Dissection Microscope For Soldering

I received a dissection microscope as a present for Christmas. The video below demonstrates how well it works for inspecting small soldering jobs. It has proven invaluable for troubleshooting soldering jobs and doing surface mount soldering. It is mono (only one eyepiece) and only 20x and 40x power but it does the job great. The fact that it is is dissection microscope means there is plenty of room at the bottom for working. I use a compact florescent light to illuminate it because I get lots of light and the bulb doesnt make my working area hot. Having a nice pair of bent angle tweezers has been great for holding things while soldering or repairing bad soldering jobs. The soldering job in the video was done before I had the microscope on the fine pitch pins of the Nokia 3310 LCD. I soldered a section cut out from an IDE ribbon cable. From looking around, $94 for this microscope appears to be the least expensive way to get this functionality.

More details at:
http://tinkerish.com/blog/?p=103

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• dissecting
• microscope
• electronics
• surface
• mount
• soldering