Hugh Robjohns wrote:Never buy cheap tools! Buy good quality. They do a better job and will last a lifetime. I'm still using the tools I bought in 1979, and they are still in perfect condition. £70 over forty years is not a lot per annum...
Generally good advice Hugh but I bet you have never worked in a factory of 200+employees!
There every bugger above the shop floor thinks they have a divine right to borrow your kit and they NEVER bring it back.
Of course, I kept my tiny workshop locked when away from it but they still came a wheedlin' and a theivin' while I was at my bench!
When I started work at my last place (some 20 years ago) that was attempted just once. I caught sight of a hand reaching for my side cutters (very expensive precision ones that I've had so long I can't remember when I got them). I snatched them away, then turned round to see it was my new boss. To my surprise, he simply said "Point taken." and word got round that my toolkit was out of bounds.
Last edited by Folderol on Fri Dec 27, 2019 6:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Martin Walker wrote:Wow - and no repercussion from your then boss Will?
Martin
Now you know why I stayed there for so long - best boss I ever had
He really supported the guys especially when you screwed up - spent years on the road himself.
Having worked in the print industry throught the late '60s and the '70s he also knew how to dance round union issues
ef37a wrote:... I bet you have never worked in a factory of 200+employees!
Once... As a work experience gig for a week when I was at school. It was a Gossard bra factory... Quite an experience for a green teenager I can tell you! That many women machinists together can become positively feral! Misandry a go go... But I did learn a lot about practical industrial power-factor correction
...every bugger above the shop floor thinks they have a divine right to borrow your kit and they NEVER bring it back.
I think that applies everywhere, doesn't it? I soon learned the importance of marking my tools, not leave them lying about, being very careful who I leant them to, and keeping my tool bag with me as far as possible!
I've had a few things permanently borrowed over the years, but not much.
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
Re: Komplete 6 unit USB socket dead - How to replace
ef37a wrote:... I bet you have never worked in a factory of 200+employees!
Once... As a work experience gig for a week when I was at school. It was a Gossard bra factory... Quite an experience for a green teenager I can tell you! That many women machinists together can become positively feral! Misandry a go go... But I did learn a lot about practical industrial power-factor correction
...every bugger above the shop floor thinks they have a divine right to borrow your kit and they NEVER bring it back.
I think that applies everywhere, doesn't it? I soon learned the importance of marking my tools, not leave them lying about, being very careful who I leant them to, and keeping my tool bag with me as far as possible!
I've had a few things permanently borrowed over the years, but not much.
Yeah, but not easy when you have a lot of kit both electronic and 'mechanical'. I was forever trying desperately to keep a set of HSS drills pristine for fixture work but people would nobble them to bang holes in 8mm steel bench legs!
I had several immediate 'bosses' and after I had been with him about a week one said "Oh, you should not use you own tools boyo!" (yes, a scot he was) "Give me a list of what you use and I will order it in as works tools". I went through the Radio spares cat' and the order came to about 2 bags and I wasn't really trying.
He never said a further word about it after I left it on his desk and I continued to tell the salesmen and lab guys to piss off when they came down wanting a battery drill.
The value of most of mine is not the quantity, but the rarity distilled over more than 50 years - from darning needles, tiny screwdrivers and insulated trimming tools to miniature spanners, sockets , locking forceps, tweezers and dentists mirror. Not forgetting needle probes and the stubby 0.8mm drill bit embedded in a plastic handle, perfect for starting pilot holes in plastic boxes or clearing gunk out of PCB holes.
P.S.
I'm still annoyed someone managed to nick my B9A/B7G valve pin straightener
Come across many EF91s with bent pins do you Will?
Re "buying the best tools" My first pair of fine sidecutters cost me a good chunk of my week's apprentice wages.
Much later with a mortgage, wife and two kids NO WAY could I have afforded 70 pounds for cutters!
Dad was a master carpenter/cabinet maker/organ builder and there was about 8 benches, one after the other in the woodwork shop where he was foreman (Davies&Son's organs) . Each bench had racks for scores of chisels, screwdivers etc made from Stop Slides. Nobody borrowed another man's tools. There were a few specialized tools that perhaps one chap had for a rare task but you had to be VERY deferrential in askng to borrow it and if you forgot to give it back at the end of the day...!!!
ef37a wrote:
There every bugger above the shop floor thinks they have a divine right to borrow your kit and they NEVER bring it back.
When I first started work I was sent to the stores where they gave me a tool box and a standard set of decent tools. However, after a few years I worked for someone who thought that all tools should be communal - the problem was they all seemed to end up in his office! So I ended up buying a bunch of those cheap (£90-ish) electronics toolkits that you can buy from CPC and keeping one of them hidden under my desk so that I knew where I could find a certain tool if there were none left in the lab. While they may not be the absolute best quality, most of the tools were certainly usable.
ef37a wrote:... I bet you have never worked in a factory of 200+employees!
Once... As a work experience gig for a week when I was at school. It was a Gossard bra factory... Quite an experience for a green teenager I can tell you! That many women machinists together can become positively feral! Misandry a go go... But I did learn a lot about practical industrial power-factor correction
ef37a wrote:... I bet you have never worked in a factory of 200+employees!
Once... As a work experience gig for a week when I was at school. It was a Gossard bra factory... Quite an experience for a green teenager I can tell you! That many women machinists together can become positively feral! Misandry a go go... But I did learn a lot about practical industrial power-factor correction
I heard Gossard went bust
But an Uplifting experience when he was there. Then he crossed over into another field.
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
Re: Komplete 6 unit USB socket dead - How to replace
Hugh Robjohns wrote:Guys you're really padding this story out...
Heh! I had a similar experience when I was about 18 or 19. I was sent to a dress factory to look at the PA system. Can't remember the fault but I DO remember having to walk through a vast machining room of about 100 women to check the sound coverage. I was a very odd colour by the time I reached the end!
Taught me one thing about PA systems and the general public though? You can NEVER bloody win!
Back on topic, my fresh new USB has arrived so I have to decide weather to go in or not. Again, it seems an impossible task cutting up the duff one leaving just the individual pins. Can't each pin be de-soldered (sucked up/wick) via adding 60/40 (whatever that is) ?
The way I would do this would be to use a junior hacksaw blade - just the blade not the whole saw, and with the teeth pointing the 'wrong' way so it cuts when you pull. Cut right down to the board itself but be careful not to cut into the board. Then you should be able to pull the halves apart a little and separate the metal part of the outer shell. Thats the time to start snipping away at it and the rest of the gubbins inside.
Due to the shape of the shell you will probably end up taking the four pins out before finally removing the shell.
Folderol wrote:You have to get that shell opened out first.
The way I would do this would be to use a junior hacksaw blade - just the blade not the whole saw, and with the teeth pointing the 'wrong' way so it cuts when you pull. Cut right down to the board itself but be careful not to cut into the board. Then you should be able to pull the halves apart a little and separate the metal part of the outer shell. Thats the time to start snipping away at it and the rest of the gubbins inside.
Due to the shape of the shell you will probably end up taking the four pins out before finally removing the shell.
I'm still not sure exactly what you mean. Cut down vertical or horizontal ?
Folderol wrote:You have to get that shell opened out first.
The way I would do this would be to use a junior hacksaw blade - just the blade not the whole saw, and with the teeth pointing the 'wrong' way so it cuts when you pull. Cut right down to the board itself but be careful not to cut into the board. Then you should be able to pull the halves apart a little and separate the metal part of the outer shell. Thats the time to start snipping away at it and the rest of the gubbins inside.
Due to the shape of the shell you will probably end up taking the four pins out before finally removing the shell.
I'm still not sure exactly what you mean. Cut down vertical or horizontal ?
Anyway you do! Just don't cut the PCB or other components. Personally I would not use a saw blade, it will leave conducting swarf * on the board. I have never met a 'tin' connector I could not prise apart and destroy with side cutters!
I'm with Dave... I wouldn't reach for a hacksaw blade as a first option for the same reason -- lots of metal swarf that you'd need to clean out carefully to avoid shorts, and much higher risk of accidental damage to other components. Not hard, but more hassle you don't need.
The USB socket is only made of bent tin, so any reasonably solid side-cutters ought to be able to destroy it provided you take it in small chunks at a time.
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
Re: Komplete 6 unit USB socket dead - How to replace
Wonks wrote:Images without having to use the links to the Imgur web page
What concerns me is the 4 pins that should be coming from the USB are only 3. I haven't broken any off. Also, will having the iron set at maximum temp have damaged anything the last time I tried this ?
Hadn't noticed that. rather suspicious. I wonder if the pin got bent when the socket was inserted and is sitting the other side of the board touching the contact when it feels like it. That would certainly account for the flaky behaviour.
So what would you suggest is my next step, bearing in mind after trying to desolder a couple of weeks ago, it hasn't fixed anything as I just tried it in the usb to the pc and nothing happened. Not even a crash of the pc.
The photograph you posted doesn't look like there has been much de-soldering accomplished.
When you've mentioned 'wick' are you talking about copper braid? I've found that good. It can take a lot of wick to get solder off, so I start with a solder sucker to get as much off as I can.
The solder sucker and wick take some experience to use effectively.
With wick you have to cut off the bit you've used. The braid should be flexible. When it goes stiff it has absorbed solder and you have to cut that off. That could explain the sticking you described above.
Also the shape of the bit can make a difference. For this I would use the one that is an obliquely cut cylinder shape. Use the flat surface of this bit to get the maximum contact area.
And as is the consensus above cutting up the old USB socket will make it easier to remove.
