SMD soldering (was Re: [sdiy] SDIY -vs RoHS - more)

[Paul Maddox]

Adam,

> But I'm looking at the resistors and caps on a PCI card that happens to be
> lying around, and I'm wondering how one solders those by hand. They're so
> teeny; how do you hold them in place while soldering them?

:-)
use a pair of tweezers.
If you stick with 1206 or 0805 you'll be fine, just try and avoid anything 
smaller than 0805 until you get comfortable, I've done 0401 but I wouldn't 
want to go smaller (I know some have, they're nutters).

The tecnique is pretty much the same, cover with flux, hold the part with 
tweezers, load up your 'waveflow' tip, and touch the end, its done, rotate 
the PCB and touch the other end with the iron and you're done. you won't 
need the tweezers second time. though don't hold the iron on for long, else 
you'll heat up the first joint and it'll move around :-)

Paul