Heard a repair shop owner say 'soldering is dead' at a trade show last March

I was at a small electronics repair meetup in Columbus when a guy who runs a shop in Dayton said soldering is a waste of time now because everything is modular. He claimed we should just swap boards instead of fixing traces or pins. But I've resoldered dozens of laptop charge ports that worked fine afterward for under $2 in materials. Is that old skill really becoming useless, or are we giving up on fixing things too fast? Has anyone else run into this debate in their own work?

2 comments

2 Comments

nora_park723d ago

Right? I've saved so many laptops with just a cheap iron and some flux.

fiona_johnson823d ago

I mean, that Dayton guy has a point if we're talking about like, super tiny BGA chips on modern phones, but calling soldering dead is a huge stretch. I've fixed maybe thirty laptop DC jacks in the last two years alone at my side bench, and a new board from the manufacturer would cost someone $200 or more if they could even find it. Maybe his shop just works on newer iPhones or something, but for the stuff most people bring in, a decent iron and some flux still gets the job done.