{"id":29517,"date":"2023-10-02T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/?p=29517"},"modified":"2023-10-03T08:26:38","modified_gmt":"2023-10-03T07:26:38","slug":"pinball-tools-soldering-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/2023\/10\/02\/pinball-tools-soldering-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"PINBALL TOOLS: SOLDERING TOOLS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Introduction<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This article is an update to a previous Pinball News Pinball Tools article<\/a>, and is presented to you in four parts: General Hand Tools<\/a><\/em>, Electrical and Electronics Tools<\/a><\/em>, Soldering Tools<\/em>, and Damaged Hardware Removal<\/em> with this, Soldering Tools<\/em>, being the third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with the first two parts, my perspective comes from someone who is a homeowner, a professional electronics technician, and a pinball repair technician on the side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The driving force behind upgrading my soldering and de-soldering tools was advances in technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More often than not, I\u2019ve found myself having to deal with damaged circuit boards. I find the main reason for this is a previous person lacking the technical knowledge, and\/or tools, to correctly work on printed circuit boards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to limited parts availability from all the new little pinball companies, stock of game-specific replacement parts will be very limited. Eventually, pinball owners will not be able to buy complete assemblies to easily swap out. They will either be forced to make repairs themselves, or find someone to do it for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who don’t want to perform their own pinball repairs, you can use The Directory<\/a> here on Pinball News to help find someone who works on pinball machines. NOTE: Pinball News does not promote or endorse any particular pinball repair resource. The businesses listed are only for convenience of its readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having recently updated my pinball tools, I am more than willing to share my list and the reasons for the specific upgrades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The greatest of these reasons is a tool’s dual-purpose; using it for both pinball repair and general home D<\/strong>o-I<\/strong>t-Y<\/strong>ourself<\/a> (DIY) work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An
An overview of my at-home, ESD-safe soldering station<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The tools are listed here from most-used to least-used. The list is fairly extensive and has been internally hot-linked for your convenience, including links to a tool’s description in the General Hand Tools article where applicable (indicated by *). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where possible, whenever an older tool is N<\/strong>o L<\/strong>onger A<\/strong>vailable (NLA), a newer model is listed instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n