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

What are your suggestions for working with mechanically cut PCB patterns for SMDs? In this case, the solder pads are separated by routed valleys, making it difficult to position the SMD onto the pads and difficult to add a solder mask. I have been applying a minimum and uniform amount of solder to each pad with a pointed iron. The IC is then positioned, with some difficulity, on top of the rounded pads and tacked in position by applying pressure with the pointed iron to two pins. Once this step is accepted, the remaining pins are rather easily soldered by applying pressure with a wide-tip iron. However, care is taken to not let any solder get into the valleys between the pads, for it is difficult to remove. Your comments?

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