Hot air holder + preheater

[mtwieg]

I'm getting sick of my BK7000 preheater. The preheater part works ok, but the main issue is that the "arm" meant to hold the hot air handpiece above the work. A previous revision of the BK7000 had a completely different arm with a decent knob for adjusting the height smoothly with one hand, and I found this extremely important in getting consistent results. But this new revision did away with that and the arm is just trash; trying to adjust height while the nozzle is within an inch of the work risks crashing it into the work. Seems like their extra large BK7050 model still has the older style of arm, but such a huge preheater is impractical for my setup, and I'm willing to spend much more.

Looking around, I can't find any other preheaters which include arms for hot air. Or any standalone arms which have a decent height adjustment. Only off-the-shelf options seem to be entire rework "systems" from Hakko/Pace/JBC/etc which are $5K or more. Surely I'm missing something?

[thm_w]

It looks like there is a lock ring below the main arm, so if you set that it should never crash into the work.

But I would buy a Noga style arm or a microscope focusing rack and make your own. I don't need the extreme precision of a microscope so I use a basic articulating arm: https://www.amazon.com/SmallRig-Adjustable-Friction-Articulating-Monitor/dp/B087T4T8D5/

Related thread is here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/a-3rd-hand-that-actually-works!/

[mtwieg]

It looks like there is a lock ring below the main arm, so if you set that it should never crash into the work.

It's often necessary to raise and lower nozzle during use though. Even moving side to side is awful, every joint is just aluminum parts grinding against each other. And if you swing the arm to your right, this causes the threads mounting the "mast" to the base to loosen, making the entire thing wobble like crazy. It's really difficult to convey how terrible it is.

But I would buy a Noga style arm or a microscope focusing rack and make your own. I don't need the extreme precision of a microscope so I use a basic articulating arm: https://www.amazon.com/SmallRig-Adjustable-Friction-Articulating-Monitor/dp/B087T4T8D5/

Not a bad idea, I sometimes use small indicator stands for positioning scope probe hands free. But I definitely would need something that I can adjust on the fly in some way with one hand (ideally height, but could be a left/right swivel as well). Unfortunately the fine-adjust dial on an indicator stand doesn't give nearly the range of motion I'd need.

Maybe if I could mount the entire stand to something else which gives me another degree of freedom (a swiveling base) that would be ideal... going to look over Noga's website and see if there's anything specialized for this.

Related thread is here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/a-3rd-hand-that-actually-works!/

For some reason this link just takes me back to the forums homepage.

[tooki]

Related thread is here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/a-3rd-hand-that-actually-works!/

For some reason this link just takes me back to the forums homepage.

That’s because the auto-hyperlink function breaks URLs containing exclamation points (and certain other punctuation). But if you add the URL tags manually, it works:
clickable link

[mtwieg]

That’s because the auto-hyperlink function breaks URLs containing exclamation points (and certain other punctuation). But if you add the URL tags manually, it works:
clickable link

Thanks, unfortunately I don't think this alone gets me what I want for hot air rework. But it does give me ideas for other quality of life improvements in the lab...

Maybe the path of least resistance is to just find an arm for a microscope or other instrument like the one attached and 3d print an adaptor to fit the hot air tool. If I'm lucky I might be able to get it cheap from industrial surplus.

[thm_w]

Yes if you want precision then microscope arm would be good. These look a little cheap but both have the rack:
https://www.amazon.com/Elikliv-AM03-Microscope-Management-Soldering/dp/B0CTGX8PFN/
https://www.ebay.com/itm/186587778527

Surplus will be better quality if you have access to it locally.