To add one personal judgement to Brian's excellent remarks, once you've
used an OSH Stencils stainless steel stencil that is positioned properly
with a vinyl tape 'hinge', you will stop thinking about squirting paste
anywhere except onto your squeegee.
-Pete
On 09/25/2018 10:24 AM, Brian via TriEmbed wrote:
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
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