"minichine" is a word made up by PACE to describe the motorized functions of the repair station.
The minichine output on the PACE is a mechanical output. It is directly coupled to a small high speed motor shaft inside the repair station. A handheld rotary tool connects to the minichine coupler. The rotary tool supplied with the PACE is the equivalent to a Dremel rotary tool, except the tool has no electrical connection. Instead, it connects to the PACE through a 3' long flexible shaft. The PACE rotary tool uses several different sized collets to hold a variety of drills, burrs, grinders, polishers, cutters, etc. All this was aimed at repairing/modifying pcbs.
The PACE minichine is more than a rotary tool though. The same motor that operates the rotary tool also operates a small air compressor/vacuum pump that can be used to operate some small sprayers for cleaning, etc, but more importantly, the vacuum pump operates the desoldering tool. The desoldering tool is the gem of this repair station. It's basically a temperature controlled soldering iron that uses hollow tips. The iron also has a vacuum hose attached that will pull air through the tip, IOW, it will suck solder. The hollow tips come in a variety of nozzle sizes to fit the job at hand. The largest tip will fit over one of Doug's turrets and will easily remove solder from the outside and inside of the turret simultaneously. The smallest tip fits over a transistor lead or IC lead for removing solder. An experienced tech can actually do depot level work in the field on single or double sided pcbs.
It's really quite a minichine!
Topic: Soldering old way in 9 lessons - Watch it you won't be disappointed (Read 8483 times)