c/electronics-repairers

Old lead solder vs lead-free... which side are you on now?

My buddy and I got into it last night about solder types. He swears lead-free is fine for everything and says I'm stuck in the past. But I've been fixing old audio gear for 10 years now and I swear lead-free joints crack more on vintage boards. Last month I had to redo a whole receiver because the lead-free joints on the power supply failed after 6 months. On the other hand, I get that lead is bad for you and the environment. What do you all use for general repair work and why?

I miss the days when you could still buy individual capacitors at RadioShack

Back in the late 90s, if I needed a 100uF 25V cap for a TV repair, I could walk into any RadioShack and grab it off the wall for under a dollar. Now I have to order a 50-pack online and wait a week, paying shipping that costs more than the parts. Has anyone else noticed the local supply drying up, or is it just my town in Ohio?

PSA: Cleaning flux off boards with isopropyl alcohol changed my repair success rate big time

For about 8 months I was doing board repairs and getting random failures after a few weeks. I finally realized the flux residue was causing leakage paths. Switched to a 99% isopropyl alcohol scrub after every rework. My success rate went from maybe 70 percent to over 90 percent. I also started using a dental pick to get under chips before rinsing. Has anyone else noticed a huge difference from just cleaning better?

Old customer in Austin told me my desoldering was sloppy, changed everything

Guy brought in a vintage amp from the 70s and said my wick work looked like a bird's nest. He showed me how to use a proper desoldering gun with a clean tip and consistent angle. Now I get through boards in half the time, any of you swear by a specific model over a cheap one?

Can we talk about the money I wasted on those cheap capacitor testers?

I dropped $40 on a no-name tester from Amazon last month and it read a 50uF cap as 12uF. Ended up swapping three perfectly good boards before I figured it out. How much have you guys lost trusting bad tools?

Vent: That customer who argued with me for 15 minutes about a $30 capacitor replacement

Guy in Tampa insisted I was ripping him off because he found the same part for $8 on Amazon, but didn't account for the fact his TV needed the old one desoldered and 4 bad traces repaired too, what do you do when someone just won't understand labor costs?

I think the whole "hot air rework is better than soldering iron" trend is way overblown

After 5 years fixing old game consoles, I've seen way more lifted pads from people blasting boards with hot air than from careful iron work, especially on those brittle Nintendo DS boards from 2004-2008. Has anyone else had better luck just using a thin tip and low melt solder on delicate traces?

That customer who argued my $40 repair quote was a ripoff

Had a guy come into my shop last Tuesday with a 10 year old microwave that wouldn't heat. I told him it'd be $40 to check the magnetron and maybe swap a fuse. He said I was trying to scam him and that he could buy a new one for $60. I just pointed at the door and told him to go buy one then. Some people think our time and skill is worth nothing because parts are cheap online.

Lost a $200 multimeter probe after 3 years because I didn't check the insulation

I was testing a power supply in an old stereo amp last Wednesday and the probe tip snapped off inside a connector. The insulation had dry rotted from all the flux fumes over the years. I had been using that same Fluke probe set since 2021 without looking at it once. Anyone else had a simple tool fail on them out of nowhere like that?

That time my uncle swore an old CRT TV would "fix itself" if I just unplugged it for a month

My uncle Bob told me to just leave my dead 27-inch CRT unplugged for 30 days and the caps would "reform" themselves. I was like okay sure, waited a whole month, plugged it back in, and it popped and smoked worse than before. Turns out he got that tip from some guy at a garage sale back in 2003. I ended up finding a bad solder joint on the flyback after I actually opened it up. Has anyone else gotten repair advice from a family member that was just completely bonkers?

Just passed 500 board repairs in my home shop, never expected to hit that number

I started fixing phones and consoles in my garage two years ago for some extra cash, and yesterday I counted my logged jobs to find 513 completed board repairs. That number floored me because I honestly thought I'd quit after the first 50 when a bad microsolder job ruined a customer's iPhone 7. Has anyone else tracked their repair count and felt surprised by the milestone?

Why does nobody talk about hot air rework stations for phone repairs?

Honestly, I used to think you could get by with just a soldering iron for small board work on iPhones. But last week I watched a video from a guy in Austin who showed how a $120 hot air station saved him from trashing a $300 logic board. He melted a stubborn shield can off in like 30 seconds flat, no damage. That convinced me I was being dumb by trying to brute force everything with a chisel tip. Has anyone else dealt with learning this lesson the hard way on a mid-range phone?

Took me 5 years to figure out I was cleaning flux wrong

I used to scrub boards with isopropyl alcohol and a toothbrush then blow them dry. One day I repaired a vintage receiver from 1978 and the owner said the board looked "foggy". That's when I learned you need to use deionized water first then alcohol to get all the residue off. Now I do a 3 step wash and haven't had a single cold solder joint since. Anyone else find out they were skipping a basic step for way too long?

Just realized my $30 Chinese soldering station heats up faster than my old Hakko 888

Picked up a cheap 858D hot air rework station last month to compare with my trusty iron on a board full of switches and the heat recovery time for ground planes is shockingly close for a third of the price, anyone else notice the budget gear catching up?

Fried a motherboard with a forgotten wrist strap

Was working on a Dell Optiplex at my kitchen table last Tuesday. Had it all apart, then realized my anti-static mat was still in the truck. Figured I'd be fine. Got up to grab a tool, came back, touched the board and saw a spark near the RAM slot. Machine won't post now. Anyone else killed a board by skipping the basics like that?

My logic board repair went sideways after I forgot to ground myself

Was trying to fix a 2015 MacBook Pro that wouldn't charge. Had the board out, was using a multimeter to check some traces on the back side. Then I sneezed and my hand brushed against a chip. Heard a tiny pop and saw a spark. Now the whole thing is dead, won't even power on. Anyone ever dealt with static damage like this? Is there any way to fix a fried controller chip or am I looking at a whole new logic board?

Had to pick between a Hakko FX-888D and a $30 no-name iron from Amazon. Went cheap first and regretted it.

That cheap USB oscilloscope I bought on a whim actually works

Sure, that sounds right

Chat with a retired TV repair guy last week about modern boards

He said back in the day you could fix anything with a schematic and a soldering iron, now you just swap whole boards and call it a day. Got me wondering how many of us actually bother trying to trace component failures anymore, or is it just dead weight on the repair bench?

Took me 4 years to realize I was using my multimeter wrong

Was trying to diagnose a dead power supply at work last week, been chasing a ghost for 2 hours. My coworker Jenna walked over, looked at my setup, and just said "you got the leads in the wrong ports dude." Turns out I had been using the 10A port for everything since I started fixing gear in 2020. Anyone else ever have that moment where you realize you've been doing some basic thing wrong for way too long?

Showerthought: That old guy who fixed my Walkman in 1995

I was cleaning out a drawer last night and found a broken Walkman from middle school. It reminded me of this one repair shop downtown where this older guy, must have been in his 70s, took a look at it. He didn't even open it up first, just held it to his ear and shook it twice. Then he says 'kid, your flywheel popped off the spindle, common as dirt.' He fixed it in 5 minutes, charged me 2 bucks. I miss that kind of hands-on know how where someone just knows stuff from doing it forever. Any of you ever had a mentor like that who showed you something simple that stuck?

Customer told me my soldering looked sloppy 6 months ago

I was fixing a guitar amp for a guy who runs his own repair shop on the side and he pointed out I was leaving too much flux residue on my joints. He showed me how he cleans his board with isopropyl and a stiff brush before he even tests it. Has anyone else had a customer call them out on something that actually made them better?

Guy at the counter said his TV has dust inside and asked me to blow it out

He came in with a 2019 Samsung, said it was flickering randomly. I opened it up and there was maybe a quarter inch of dust on the main board, but the real issue was a bad capacitor. Had to explain that compressed air wont fix electrical problems. Anyone else get customers who think electronics are just dusty toasters?

Stripped a pentalobe screw on an iPhone 7 and fixed it with a rubber band

I was at my bench last Tuesday trying to open an iPhone 7 for a battery swap. The pentalobe screw was so tight that I stripped the head completely with my driver. I sat there for a minute thinking I was screwed. Then I remembered a trick I saw online where you lay a rubber band over the stripped screw head. I cut a piece from a thick blue rubber band I had sitting in a drawer, pressed my driver into it hard, and turned slow. It caught and came out without any drama. Saved me from having to drill it out or replace the whole bottom assembly. Has anyone else had luck with that trick or is there a better method for stripped pentalobe screws?

Warning: I was wasting so much time on old laptop hinges

Honestly, for years I'd just replace the whole hinge assembly on a Dell Latitude 5000 series when it got loose, which took about 45 minutes. Ngl, I saw a video from a guy in Seattle last month showing you can often just tighten the tiny M2 screws under the bezel that hold the hinge bracket to the lid. Tried it on two units this week and it fixed them both in under 10 minutes. Has anyone else found a simple fix for a job they used to overcomplicate?