Review on Soldering Magnifying Flexible Electronics Modeling by Harley Franchetti

This product has a lot of potential, but the choice of implementing a number of functions leaves it insufficient. Due to the hassle of using my hands and working on something while looking through a magnifying glass, I use light on my projects (bright but overheats very quickly) but rarely my hands or glass. Hands: A big problem is that not all clips can be fixed well. They use a set screw to secure the clamps, but the screws don't stay tight (and I'm a strong guy who put a lot of effort into it), causing the arms to rotate freely and fall out. The arms aren't as flexible as I'd like, either (although they hold their shape fairly well) and they screw into the base, meaning you twist them if you rotate them while you work, which is often quite the case makes it difficult to figure out how to use more than one hand in a project. (I work on drones, so a lot of projects are quite small.) The grommets on the alligator clips aren't removable (unless you cut them off), and I've found that they often get in my way when they're on the ends of the clips hang . for a decent beat. (about 5mm) Eventually I'll probably cut them off and replace them with heat shrink tubing that conforms a little better. I'm guessing these alligator clips aren't well made as I've already noticed that some of them started moving after a few weeks of working with them on very light projects. Magnifying Glass :/Light The focal length of a magnifying glass is about 2-3 inches, which means that whenever I use a magnifying glass I have to go in at more than 45 degrees with the soldering iron. Even when I'm working on my 2.5 inch bladed drone, I can't turn the project on its side to improve the angle because the body of the drone often hits the magnifying glass around the part I'm soldering to keep in focus. The large lens/light diameter is an issue because I can't get it between me and my project, or even a bit to the side so it doesn't obstruct my vision and bump into it when I bend over to work. Sharing the same fairly inflexible structure as the alligator clip arms, the magnifier arm is also bolted down so you can unscrew and rotate it freely when moving to use. light but heats up very quickly. However, I've used it for hours and haven't had any overheating which has become an issue. I like that the cord for the light is connected to this arm from the outside, so you can see when it's rolling up and you don't run the risk of unknowingly tugging on the cord while rotating the light and trying to plug it in a comfortable angle that doesn't get in the way. Tray/Screw Plate: The screw plate is non-magnetic and quite small. So when you're working on a project that requires enlarging short focal length glass, it seems like you're just begging to lose your screws. I'm not a fan of magnetized screws, but for me that was much less of an issue with magnetic shells than popping or otherwise losing in non-magnetic shells. I ordered a magnetic tray to go with it (Amazon recommended buying one at the time) and it was larger than the manufacturer's tray and fitted nicely in the center. I then put the manufacturer's screw tray in the large tray I bought by magnetizing and now I put the screws in the original tray and the larger parts in the large tray that they are in. Since it's now magnetic, it also stays fixed in the metal case. Octo Frame is much better. Power Cord: The power cord for this USB 2.0 port, which I generally think is a good, sensible choice. However, they didn't include a charging adapter, so you could plug it into a regular outlet, which seems pretty standard and proved inconvenient to me. General Layout: A bunch of hands seemed such a good idea. but they don't work well together. They don't want to flex very much so it's difficult to get them to grab your project at the right angle and since the light ends up getting in the way and not what you want to see through I squeeze the whole structure out my workspace, and then pull out an arm or two when I decide that's the best approach. Basically, I just use light. If I really can't see something through a magnifying glass, I can look through a magnifying glass, but it's almost never worth using one, and I end up carrying a magnifying glass for every single project, no matter how hot or sweaty I am.