[sdiy] Starting with SMT hand-soldering

[Harry Bissell]

I agree with the two sharp soldering irons !!!

You might skip the stereo microscope and instead buy a

Dongan OptiVISOR model DA-5 or DA-7. They are about $30 brand new

The DA-5 is 2-1/2 power and focuses at 8" ... more than enough for
0603 size work. The DA-7 is 2-3/4 power and focuses at 6". (The DA-10
focuses at 4", you will bump into your own soldering iron...)

Be sure to use PCB footprints designed for WAVE soldering, not reflow.
They have MUCH longer pads, so there is somewhere to land your soldering
iron.

Avoid leadless IC packages, and avoid those that need to have a 'power pad'
soldered under the chip.

Avoid super small IC packages if possible 

H^) harry





----- Original Message -----
From: Barry Klein <Barry.L.Klein at wdc.com>
To: Justin Owen <juzowen at googlemail.com>, Synth DIY <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
Sent: Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:53:08 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: [sdiy] Starting with SMT hand-soldering

I do rework of small external storage boards with smaller parts than
1206.  Get two irons with hot pencil tips plus one iron that is heavier duty
with a wide blade tip.  Get some liquid rosin and find someone that sells
seringes that can hold it.  Get smallest solder you can find.  Lead based
will work best but you may be forced to use leadfree.
Get a stereo microscope if you can.  Cheap crap one is probably fine.
No need to bother with parts glues or pastes.
Get some good fine point stainless steel non magnetic tweezers.
At this point it is just go ahead and solder the stuff.
You'll be amazed at the control you have while looking through
a microscope.  Use the rosin ahead of time on multipin chips
and the solder will just flow where it needs to go.  Then clean off
with a flux cleaner spray.

Barry


-----Original Message-----
From: synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl
[mailto:synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl] On Behalf Of Justin Owen
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2010 10:41 AM
To: Synth DIY
Subject: [sdiy] Starting with SMT hand-soldering

Hey again,

I'd like to try my hand at laying out and hand-soldering an SMT board and
thought I'd stop in here to see what advice I could get from those that have
done it.

I figured I'd start with 1206 parts but I might get some 603 bits just to
check the form, I'll stick with my current iron until I know it's not
suitable but I might get a decent magnifying glass on a stand, I've checked
YouTube for a few tutorials...

...anything else? I'd be particularly interested in any advice with regards
to laying out the board - if there is any.

Ta much,

Justin

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-- 
Harry Bissell & Nora Abdullah 4eva