rampadc shared detailed instructions of how to solder headers without drilling holes: During a moment of weakness and extreme laziness, the idea of soldering a through-hole header as normal SMD components popped up. This method is probably quite old and may had been used by a lot people but since all homemade PCB guides I […]
Tag Archives: solder
Cutting Mylar solder stencils from ExpressPCB and EagleCAD files
Juan Chong has posted a detailed tutorial on how to cut out solder stencils for both ExpressPCB and EagleCAD designs on a laser cutter: In this post I’ll be going over how to cut out solder stencils for both ExpressPCB and EagleCAD designs on a laser cutter. I recently had a need to create some stencils […]
Is soldermask required for fine pitch IC soldering?
Intrigued about a discussion on the forum about whether soldermask is needed between fine pitch pads, Brian decided to test it. In the video of the test he placed solder paste on both the FR4 board material, and the soldermask, as well as some on a tined pad. Once done reflowing his results were in. Both the FR4 and the soldermask acted the […]
How-to: Sjaak hand-solders a DFN chip
A couple of days ago we discussed some cute little PIC 12F chips. As promised, here is a post about hand-soldering one. Tools we used: Soldering-iron and hot-air rework station. Curved tweezers. Scalpel or hobby knife. Kapton tape Fine solder (0.5mm thick with rosin core). Flux Coffee or strong drink How-to continues below.
TOOLS: Soldering supplies
Our favorite tools have a new home on the wiki. Each week we’ll muse about one of them. Have your own tool review? We’ll post that too! This week’s tool is a collection of stuff: the things we use for soldering. We regularly work with surface mount (SMD) parts down to 0603, but it doesn’t […]