[sdiy] Moving to Surface Mount - lots of questions

[David G Dixon]

> 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.

Most people who do surface mount DIY solder it by hand under a magnifying
glass with tweezers.  They say it's much faster than through-hole
hand-assembly, once you get used to it.  Also, you can get these lovely
3-ring binders with plastic pocket pages containing cut strips of tape with
all the different SMD part values for prototyping.  You can store thousands
of parts in a couple of binders on a bookshelf, and finding the right part
is a snap.  For example, see here: 

http://www.mdfly.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=421