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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stefan Trethan" <stefan_trethan@...>
To: <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 11:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: soldering iron with CNC?


> On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 13:23:13 -0800, Ted Huntington <thunting@...>
> wrote:
>
> >>
> >
> > That looks more labor intensive than this method that works for me:
> >
> > Put the pcb in the magnifying glass tool and collect a tiny ball of
> > solder on
> > the tip of a 15w $5 radio shack soldering iron (basically solder held in
> > the
> > 1mm indent of the tip) and touch the smt ic pin+board junction. Trying
> > to
> > put the tiny solder wire on the pin produces way too much melted solder
> > in my
> > experience, plus I worry about overheating the IC.
> >
> > I think I want to add a soldering iron attachment to a home-made USB CNC
> > device for precise and automatic soldering.
>
> but what exactly is the advantage over oven/reflow soldering?
>
> I mean the whole industry does it this way, they must have reasons for it.
>
> what i would use a cnc for is application of solder paste.
> (and placement of parts ;-) )
>
> i would have this plotter here, any idea how to make a solder paste
> applying jig for it?
> it surely can carry a thin hose and a nozzle....

Solder paste is best applied with a stencil. Unfortunately, laser cut ones
are quite expensive. PCB-Pool is the best source for them, theirs are
cheaper than anyone else's.

Leon
--
Leon Heller, G1HSM
Email: aqzf13@...
My low-cost Philips LPC210x ARM development system:
http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller/lpc2104.html