I used to drown everything in flux paste thinking it made joints cleaner. He told me to cut it by 75% and just use a thin coating. After trying it on a busted power supply in Denver last month, I finally saw what he meant. Anyone else overdo flux for years before someone set them straight?
Turns out it was a bad grounding clip on the probe, not the actual circuit like I thought. Spent way too long checking solder joints before I swapped the probe and it fixed everything. Anybody else ever get tricked by something that simple?
Tracked every single one in a logbook since I started. Never thought I'd hit that number but here we are. How many repairs do you guys log before you feel like a real tech?
Last Tuesday I had this Frigidaire washer that kept throwing an E23 error. I spent about 4 hours checking every solder joint and trace on the control board. Turned out it was a cracked resistor near the relay driver that looked fine until I hit it with a freeze spray. The voltage was dropping just enough under load to trigger the fault. I replaced a 10 cent part and it fired right up. Customer was happy but I lost half a day on one stupid resistor. Has anyone else dealt with these intermittent E23 codes on Frigidaire boards?
Last Tuesday a guy comes into the shop with a dead Xbox, and after I tell him I plan to reflow the GPU he goes off about how hot air rework stations are killing more boards than they save. He said something about controlled preheating and low temp solder paste that stuck with me, even though I've had good results with my standard method. So which way do you lean - are these reflows just a band-aid that causes more failures down the line, or am I overthinking one customer's opinion?
He told me to always hit suspect joints with freeze spray before testing. I tried it on a power supply board that was acting flaky and found two cracked joints I'd missed with my microscope. Has anyone else used that trick for intermittent faults?
Bought some no-name brand soldering station off Amazon for 80 bucks last month because I figured it'd be fine for basic board work. First time I tried to desolder a through-hole cap on an old power supply, the tip temperature was all over the place and it lifted the pad instantly. Ended up having to order a Hakko FX-888D for 110 bucks just to fix the board I messed up. Anyone else get burned by these cheap stations or am I just dumb for expecting it to work?
Guy comes in last Tuesday with a TV that won't show picture, I test his old cable and it's clearly shot. He insists it's the port itself and wants me to tear the whole TV apart for free, kept saying "you're just trying to upsell me" even after I showed him the cable sparking on the tester. Anyone else get people who think you're lying just to make a quick buck?
It stripped the coating off a set of vintage circuit boards I was restoring, and now I'm stuck figuring out how to fix the mess instead of just using a brush and alcohol like I always did, has anyone else had a cleaner ruin their components?
I spent $150 on a replacement power board for a 2014 Samsung, only for the panel to fail two weeks later. My buddy says I should have just bought a new set for $400. Anyone else been burned trying to revive old gear?
Been using whatever no-name solder I got off Amazon for years. Picked up a roll of Kester 44 last week after seeing a guy on YouTube swear by it. First joint on a 1980s stereo amp flowed perfect, no cold joints, no messing around. That cheap stuff was giving me headaches on old boards with oxidation. Anyone else see a big jump when they switched solder brands?
I was reading through some old factory service bulletins from 2018 for a Denon receiver repair and stumbled on a stat that said over 60% of board failures with poor solder joints traced back to using rosin flux on lead-free solder. Turns out the temperature ranges don't match up right. Has anyone else had joints fail after a few months and checked what flux they were using?
I tried to cut corners on a cheap capacitor swap in a Samsung from 2018 and killed the main board plus my meter with a reverse polarity slip. Any of you guys ever fry a tool trying to save a few bucks on gear?
A customer brought in an old receiver from the 80s and pointed out my solder joints looked frosty, so I checked the flux label and realized I'd been using plumbing flux instead of rosin core this whole time, has anyone else made that dumb mistake?
I had this 55 inch Samsung from 2019 on my bench Tuesday with no picture but sound. Pulled the panel off and found 3 blown LED strips but also a tiny piece of a screwdriver blade stuck between the driver board and the frame. Someone else tried fixing it before me and snapped a tool inside. I swapped the strips and cleaned out the metal piece and it fired right up. Has anyone else found random junk inside TVs from previous repair attempts?
Had a rush repair on a Pioneer receiver last Tuesday, needed to reflow some bad joints on the main board. My old Weller finally died so I grabbed this $40 station off Amazon with the glowing red tips. Big mistake. The temp control was way off, maybe 50 degrees too low, and the tip oxidized after 10 minutes. I spent an extra 45 minutes fighting with it and still left a few cold joints. Customer came back the next day saying the left channel dropped out again. Had to redo everything with a borrowed Hakko from a buddy and it took 15 minutes total. Anyone else tried to save money on a soldering iron and ended up paying double?
I was working on a dead power supply for a customer's monitor last Thursday and my regular Fluke was dead as a doornail. Grabbed that $10 special out of my truck just to check continuity and it worked fine. Then on Saturday a buddy asked me to look at his car stereo that wasn't turning on and I used the same meter to find a blown fuse in under 2 minutes. I keep nicer gear in my shop but for quick field checks that cheap thing has been surprisingly reliable. Anyone else keep a backup meter that cost less than a lunch and actually comes through?
I've brought back dozens of these things. Replaced caps, fixed clock capacitors, the whole deal. But this one had a trace that was corroded so bad I couldn't even find where it was supposed to go. Spent 3 hours with a magnifying lamp and a multimeter and finally just ran a jumper wire. Worked like a charm after that. Has anyone else run into a board so eaten up you almost gave up?
I was working on a 2007 Viera plasma that had vertical lines and the service manual from 2008 had a flowchart that pointed me to a failed buffer IC on the C board in about 10 minutes. Has anyone else found that older factory manuals are way more helpful than anything modern?
Last Tuesday I had a bad day at a repair shop in Cleveland. I spent 3 hours replacing caps on a TV that ended up having a shorted flyback transformer, and the customer blamed me. But then Friday I saved $80 on a stereo receiver by just testing caps first with my ESR meter before changing them. What do you all do when a power supply seems dead? Do you shotgun the caps or check them first? I go back and forth depending on the job.
My buddy Mike (he works at a local shop in Phoenix) kept telling me to switch to flux core for my outdoor repair jobs. I thought he was crazy since I'd been using solid wire with gas for like 8 years. Finally tried it last week on a rusty tractor fender and honestly, the weld penetration was way better with no wind issues. It saved me about 2 hours of grinding and re-welding. Has anyone else found flux core works better for certain metal thicknesses or is it just me?
I was working on an old Sony STR-DE475 receiver last week, trying to replace a blown capacitor near the power supply. I hit it with my Hakko 808 at 400C and the solder just wouldn't flow, so I held it there maybe 5 seconds too long. Heard a faint tick and saw a hairline crack right through a trace near the cap. Had to run a jumper wire to fix it. Anyone else wreck a board this way or am I just too heavy handed?
Had a vintage Fender Bassman come in last Tuesday, the owner wanted me to recap it. I was pulling the chassis out and my grip slipped, sent it face down onto the corner of my metal bench. Cracked the power transformer mounting bracket clean off and bent one of the rectifier tube pins. Spent the next 3 hours finding a replacement bracket on ebay and straightening the pin with a pair of needle nose pliers. Anyone else have a moment where you just stared at the damage for a solid minute before moving?