NAC - surface mount electronics

[Brendan K. Walsh]

Smt components are applied with a "solder paste." components are laid on
with a pick and place machine then "baked" to set the solder, hence the heat
gun.  Your 100w iron will definatley be overkill for those itty bitty
components. If you change to a smaller tip you'll be able to remove old
burned up components, but i'm not sure about placing new ones, especially
directional stuff like diodes. I've done proto boards at my previous company
where we removed a wrong value and jumpered in a regular feed through
component.Not recommended for production stuff where reliability is an
issue. There is a tweezer iron like you mentioned. highy recommended if you
want to do it right. get the desktop type with an adjustable temp (i think
700-750 degF is the right setting). Available from mcmaster-carr. regular
flux will work fine with regular solder and tweezer irons, the paste for smt
components has it mixed in but i think you can only use that with an oven or
a really big heat gun. You can get a desktop magnifier light almost
anywhere, try a fly and tackle shop or your local arts and craft supply
store. if not mcmaster has them.

As a word to the wise, hand soldering with smt components takes a bit more
skill than feed through stuff. if you can practice on a junk board first it
will make the first real one you make or fix a lot easier. Steady hands are
a must since the components rest on the board, nothing holding them to the
pad but you. If you can find the solder paste and a heatgun to cook it
you'll be much better off.

Regards
Brendan

----- Original Message -----
From: "joel nevin" <joelnevin at yahoo.com>
To: "Mike Arman" <armanmik at earthlink.net>; <quattro at audifans.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 8:55 AM
Subject: Re: NAC - surface mount electronics


> www.techni-tool.com has a bunch of electrical smt
> equipment.
> As far as a course........I can't help you out on
> that.
>
> Joel
> --- Mike Arman <armanmik at earthlink.net> wrote:
> >
> > No Audi content (yet, but probably will be in a few
> > years - plan ahead!)
> >
> > I need to upgrade my personal skill set (how's that
> > for jargon?) so I can
> > repair surface mount technology (PCB boards)
> > electronics. Obviously, my
> > current electronics weapon of choice, which is a Wen
> > 100 watt soldering
> > gun, is a bit too large to do these kinds of
> > repairs.
> >
> > I think I'll need a magnifier of some sort,
> > tweezers, I'm told there's some
> > special flux, a heat-gun (?) or "tweezer soldering
> > iron" . . .
> >
> > Quick course in SMT 101 needed - any links,
> > cautions, ideas, instructions?
> >
> > Best Regards,
> > Mike Arman
> > > _______________________________________________
> > quattro mailing list
> > quattro at audifans.com
> > http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/quattro
> >
>
>
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