We had something called a hot nitrogen tool that we’d use for quad flat packs. It was supposed to be the bee’s knees but I thought it was mainly good for de-soldering. If I had to place a flat pack I’d just flux the hell out of it and use a fine-tipped iron.
Man, you’re taking me back. I loved the work but it didn’t pay much, maybe $12/hr, not a whole lot even in 1995.
The funny thing is, I didn’t know much about electronics (still don’t) and we were supposed to have associate’s degrees for what we were doing (not the soldering - they had classes for that - but the component-level troubleshooting). I knew Ohm’s law and definitely had an interest and that really was it. At home I had been reading schematics (e.g. from TAB books) and could set up a circuit on a breadboard (or etch a board). I might have been able to get it to work but I couldn’t understand how/why it worked. I’m amazed they were letting me do that work at all so I like to think I must’ve been good at it.
Then I got a job in IT and that’s what I’ve done since. Only soldering I’ve done since was a couple of PAiA kits, and reflowing the master relay on a Honda Accord.
