I've just discovered an incredibly dangerous and painful activity, soldering in new IFT capacitors. Burnt finger tips from grabbing hot lugs to turn the IFT over. Not just once mind you but five times! Anyone watching would have wondered what I was up to, at one stage the soldering iron got thrown away. I felt like Homer Simpson every time. Doh!

We all have our Doh! moments.

I've tried all sorts of materials to make temporary heat-tolerant, non-conductive holders for components under the soldering iron. "Third hand" devices are often not stable enough. Common vise can sometimes be used if insulated with plywood offcuts. Spring clips drain away heat.

Plastics are obviously no good. 1/4" balsa wood offcuts can be useful. Some cork pieces, or bits of cork tile, if not too crumbly. Incidental smoke just reminds you the heat is present.

Any other suggestions for materials you can fix a component into while soldering?

Corrugated cardboard

I have the el cheapo 'third hand' device which is fiddly but better than nothing and I sometimes use small alligator clips as temporary clamps inside chassis. I have been meaning to buy some insulated soldering tweezers for two-handed tasks and your post has reminded me to do that.

Hey Scraps, you are a slow learner being hit five times mate.
I know how it hurts.

Oh dear!.......Young people.... Haemostat's have been invented, not only can they work as a heat sink, they can lock onto a wire as you remove it, or re-solder; Get into small spaces and your fingers are nowhere near the heat

Marc

Haemostats have been invented

I have a pair of those but I prefer tweezer action to scissor action.

It also depends where the target is I do have a long pair of medical tweezers with a pin & Vee block. These have a second use as they are, because of the spike, ideal for removing jumpers on computer boards etc.

Marc

How do you work under a chassis if it doesn't have the lips out the side to sit it in a jig?

I'm sure everyone has a system but this is mine made up from a pine offcut, lots of holes and a selection of lengths of 8mm dowel with rubber tips. I drilled the slightly undersized holes in the drill press to ensure they were square and cut slots in the ends of the dowel to ensure a snug fit.

I think it's going to look like a bed of nails ?

I've got a cardboard box at the moment with polystyrene in it,
and it's great, but I would have to make one of these for every radio.

We had a thread on this topic a few months back - see

http://vintage-radio.com.au/default.asp?f=11&th=4.

Includes pictures of the adaptable jig I made using plastic irrigation tubes. I have used it so far on three different chassis with different mounting arrangements from bottom or side of chassis, and can work safely from any angle.

Maven

HMV made a lot of their chasses with roll cages. I did have a bridge rail over the bench before I moved farm.

Current fixer has a block of wood under the transformer & is resting on a valve shield. I did have two bits of threaded rod forming a triangle with the on chassis speaker.

Marc