[sdiy] Moving to Surface Mount - lots of questions

[Paul Perry]

Unless you really, really, really need it tiny.. I can't see surface mount 
for a one-off.
All that pain, and it must be miles faster and easier to put one ordinary 
resistor in than to glue it down for oven baking, even if the bake goes 
well!
The only argument is when you just can't get the ICs in anything but smt. 
And even then, I'd still go DIP and ordinary components for the rest.

Different if you are making a hundred, and a machine is placing the parts, 
because the smt parts are often dirt cheap.
No problem keeping track of smt parts, since they all come in tapes or 
rails.

paul perry Melbourne Australia

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Beauchamp" <mikebeauchamp at gmail.com>
To: "sdiy DIY" <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2011 6:45 PM
Subject: [sdiy] Moving to Surface Mount - lots of questions


> Hey all,
> after assembling a few PCB's with a few hundred resistors, I've been
> thinking about moving to Surface Mount for my next project. Please
> convince me, or talk me out of it :)
>
> I've watched a few videos of people using stencils to apply solder
> paste, placing the components, and then oven-heating the boards. That
> looks like it would be pretty fast to assemble, but I do have some
> questions for the experts:
>
> Speed: Having never done it before, how much faster is it to
> stencil-place-oven as opposed to insert-solder-clip?
> Reliability: I know that repairing a through-hole board is easier for
> most people, but is the reliability of SMT stuff on par with TH?
> Storage: Those SMD resistors are tiny! What are some good ways to
> store 30-40 different values so they can easily be grabbed for
> populating?
> Toxicity: Soldering irritates my asthma, although my fume extractor
> helps heaps. Does sticking solder paste into an oven cause similar
> fumes?
>
> Looking forward to reading your responses, thanks all.
>
> -- 
> [mike]
> _______________________________________________
> Synth-diy mailing list
> Synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
> http://dropmix.xs4all.nl/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy


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