On Mon, 14 Aug 2017 13:17:28 -0400, you wrote: >> Is anyone here doing their own reflow-based SMT assembly ? > >I'm seriously considering it. More and more parts are only available in SMT, >and it would be nice to do quick turn PCB assembly by milling a PCB then >assembling it. Some parts are impractical to solder, while I haven't run into >much call for BGA parts, I do use a lot of things with thermal pads under them >that are tricky to hand-solder.
Even for bog-standard parts, if you have a lot of them ( maybe 50+) reflow is easily way quicker. Using a foot-operated vacuum pen, you can pick parts directly out of tape - particularly useful for polarised parts so you don't have to check polarity of every one you pick from a random scattering of loose parts.. For placing multiple parts from the same tape you can get down to 2-3 seconds per part. The end result also looks nicer (assuming you stay on the right side of the line between "reflow" and "incinerate". Obviously use leaded paste, as the reflow/incinerate margin is much wider. If you have access to a lasercutter or vinyl cutter you can cut stencils, which saves even more time, though a foot-operated dispener can be pretty qiuck - 1-2 dots per second once you get into a rythm, and for stuff like SO packages you can just do a line long the pads. Even for fine-pitch stuff, it;s often quicker to do a line then braid or drag-solder off the shorts it afterwards, or just drag-solder them first I did a video a while ago about this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdGSFc7VjBE -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/g9n3pcl2d5u0e5f61r2atijvgf9e5lnmuk%404ax.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
