MapleEngineer

I was bored this morning and decided to tie a few hooks. I did trebles a few days ago. Today I'm doing Circle Seas. The cover photo is a homemade 0.5 oz inline spinner with a No. 5 blade. The body is all stainless steel and nickel plated marine brass. The hook is an Eagle Claw Size 6/0 Circle Sea. The dressing is bright yellow bucktail.

Circles are harder to hook up but they do the fish a lot less damage so I try to use them as much as possible. I will often pinch down the barb as well.

This one is the same 0.5 oz inline spinner but they hook is an Eagle Claw Size 3/0 Circle Sea. The dressing is an inner splash of red with bright yellow over top and a collar of dark yellow. I like the splash or red on the inside.

This is an Eagle Claw Size 6/0 Circle Sea with a splash of red surrounded by bright white with a back stripe of bright yellow.

This is an Eagle Claw Size 6/0 Circle Sea with a splash of red surrounded by bright white with a collar of dark yellow.

We normally target Northern Pike so that's what we're going to be using these for.

I hope they like them.

The hooks are Size 2/0 VMC O'Shaughnessy Permasteel 4x Trebles. They are highly corrosion resistant and intended for salt water use. They can take a beating.

They are dressed with yellow bucktail. I sometimes add a splash of red on the inside or outside of the dressing and occasionally add stripes for interest.

We target Northern Pike. I often pinch down the barbs. The dressing generally lasts for one day before it is chewed off and has to be replaced.

These 2/0 hooks generally ride a 1/2 ounce to 3/4 ounce inline spinner. We use hooks as big as 5/0 attached to 1 ounce to 1 1/2 ounce inline spinners. We make all of the lures ourselves.

This is a 1 1/2 oz inline spinner wearing a dressed Eagle Claw 5/0 hook. The lure is over 6" long from the tip of the eye to the tip of the bucktail. This one caught three nice Northerns in the St. Lawrence River before it was used up and had to be redressed.

I know it sounds dumb that the butter chicken kit contains neither butter nor chicken but trust me, they're awesome.

The box contains diced organic tomatoes, organic coconut milk, two packs of spices one for the beginning and one for the end, and a sheet of instructions for cooking it in an instant pot and on the stovetop.

I know it sounds dumb that the butter chicken kit contains neither butter nor chicken but trust me, they're awesome.

Our fall batch of Cornish X meaties arrived this morning. We do a batch in the spring and a batch in the fall. We had 60 birds ordered for two weeks from now but I have to be in Atlanta and my wife and daughter will be in Toronto. We moved the delivery earlier but couldn't get an earlier date at the abattoir so we reduced the order to 40 (they always send extra) just what we need and will process them ourselves.

I've posted a few videos now of myself soldering header strips and some SMDs with my good quality soldering tools and with an inexpensive soldering iron that I bought at Walmart. I sent a link to the friends, the hardware designed and programmer, who I often work with. One designs the boards, the other programs them. I do some of their fine soldering work for them.

They were amused by the Walmart soldering iron videos and remarked that they were surprised that soldering QFPs was even possible with that iron.

That got us to talking and me to thinking. What is the difference between the tools and materials and the technique used by someone who makes it look easy and the tools and materials and the technique used by beginners who struggle?

I would like to propose that the biggest issue that beginners have is flux management.

Electronic solder isn't a solid metal wire. The solder we use for electronics most often includes flux. The flux is included in one or more cores inside the solder wire.

Multicore solder, which I use, even has these cores in their logo.

Here is the Multicore solder I have sitting on my desk.

I believe that many of the problems beginners run into involve not understanding the role of flux or how short lived it is. If you apply solder to your soldering iron the flux is gone in a second or two. The solder will them oxidize and refuse to stick to anything. Effective soldering, soldering that looks easy, involves getting the heat into the parts, applying the right amount of solder quickly and smoothly, then removing the heat before the flux has burned off. This is my going back and touching up your joints causes so many problems. The solder is dry (no flux) and oxidized and doesn't cooperate.

If you've watched my SOIC-8 or QFP-32 soldering videos you will see that I apply liquid flux. This is because I apply the solder to my soldering iron then drag solder the pins. The flux has all burned off of the solder and it will not stick to the pins without the liquid flux. I also used liquid flux in the Fixing Bad Solder video.

So...I believe that a good understanding of the role and short lifespan of solder will help beginners to make better solder joints.

What was I thinking?!?

In this video I take a crack at soldering a QFP-32 with the inexpensive Walmart soldering iron and the mystery Chinese solder.

Will it solder?

In this video I used the $15.88 Walmart soldering iron and the unknown Chinese solder that came with it to solder a DS1307 real time clock in a SOIC-8 package.

Will it solder?

In this video I used the $15.88 Walmart soldering iron and the unknown Chinese solder that came with it to solder 2.54 mm header strips onto a small adapter board.

In this video I go back to the beginning of my more than 45 years of experience soldering and buy a $15.88 Chinese soldering iron from my local Walmart store and compare it to a Weller PES51 pencil iron connected to my WESD51 soldering station and a Hakko FM-2027 connected to my FM-203.

I have said that you can use the cheapest soldering iron to solder SMD devices like SOIC-8s and QFP-32s. In subsequent videos I will attempt to solder pin headers, a DS1307 real time clock in a SOIC-8 package and a LGT8F328P MCU in a QFP-32 package.

The goal of these videos is to make clear that even beginners can solder modern SMD devices using basic soldering equipment that is readily available locally to most people.

Hakko FM-2023 station with MF2027 handle and T15-D16 tip

Weller WESD51 with PES51 handle and ETA tip

Workpro CA310 (Hangzhou Greatstar Industrial GS-30W)

Unknown Chinese solder

The other day I went out in the morning, drained and rinsed the ducks pool, and put the hose in it to fill.

That evening around dinner time I went, "FUCK!" and ran down to find three very happy ducks and turn off the hose.

So I added this automatic filler. Now when I rinse the pool it will fill to a couple of inches from the top and stop.

One of our Bronze Orlopp toms reaching through the fence to steal the duck's feed. They really aren't starving. They have a 35 lb feeder full of turkey grower pellets they can access 24 hours a day. It just tastes better if you steal it from your neighbor.