Plugging holes is an add on to plated through holes. As far as I know
all commercial processes seed and plate holes.
I do toner transfer. apply solder paste with a stencil, and reflow in a
fry pan (ala sparkfun). I am just starting to use TQFP and need vias
under the chip. If I solder wires in the vias I do not think I can use
the fry pan to reflow.
The hope is that I can metalize the walls of the vias with the pen and
heat cure. The apply solder paste into the vias using a stencil that
has both SMD pads and vias.
Note that the pen is marketed to make and repair traces. This falls
outside of that intended use.
3v0
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, DJ Delorie <dj@...> wrote:
>
>
> "leon Heller" leon355@... writes:
> > But it's just a single stage, not several stages as was claimed.
>
> Are we reading the same page? They don't describe their plating
> process at all on that page, just that they plate the vias before
> filling, then plate over them afterwards. I would assume that the
> plating processes are the same regardless of whether you're going to
> fill the hole or not.
>