Radio Shack love?

[derevaun]

I like their patterned perfboard. The pads lift after a couple touches of the iron, so you gotta be sure about your moves. And the phenolic stinks when you heat it or cut it. But I still enjoy the puzzle of doing a layout on their 276-150, 417 hole board.

I hear about vapid cellplan-hawking RS employees, but I have simply not experienced that. I get a polite offer of help and am left alone. That's fine with me, because the drawers are pretty easy for one person to pull open. The times I've asked questions at the NTE seller in my town, or at Alltronics in South Seattle, I've gotten unhelpful and often gruff responses, which are at close parity to the friendly but non-expert help at Radio Shack. I do notice a difference between the mall stores vs the, uh, strip mall stores.

I think it's neat that maker culture has a use for RS, and I like that they carry the Arduino and Schmartboard kind of stuff. Do I walk in with my emotional stability riding on whether they have Alpha pots and box caps? Nobody would. But I like that I can fill out a Ruby amp, or grab the jack that finishes a build this weekend, etc, down the street. And I just don't have it in me to simultaneously admire the TL07x and think I'm too cool for Radio Shack. 

[alanp]

Dick Smith in NZ/Aus used to carry components.

These days, they're a bad rip of Noel Leemings, minus the TV's, furniture, and whiteware.

If you come across a Dick Smith store that has one of the Cabinets Of Many Drawers, it's a damn good bet that the drawers will not actually HAVE anything in them. Whether they have any hardware (of the type you'd use in a pedal) is not worth betting money on.

But if you want a cellphone, or a Xbox, or Grand Theft Auto XV: Bustin' Budapest, they've got you sorted.

It's depressing.

[AntKnee]

I've hit the shack for the occasional gotta have it now component. I've never looked for those LEDs others mentioned, but I will next time. I get my solder there. I also tried one of their un-soldering irons with the red bulb pump thing. It worked surprisingly well, better than those tube shaped sucker things. I've never had the overbearing salesperson experience either.
I hit a Fry's once, looking for a couple capacitors to finish a build and they didnt have it. I thought for sure they would be a good bet. I did leave with some nice strippers for small guage wire that I like.

[irmcdermott]

A favorite quote that I once heard someone say:

"RadioShack: You've got questions, we've got batteries"

[Leevibe]

A favorite quote that I once heard someone say:

"RadioShack: You've got questions, we've got batteries"

HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!

[Stomptown]

I hear about vapid cellplan-hawking RS employees, but I have simply not experienced that.

They never bother me either. I'm pretty sure they know not to bother us once we head to the components section. My dad and I went in there a while back (I needed some knobs) and they had him cornered for about 10 minutes trying hopelessly to get him to buy a phone. I explained to them that there was no way they could beat the deal he has (he is a retired postal employee and they get CRAZY good rates through ATT) but they wouldn't listen. I had to walk out and wait in the car. Lol...

[jimilee]

I've hit the shack for the occasional gotta have it now component. I've never looked for those LEDs others mentioned, but I will next time. I get my solder there. I also tried one of their un-soldering irons with the red bulb pump thing. It worked surprisingly well, better than those tube shaped sucker things. I've never had the overbearing salesperson experience either.
I hit a Fry's once, looking for a couple capacitors to finish a build and they didnt have it. I thought for sure they would be a good bet. I did leave with some nice strippers for small guage wire that I like.

I love my desoldering iron! I've been using wick a little more as of late, but in a jam this thing is awesome.

[Leevibe]

[/quote]
I love my desoldering iron! I've been using wick a little more as of late, but in a jam this thing is awesome.
[/quote]

I have the red bulb desoldering iron but it runs so hot the tip seems too oxidized to use.  I always end up having to flow solder into the joint before I suck it back out.  Do you do anything special to keep the tip tinned?  For that matter, I seem to not be able to get braid to work.  I just end up using the blue RS desoldering pump.

[jimilee]

I really don't do anything special. I bought several extra tips, they're getting hard to find.
  Also if you get an old earring with a post on it, it works great with the desoldering iron on one side and the earring on the other.as the joint heats up, the erring slides through.
Also another thing to try is to put the majority of the tip on the soldering ring itself and as the solder heats up you can slide the tip over the hole and suck out the solder.
  For the desoldering braid, I watched a bunch of YouTube videos. Your iron has to be slightly hotter.

[haveyouseenhim]

I banged one of the employees in the back room.  But it wasn't love

[Leevibe]

I really don't do anything special. I bought several extra tips, they're getting hard to find.
  Also if you get an old earring with a post on it, it works great with the desoldering iron on one side and the earring on the other.as the joint heats up, the erring slides through.
Also another thing to try is to put the majority of the tip on the soldering ring itself and as the solder heats up you can slide the tip over the hole and suck out the solder.
  For the desoldering braid, I watched a bunch of YouTube videos. Your iron has to be slightly hotter.

Earring trick sounds like a good idea.  I need to figure out which pair of my wife's earrings I can break up without her noticing. 

[jimilee]

I really don't do anything special. I bought several extra tips, they're getting hard to find.
  Also if you get an old earring with a post on it, it works great with the desoldering iron on one side and the earring on the other.as the joint heats up, the erring slides through.
Also another thing to try is to put the majority of the tip on the soldering ring itself and as the solder heats up you can slide the tip over the hole and suck out the solder.
  For the desoldering braid, I watched a bunch of YouTube videos. Your iron has to be slightly hotter.

Earring trick sounds like a good idea.  I need to figure out which pair of my wife's earrings I can break up without her noticing.

I'm embarrassed to say (sort of)  I have my own. I use the ones I used to wear when I was younger. I found that hoops with a post work best as far as heat dissipation goes.