[sdiy] Moving to Surface Mount - lots of questions

[The Old Crow]

   I converted my manufacturing firm to surface-mount 4 years ago, and 
while not cheap to re-tool, it does make quantity production so much 
easier and more efficient.  For DIY stuff, there are a few tools that 
will greatly ease the task of working with SMDs.  I am just using Howard 
Elec. as a reference, pick your favorite vendor.

Desoldering tool.  Extremely useful: my "go to" tool for repairing CS-80s.

http://www.howardelectronics.com/den-on/sc7000.html

   The basic micro-tip soldering station.

http://www.howardelectronics.com/jbc/cd-1sa.html

Micro "hot tweezer," can mount resistors and caps in about one every 5 
seconds once you get the hang of it.

http://www.howardelectronics.com/jbc/microtweezers.html

   Before I bought an actual reflow oven, I used a $50 toaster oven with 
a probe to read when the boards reached reflow temperature.  The main 
thing in using stencils is to make sure you secure the board and stencil 
really well so they do not shift when using a squeegee to apply a paste 
layer.  Stencil thickness is also important, with the typical stencil 
being 5mil thickness.

Xrow
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On 12/6/2011 1:45 AM, Mike Beauchamp wrote:
> 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 :)
>
>