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1 Level
1272 Review
59 Karma

Review on Enhanced Soldering Maintenance with Magnetic Insulation by Daniel Shivashankar

Revainrating 5 out of 5

I don't know what people expect who complain that it's perfect for the price.

I will update this if I find any problems in the future but as I said for $26 including a static wrist strap and 2 precision grips along with a mat although the magnetism turns out to be a less than perfect design - still amazing. The ruler below shows imperial and metric units and is very handy, all screw attachment points are marked, all more or less and some of the screw-on containers are magnetised, although some have criticized the strength of the magnets. Some have pointed out that it is not static resistant, I will do some testing and research on this but as long as you are safe and take the proper precautions you would on most other surfaces I don't think this is a valid one Argument is Don't say ESD is just "static resistant" and to be honest. The mat itself is not damaged by static electricity, so it's true. I'll update this if I find anything wrong but it seems like a very good deal. I chose this one despite the price because of the threads provided in the bin locations and the ruler on the mat as well as the tool slots. The design is great and it's cheap. If you want something more than most things you'll ever need to solder, or if you want perfect magnets or sealable containers, etc., you shouldn't buy a $26 pad and expect to get a premium product that does a lot costs more. It's enough to work on it with my fairly large laptop if for some reason I had to do that, instead of working with embedded systems I could do it even though my laptop was a little off the mat or covered parts of the mat and i have a pretty big laptop. My laptop should never touch any surface other than the mat, even when hanging sideways, the mat is thick enough that it doesn't touch the table it's on. You can see the location of the magnets on the back and the slots they are in are marked on the top, although you may be wondering why most mats are that color and you want to buy a black or gray mat. They have this color and a little bit of yellow because it makes it easier to find electronic parts and screws, since gray, black, etc. stand out in color and stand out better from the mat.

Pros
  • A few competitors
Cons
  • are unreliable