Everything about this “Beautiful Woman Soldering” stock photo Is wrong

In this case, the physical attributes of the person may be intrinsic to the intended use of the stock image. Just as I might want a picture of a red car, as opposed to just “a car,” I might also want a beautiful woman, ugly man, etc.If all pictures of anyone soldering were labeled “person soldering,” I’d have to do more looking than I would if the attributes of the person were described.

2 Likes

If you ever had a component blow up on a board you were working on, you’d know why.

That, and keywords for search. So the criticized title has to be what it is.

I didn’t, I just know it’s bad enough that we had to vacate the building once when a capacitor blew. (I think it was a case where something that went into the solder oven should not have gone in. But a reversed polarity capacitor will stink up the joint, for sure.)

My 8 year old daughter asked me to teach her to solder. She still needs watching and the odd hint but she’s surprisingly tidy already. She’ll be better at it than me, which is (I hope?) what every parent wants. :smiley:

18 Likes

Only in the Midwest, where we have continued the Germanic tendency to pronounce "t"s as if they were "d"s.

How big it was? I had one that I blew up when I was a kid, a big-ish inch-thick two-inch long I connected wrong way. Yes, it filled the room with smoke for a while, but it merited just opening the window for a while. Certainly not a building evacuation. But the boom was mighty.

Was it long ago, or in the current era of calling a hazmat team to a broken cfl?

1 Like

If the underground transport system in question is The Subway, go right ahead. If it’s actually The Underground then no-one will understand what you’re on about …

It’s like the difference between Birmingham, UK and Birmingham, AL. I once estimated the best part of a day’s journey to the latter rather than just a couple of hours for an American who just couldn’t get his head round the fact they’re pronounced differently. :smiley:

2 Likes

Hey, Hey now let’s be civil, and it’s wudder. Pronounced wood-er.

Two nations, divided by a common language. :slight_smile:

You really don’t want to know how I pronounce “Leicester”!

2 Likes

very cool, but i have some wellers with temperature control. how do they work? i bet they’re not changing the tip material every time i change the temp.

Why is she soldering in what looks to be a chemistry lab? That one got me too. Fume hood, lab sinks and other chemistry related equipment. Electronics shops aren’t chemistry labs.

2 Likes

I may be misremembering. I think we blew more than a few electrolytic caps, when the placement machine put them in with the wrong polarity and then the boards went into the test fixture. I think the reason we vacated (just until the odor was bearable) is because something caught fire and burned up – it may or may not have been a cap. ETA: Now I somehow remember tantalum caps having some real stank on them.

They also did away with washable flux while I was there. When I started, I could slather on as much flux as I wanted – the board would go through the wash when I was done. I think it was too costly to dispose of the water so they switched to a different flux. This stuff would dry into a powder (or cake, in sufficient amounts) that could be brushed away, but I never thought it worked as well as the old flux. I think we still had lead in the solder when I left 20 (!?) years ago (20 years and 5 days to be exact).

This was at IBM’s Austin plant, which I believe started out making Selectrics and possibly clocks. That facility is now part of a shopping center. The manufacturing part was turned over to another company, who moved the operations to Texas Instruments’ old campus, and were themselves bought out by someone else.I’m guessing that my old job no longer exists in the United States. Does IBM still manufacture anything?

4 Likes

It is pronounced sogdering with a hard “g”.

5 Likes

A more traditional heater + one or two sensors. This is more wiring & a heavier tip, plus slower response time because it takes time for the heater to affect the sensor. The benefit is you can theoretically dial in any temperature – how well it actually holds it is another thing. I do use my wellers when I need something really hot, but for most work the metcal is much better.

2 Likes

I can always tell the narrator is from the UK when they pronounce my state as Mary-land…

4 Likes

My kid got that right off… thanks to her several years of soldering…

3 Likes

Definitely the first thing I noticed.

I only ever tried to solder surface mount by hand once. I can do it, but it’s way too fiddly for my taste and it drives me nuts.

In addition to everything else mentioned, I notice that she’s not holding anything in her other hand (often need a third arm, but I don’t think I’ve ever soldered one-handed) and that there’s not all kinds of crap like resistors and tools and drops of solder all over the counter.

2 Likes

Could it be “Champion”?

2 Likes