Honeycomb soldering boards

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garethevans1986
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Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby garethevans1986 » Sat Jan 30, 2021 10:45 am

After seeing Rod Cameron's post in Scalefour News No 221, I thought I'd create a topic around the honeycomb soldering boards.

I've been using these for around 2 years now and cannot fault them at all. It's even easier when you have the correct pins to be able to solder without holding onto anything especially if you need to put some resistance or pressure onto the item being soldered.Some of the boards have a "wave" effect on one side and flat on the other which makes soldering bearing onto spring holders alot easier.

I use to use a piece of wood but these are far better, so I'd definatley recommend them if you're looking for a cleaner soldering surface that can "hold" the item your soldering still.

If anybody is interested this is where I purchased my items from:

BOARDS
Large
https://www.cooksongold.com/Jewellery-T ... de-999-973

Medium
https://www.cooksongold.com/Jewellery-T ... e-997-1652

Small
https://www.cooksongold.com/Jewellery-T ... de-999-972

Round
https://www.cooksongold.com/Jewellery-T ... e-999-9730
Note: comes with 20 metal pins!

PINS
https://www.cooksongold.com/Jewellery-T ... e-999-973B

Cookson Gold are reasonable for postage and everything turns up in a day or two. They do offer a "pickup" option from their stores where you order the goods, pick them up (and pay) the following day.

I have a pack or two of the ceramic pins but tend to find the metal pins are good enough to "hold" the underframe or brass item in place on the board, but easy enough to lift up by removing a pin or two.

If anybody is building Rumney Models underframes, then it's possibly to use the pins above in the 1mm holes to solder the W irons in place.

I hope this helps.

Gareth
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Rod Cameron
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Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby Rod Cameron » Sat Jan 30, 2021 12:02 pm

Great, thanks Gareth - just ordered a set of pins :D
Rod

bécasse
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Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby bécasse » Sat Jan 30, 2021 12:34 pm

Yes. I have placed an order too, so thanks for the information and link.

garethevans1986
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Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby garethevans1986 » Sat Jan 30, 2021 8:18 pm

Your both welome.
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Stephan.wintner
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Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby Stephan.wintner » Sat Jan 30, 2021 11:42 pm

I also find the honeycomb type very useful.

One useful trick : https://stephanwintner.wordpress.com/20 ... -fixtures/

Stephan

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kelly
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Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby kelly » Sun Jan 31, 2021 12:05 am

The pins can also act as a pegboard to form wire loop shapes (I do this with wirework for jewellery making). Though the metal pins obviously over the ceramic variety available! For jewellery making you can get various shapes and sizes of pegs for the peg boards to form loops and shapes, some of those might also be useful to modellers (some of them probably for 7mm, some better for 4mm).
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Enigma
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Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby Enigma » Sun Jan 31, 2021 1:12 pm

I've also joined the club! Just about to start a chassis so I'll give it a go.

David Thorpe

Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby David Thorpe » Mon Feb 01, 2021 11:46 am

As I understand it, the pins that cooksongold sell are for use with the small round boards, not the larger honeycomb boards that Gareth links to. As the holes in the two types of board are apparently different sizes, can anyone confirm that these pins are a decent fit in the large honeycomb boards?

DT

andrewnummelin
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Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby andrewnummelin » Tue Feb 02, 2021 9:42 am

David Thorpe wrote:As I understand it, the pins that cooksongold sell are for use with the small round boards, not the larger honeycomb boards that Gareth links to. As the holes in the two types of board are apparently different sizes, can anyone confirm that these pins are a decent fit in the large honeycomb boards?

DT

Below is a photo I've sent to Tim for Snooze. This shows the Cooksongold Honeycomb Soldering Board Large 200mm X 140mm X 12mm in use with their metal pins. By trying with drills, the holes appear to be 1.3mm diameter - the pins taper from 2.0mm down to 0.9 +/- 0.05mm.
about to solder door catch chain.jpg


I'm delighted with their use and am looking forward to the next project and trying the tips that have been given in this thread.
The one thing that the board will not work with is a very fine pin used for things like holding bits of brake gear - for this a fibre board is more useful.
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Regards,

Andrew Nummelin

David Thorpe

Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby David Thorpe » Tue Feb 02, 2021 11:27 am

Thanks Andrew, that's very useful. That's also an interesting resistance soldering set-up you have there.

DT

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JackBlack
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Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby JackBlack » Tue Feb 02, 2021 1:27 pm

Thanks for this, I've ordered a set of round boards and pins. Looks really great.


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Stephan.wintner
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Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby Stephan.wintner » Tue Feb 02, 2021 5:49 pm

Cheers Andrew, I really like that setup. Going to cut some Alu angle soon.

Stephan

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Rod Cameron
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Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby Rod Cameron » Tue Feb 02, 2021 6:41 pm

My pins arrived and fit the board, although they do wiggle a bit. Depending on the setup I may still use the clock-maker's tapered pins occasionally.
Rod

andrewnummelin
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Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby andrewnummelin » Wed Feb 03, 2021 12:18 pm

David Thorpe wrote:... That's also an interesting resistance soldering set-up you have there.

DT

A real bodge! The angle is from the old Exactoscale unit - I found it could be held securely enough for a light job by using the pins. The croc clip spring had failed so this was held in place by another pin. Major problem with the probe as the "collet" is failing - the metal has become soft so does not hold the carbon rod properly. Time to buy a new lead and probe I suspect.

I've always had difficulty in the past trying to align two sides and ends without a floor, or such like, (metal, plastic or wood) as slight errors in alignment add up so the 4th joint doesn't fit accurately. However with this set up I assembled the sides and ends of two vans without any errors. Good choice of set-up or just good luck?
Regards,

Andrew Nummelin

Clive Impey
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Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby Clive Impey » Wed Feb 03, 2021 3:53 pm

Andrew,

There is no need to buy a new probe. The chuck and collet of the Exactoscale probe are parts of a standard TV coaxial aerial available from DIY stores for about 50p.

Clive

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Jol Wilkinson
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Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby Jol Wilkinson » Thu Feb 04, 2021 10:15 am

The current contact path through the co-ax connector isn't that good, as I found when I had an early Exactoscale RSU probe (still in a drawer somewhere for that matter). I found it odd that Bernard Weller produced such a Heath Robinson item.

It is also the reason that John Redrup designed a probe with a machined brass close fitting collet for the London Road Models RSU. Over the years he has sold quite a few to owners of other brand RSU's.

garethevans1986
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Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby garethevans1986 » Thu Feb 04, 2021 10:26 am

David Thorpe wrote:As I understand it, the pins that cooksongold sell are for use with the small round boards, not the larger honeycomb boards that Gareth links to. As the holes in the two types of board are apparently different sizes, can anyone confirm that these pins are a decent fit in the large honeycomb boards?

DT


I have the larger boards and the pins fit fine so no issues there.
Gareth O. Evans
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Enigma
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Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby Enigma » Thu Feb 04, 2021 4:46 pm

Mine arrived this morning - minus the pins! A quick 'phone call and all should now be well with a profound apology! Good quick service otherwise.

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JackBlack
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Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby JackBlack » Thu Feb 04, 2021 5:47 pm

Mine arrived this morning too, absolutely brilliant!

IMG_20210204_102632025.jpg


I might get a larger one though, they're smaller than I expected.

Cheers, Nick
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Nick Allport
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CDGFife
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Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby CDGFife » Thu Feb 04, 2021 10:18 pm

I ordered the 200x140mm rectangular board with the smaller holes. I ordered a set of both the metal and ceramic pins just to see which fitted and can confirm that the metal pins do fit the larger rectangle board but the ceramic pins do not (which to be fair it sort of says in the product description). I might just order a circular board to go with the ceramic pins as well, we'll see.

I'd echo the thanks to Gareth for supplying the link. Some interesting tools on the website, quite apart from the ceramic boards.

Cheers

Chris

David Thorpe

Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby David Thorpe » Sun Feb 07, 2021 5:26 pm

I also got one of the rectangular ones and a pack of the steel pins. These latter are tapered and while they are an adequate (but not tight) fit when pushed right down into the holes, they're then rather short. As I wanted some longer pins I found some 1.2mm diameter piano wire which fits reasonably snugly into the holes in the hoard. Cut into suitable lengths it gave me the longer pins I required.

DT

garethevans1986
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Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby garethevans1986 » Mon Feb 08, 2021 11:17 am

CDGFife wrote:I'd echo the thanks to Gareth for supplying the link. Some interesting tools on the website, quite apart from the ceramic boards.


You're welcome, they do have a good choice of tools BUT they can be rather expensive....I do find ebay to be pretty good for certain tools.

Thanks
Gareth
Gareth O. Evans
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Enigma
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Re: Honeycomb soldering boards

Postby Enigma » Mon Feb 08, 2021 1:50 pm

Enigma wrote:Mine arrived this morning - minus the pins! A quick 'phone call and all should now be well with a profound apology! Good quick service otherwise.


Pins arrived Saturday morning, no problem. Excellent service - and I used it this morning with a chassis I'm building for someone.


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