Category: tools

1pcs 15mm*10m Adhesive Basic Decoration Masking Tape Stickers Rainbow Color Washi Tapes Set for Gift Album Diary (WHL #101)

“Tool” time today – almost an editorial note, but then the Chinese had a laugh at what I ordered.

With the (basically) fully-working Ender5++ light box, it’s easy to take photos of small to medium sized items 24/7 with consistent quality. One thing that still bothered me, though, was the auto white balance feature of GIMP. Generally works well for colorful items, but can be totally off for objects that only have colors along the white-gray-black axis with no major amount of RGB. Stuff like the white doorbell (WHL #98), the black test print cap in (#E20F3), or the shiny silvery-metal USB drive in (WHL #45) are good examples. […]

14th July 2024 7th July 2024 By Bzzz In No Comment

TOMLOV DM9 Max 10.1″ HD IPS HDMI Digital Microscope 1500X 20MP Coin Microscopio Magnifier Soldering Microscopes For Repairing (WHL #100)

Aah. Looks like #100 is finally here.

So why not spend a hundred bucks and buy something nice? Something that I’ve been thinking about for quite some time now, but with the professional options up in the thousands of Euros, and the cheapo versions (for a tenner, or two) making my skin crawl?

Well, here’s my new digital microscope, a Tomlov brand DM9 Max. Apparently pretty new, only released in the last month or so. Couldn’t even find it on Amazon, eBay or (whoa) a regular shop in Germany, so I ordered directly from Tomlov via AliExpress. […]

16th June 2024 16th June 2024 By Bzzz In 1 Comment

YIHUA 850AD Digital Display Hot Air Desoldering Station: Power inlet + power switch retrofit (WHL #85F1)

Small-ish update on the Yihua hot air station: Standby power draw is now zero!

But as is common, things weren’t quite as straight-forward as I had hoped for. Let’s start with a quick teardown of the unit, as promised. The lid is uneventful in that it has the same color on the inside as it does on the outside – and surprise, surprise, the holes go straight through Other than that, most of the chassis space is taken up by the pump, which is very reminiscent of the unit of the Toolcraft hot air station at work, even the sizing of the cable ties. […]

25th June 2023 16th July 2023 By Bzzz In No Comment

YIHUA 850AD Digital Display Hot Air Desoldering Station Air Pump Can Adjust Temperature Heat Gun SMD Phone Soldering Station (WHL #85)

I got a (reasonably) big box from China!

Since changing jobs, I’m in the process of buying tools that I dearly miss – some of them are no longer easily accessible in the new place, some aren’t available at all, and some are so darn useful, I should have bought a unit for myself at home ages ago. A hot air station checks the last two boxes, since my regular 2000W hot air gun is certainly useful for like removing stickers or preheating boards, but temperature regulation clearly isn’t good enough for soldering. So…I bought a Yihua 850AD. […]

5th March 2023 5th March 2023 By Bzzz In No Comment

Dremel 575 Right Angle Attachment (WHL #78)

I recently got a Dremel 575 90° adapter for tackling a problem that would have been much easier to solve in 4D space – and I returned it the next day for a new unit. It was running pretty rough due to the input shaft actually wobbling around by a millimeter, but even with that fixed in the second unit, it still has a very harsh, grinding, mechanical sound to it. I do not dare to run this at full speed of my 35krpm Dremel 4000, although the one-page manual does not specify any restrictions.

(I know, colors are off, I twiddled with the camera settings on my recent vacation…that made me miss a blog post on top of that!) […]

11th September 2022 12th September 2022 By Bzzz In No Comment

3 Speeds Electric Rotating Display Stand Mirror 360 Degree Turntable Jewelry Holder Battery for Photography Video Shooting Props (WHL #62)

We haven’t had a stock product presentation for a while, so why not start 2021 with something new from China… [bitter 2020 stares from the crowd]

Well, for the PCB Tree I figured a 360° view would be nice. I know it does have some ugly holes, but every naturally grown tree has these. Why not get something that not only offers a spinning platter for stop-motion tricks, but instead rotates something on display on its own?

Bought on AliExpress on 12th of December, 8.73€ including shipping, delivered on January 8th – that was a quick one! […]

24th January 2021 1st February 2021 By Bzzz In 1 Comment

Dental Impression Mixing Dispensing Gun Universal Dispenser Gun 1:1 /1:2 Silicon Rubber Dispenser Gun 10:1 50ml Dentist Tools (WHL #59)

Some filler content (ha, pun intended) for THAT time of the year. I want my beloved winter back, and I want it to last all year round. Fuck that …intergluteal cleft sweat.

So what do we have today? A 2K epoxy dispenser gun. I bought this to test (and use) some 10 epoxy cartridges that randomly appeared at work – nobody uses this type, nobody even has a dispenser for it (we only have 2:1 and 4:1 glues, no 10:1), and it was expired like a year ago. As it is hard to justify buying an original dispenser gun for the extreme rip-off price of like 70€ for glue that is likely not even usable, I kindly disposed of the cartridges, bought the dispenser with my own money, and had a shot. […]

16th August 2020 9th August 2020 By Bzzz In No Comment

33pcs Security Bit Set with Magnetic Extension Bit Holder Tamper Star Screwdriver Bits Set (WHL #52)

Ever had problems removing second-gen security screws, you know, those with the asymmetrically placed security pin? “No”, you say, these don’t exist?

Well…that might be true, but AliExpress already has bits for it. Bought in mid-August for 3.75€, fully refunded after my complaint.

Comes as a really dense item packaged in the usual grey plastic envelope thingy. Mould quality beyond scrap, bottom piece is held in shape by the bits for the most part. Well, will do as a free bit holder for my existing bits, always hard to complain about freebies. […]

22nd September 2019 8th September 2019 By Bzzz In No Comment

150W Welding Repair Tool Titanium Plating Lead-Free Solder Pot Adjustable Temperature Tin Furnace with EU plug (WHL #48)

What’s worse than lead-free solder? Lead doped lead-free solder… :roll:

Today’s item is a “500g” solder pot that I bought during the Christmas/annual leave shopping spree mid-December for 12.06 USD including shipping on AliExpress. Prices have even dropped a bit since then.

I’ve always been collecting residue from desoldering stuff as I want to minimize contaminating ordinary trash with lead. Not on a crazy level like the EU tries forcing us to, but if I can avoid PCBs and electronic components getting mixed with domestic waste, I’ll keep them separate. […]

24th March 2019 24th March 2019 By Bzzz In 1 Comment

USB LiPo battery BBQ arc lighter – CCFL test device (WHL #47)

Fun with high voltages.
[NOT a sponsored post! They’ll probably do not want me to do that in the first place…]

This week (at work…), I repaired an old Siemens PLC unit with a failed display backlight. Good old CCFL crap that literally burns out over time. As this wasn’t time critical (unlike the last unit), I ordered some CCFL to LED conversion kit from China, modified that to fit the tiny display, threw away the crappy “converter” PCB and installed some homebrew.

While fiddling around, my mind wandered off. […]

17th March 2019 17th March 2019 By Bzzz In No Comment