One thing to be careful with using solder paste is it tends to create very
small solder balls that you can't see without a microscope. Even a good
cleaning in alcohol and toothbrush won't remove them.
What I do now is put solder the pads followed by a liberal amount of Amtech
flux, place the part then hit it with hot air. Using a soldering iron put
solder on one pad flux it solder that pad. After that solder the remaining
leads one at a time or drag solder.
73! Mark KA6WKE
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On Sun, Jul 14, 2019, 09:16 Jack via Groups.Io <jjpurdum@...>
wrote:
I've done that and it does work well. However, if you're really going to
work with SMD parts, nothing beats solder paste and a hot air gun. I use a
dental pick to put the paste on, drop the SMD in place and use my tweezers
to get it in place, hold it there, and then hit it with the air gun. It's
magic how the paste wicks onto the SMD legs and I almost never have to
remove any bridges.
Jack, W8TEE
On Sunday, July 14, 2019, 12:09:54 PM EDT, Michael Babineau <
mbabineau.ve3wmb@...> wrote:
A few months back our local club had a speaker who talked about SMD
soldering and he had some excellent suggestions
(he is a retired EE who did PCB design for a telecom's company). The most
useful trick, was to use the normal
"tin one pad" trick, but his suggestion for getting the part in place is
excellent. You place the part such that one end is
close to the tinned pad, re-heat the tinned pad and then lightly holding
both sides of the part with tweezers "snowplow it" towards
the tinned pad. When it comes in contact with the melted solder there is a
wicking effect that almost always pulls the
part into its proper place. Try it out.
--
Michael VE3WMB / VA2NB
