On 9/25/18 8:19 AM, alex--- via TriEmbed wrote:
- brute force; cheap but wears out your hand
I'm guessing you mean the small syringe style of dispenser, like what Chip-Quik comes in?
If you find operating the plunger to be too fatiguing at room temperature, try immersing the dispenser (properly sealed, of course) in a hot water bath for 10 minutes or so. Flux viscosity drops rapidly as temperature increases.
I definitely recommend going the stencil route if you're placing more than a few parts. Steel stencils aren't that expensive these days; OSH Stencils (https://ohsstencils.com) offers stainless steel stencils in a variety of thicknesses for less than $2/sq-in. There's really no need for an alignment jig; all you need is a flat surface and some blue (or green) painter's tape. Tape the PCB to the surface, align the stencil by hand, and tape it down along one edge (so you have a hinge, essentially). If the stencil is larger than the PCB, tape waste PCBs around it to provide a level surface for the stencil (OSH includes laser-cut L-shaped acrylic frame pieces in every order for just this purpose). Also, a little misalignment won't kill you, especially if your board has a proper solder mask; the solder will strongly prefer the unmasked copper, and minor misalignments will clean themselves up just through surface tension. You might have to do a little clean-up with some braid and a soldering iron, but you were gonna do that anyway, right? :o)
Happy reflowing! -Brian _______________________________________________ Triangle, NC Embedded Computing mailing list To post message: [email protected] List info: http://mail.triembed.org/mailman/listinfo/triembed_triembed.org TriEmbed web site: http://TriEmbed.org To unsubscribe, click link and send a blank message: mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe
