Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Homebrew PCBs

Henry Liu <henryjliu@...> writes:

> I was thinking about this and can't I just pre solder all the SMT tabs
> then apply flux and the part on it then bake it or use a skillet?

I don't think it will be sticky enough to hold all the parts in place
as you move the board around. Once you've soldered the pads, you have
a hard bump that wants to move the part ∗away∗ from alignment, whereas
solder paste can be flattened and is sticky to hold the parts in
place.