Technetters) and told him of my brain fart (hoping that he would
> say; "Oh well, no problem Steve, we'll just look for a machine for you
> that'll fit through the door..." But no, he said; "There is a way Steve..."
>
> I said; "Huh?" He said that we could take the hoods, conveyer, and solder-pot
> off the machine, tilt it on it's side, get through the door, right it, and
> put it back together...
>
> When I picked my jaw back up off the floor, I said; "Huh?"
>
> He said; "Yeah, we can do it!" He seemed so confident, I said; "Uhhh,
> okay...if you say so..." So we continued on...
>
> The machine arrived here in Tulsa the Monday before the Thanksgiving holiday,
> and Ed wouldn't be able to come out until the following Monday after the
> holiday, (I surely wasn't about to try and do something like this by myself),
> Ed needed to come out to show me how to "thread the needle"...
>
> So we unloaded the machine into the parking lot, covered it with a tarp to
> wait on Ed, and had tornado warnings that night...talk about karma...
>
> The machine survived all the rain and wind, and Ed showed-up on the Monday as
> promised. In the meantime, I started emptying the pot on the Hollis because
> part of the deal was that the Hollis was being traded-in. I started ladling
> the solder out of the pot, and then the pot heaters died...friggen' GREAT! I
> picked-up Ed at his hotel and greeted him with the good news that the pot
> heaters died in the Hollis, and now we needed to torch the pot...but he still
> wasn't too discouraged. Let me say this without getting into much detail, if
> someone in blue overalls from Oklahoma says they'll torch a solder-pot for
> you, decline the offer...Ed knows what I'm talking about.
>
> Anyways, me and Ed dissassembled the machine down to parade-rest, tilted the
> bloody thing on it's side (with the help of some really good fork-lift
> drivers), got it into the building, put it back together and got it running.
>
> One very interesting point was when we put the chip-nozzle into the pot. You
> see, during the tornado warning night, even though I had the machine covered,
> there was a bunch of water that got into the pot. We thought about it and
> even put both nozzels on top of rods holding it just above the top of the pot
> so that the heat from the pot while were charging it with solder would
> convect up and evaporate any water that might have gotten inside the nozzel
> passages, we didn't evaporate things enough apparently. We had a nice "Old
> Faithful" jet of 500-degree solder squirt out of the top of the nozzel and
> spray the ceiling when the molten solder contacted a pocket of water inside
> the nozzel that didn't quite evaporate...for old farts like me and Ed, we
> were pretty quick on our feet then...we were lucky (really) that neither one
> of us were burnt. Water and molten solder don't mix...
>
> Anyhoo, we did it! Ed knows his stuff! I would have never thought it was
> possible, but it happened!
>
> The machine runs great! Ed even showed me how to make the machine sound like
> a "Harley"...hehehe. Solder pumps are air powered, and if you take the
> mufflers off, set certain pump rpms (on both the chip and laminar pumps), get
> the right harmonics, it sounds like a Harley idling...too cool! The spray
> fluxer on it works great too...less than 10K...check it out.
>
> But it HAS been a LONG week!
>
> -Steve Gregory-
Hiya Steve,
I must say, if you ever get tired of doing the stuff you do...You should collect the
stories you have sent in to Technet over the past years..(.even though I have not read
all of them, I imagine there should be quite a few)...and put them together in a book
on electronics manufacturing..it'll be a guaranteed bestseller...at least among fellow
technetters..and there's plenty to go around here.
Regards,
Nils
--
***********************************************************
Nils de Caluwe
Ing. Beng
Research Assistant
Department of Aeronautical, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
The University of Salford
Salford, Manchester, M5 4WT, United Kingdom
Newton Building, Manufacturing Lab.
Tel: +44 - (0)161 - 295 4562 Fax: +44 - (0)161 - 295 5575
Website: http://www.salford.ac.uk/rdmm/ims/Midas1.htm
***********************************************************
Life is what happens while you were busy making other plans
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