Soldering Mat

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This is the one I've been using lately:


Had a blue one before this one. They're cheap so I don't feel bad if they don't last but 6 months.
I've had mine for almost a year now and it's all nasty with rosin on my soldering station side and has a bunch of slits in it because I keep forgetting it's not my cutting mat. I just kind of want to see how far it goes, honestly :ROFLMAO:
 
I was just amazed how much static gathered in the mat in just half an hour of usage when I went pull it up from the work bench. Barry, you may have put the finger on my main issue .... I live in Canada which is up north for most of you ... and it's -20f this morning so the heating system is working full capacity. The air is dry no dough. I'll give try the dollar store silicone mats a try and I'll quickly figure out if that is the low humidity environment that's causing the static. I'll also buy a pack of dryer sheets as Thewintersolder recommended ... it can only help! Thank you all for your comments.
 
Your wife knows you use her over liner?
She made me buy my own. Not very exciting, but it works. I actually cut mine into smaller rectangles (it was 24"x16").

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BUMP!
Questions sebastion...


So I'm thinking of picking up one of these silicon mats. Some are fancier than others with compartment-lids for parts, some even have a grounding solution.

So my questions are:

1) Given the static generated, it seems it would be prudent to get the grounded version, no?

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2) some mats are magnetic to keep parts from rolling around — great for resistors and caps, but for EEPROMs not so much.
Magnetic — yay or nay?

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Thanks,
FF
 
You can buy 1/8" stainless steel, steel, or aluminum sheets from these guys at a fairly decent price. I put the sticky rubber feet on the bottom so they don't slide around. I also have a 8" x 8" one that I use for a mouse pad. Cats do not pee on steel, and rather than attracting static, you can use a cable with two alligator clips attached to hook this to earth ground.


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@Feral Feline I’m still undecided about the magnetic sections as far as pedal building goes. I get how they make sense for phone or laptop repair with a ton of screws but they take up so much space on most of the ones I’ve seen. I have so many potentiometer nuts and washers and enclosure bottom screws that I don’t even try to catch them if they fall anymore

This is my most recent one that replaced a similar sized cutting mat that had been serving me well until I set my SMT hotplate on it before it had cooled all the way. https://a.co/d/fUsEFdf

To the original concern of the thread though it seems to be about on par with a cutting mat as far as static goes. I’ve had much more staticy silicone ones.

One of these days I’m just gonna glue a trimmed thick silicone baking sheet to the bottom of a cutting mat for the best of both worlds
 
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