I needed to do a small production run (about 50 boards) and didn't want to use tweezers for the assembly. So I designed and built a manual pick and place machine for about $50 or so. Unfortunately, since this is my first post, I can't provide any links. So I'll attach a single photo, and then with a later post add the links.
[attachment=1] And here is a side view:
[attachment=0] We used this machine to make 56 boards, and my friend said it helped a lot. I'd really love to have an automatic machine, but they're a lot more expensive, and would have taken quite a bit of time to tune for just a few boards.
