Took me 6 years to realize I had my microscope light angled wrong
I've been doing board work since 2018 and always had the light coming straight down. Last month a guy from a repair shop in Austin stopped by my bench and asked why I was fighting shadows on every joint. He tilted the lamp to a 45 degree angle and suddenly I could actually see the solder flow into the vias. All those hours of squinting and redoing joints, and it was just a lighting thing. Anyone else have a basic setup habit that you later found out was completely backward?
Watched a buddy of mine solder for two years with his iron tip way too hot because nobody ever told him to check the temp dial. He kept blaming his flux and swapping brands every month, and his joints looked worse and worse. One quick look at his station and the dial was pegged, turned it down and his work got clean overnight.