Henry Liu <
henryjliu@...> writes:
> The paste stenciling seems geared toward faster production. Is it
> possible to just get a syringe and dab a small amount of solder paste
> to each pad without getting a stencil / squeegee for experiments/1 off
> boards or do you need a stencil to reflow?
Yes, you can use a syringe. I've done that plenty of times. Not as
predictable as a stencil, but it certainly does work.
If you have a photo-UV home-etch setup, you can make stencils with
aluminum foil pretty easily.
IMHO you want an aluminum hot plate if you can. I got a cast iron
one, and the heat pattern was very uneven. I eventually got an
aluminum plate to put over it, and although it now takes longer to
reflow, the results are much more consistent.
> 2) I hate hand soldering smt even more so I minimize their use
SMT is easier than PTH because you don't have to keep flipping the
board over. You just need to find a method that works for you.
For discretes, the "best" hand-solder way is to pre-solder one pad for
each part, then use one hand for the iron and the other for tweezers.
Place each part and reheat the solder to attach them to the board.
Then go back and solder the second pad on each part.
> Hopefully if I get the smt to work it seems it's much easier to use
> lots of smt discrete components as you just lay them on top and it
> solders itself.
Yeah, that's the way :-)