Surface Mount Plunge - what should I know?

[11-90-an]

I use these boxes for component storage, 4 boxes (resistors, caps, semiconductors, and large components) holds everything I need.

Cool... i ask, what happens if say, you were holding a 51k resistor with your tweezers, then, it somehow falls and lands in one of the other compartments? What do you do? Search all of them?

Or you just close every compartment when you get a component?

[vigilante397]

Cool... i ask, what happens if say, you were holding a 51k resistor with your tweezers, then, it somehow falls and lands in one of the other compartments? What do you do? Search all of them?

Or you just close every compartment when you get a component?

I never open more than one compartment at a time, always close the previous one before opening the next. Because yeah, that would be a disaster 0805 are big enough that I can read them without magnification, but if they all got mixed together I would probably just throw them out and buy new ones

[Ice-9]

I use these component folders for keeping all my smd stuff in, i use 1 page per value and have separate books for resistors, capacitors, transistors etc.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Component-Samples-Book-Pages-Organizer-For-SMD-SMT-Resistor-Capacitor-Inductor/174292725561?hash=item2894a7ef39:g:mjUAAOSw5r5exco8

[aion]

On holding parts. Something as simple as this will help.

What's this called and where can you find them? I saw a branded one called the Lion's Claw, but it was comically expensive. Not sure what the generic name is for it.

[PRR]

....What's this ...

I dunno the right name but Google "SMD hold-down" finds many interesting images, including FranTone's site.



http://www.frantone.com/designwritings/design_writings5.html

[marcelomd]

On holding parts. Something as simple as this will help.

What's this called and where can you find them? I saw a branded one called the Lion's Claw, but it was comically expensive. Not sure what the generic name is for it.

This specific one is called The SMD Beak
But, really, it's just an idea I saw on hackaday.com. There are countless versions. I found this one prettier.

[vigilante397]

Am I weird for just using tweezers to hold the components while I'm soldering them down?

[anotherjim]

Apart from some rework in a repair job many years ago, I'm one of those avoiding SMD. For one thing, I haven't found any tweezers that don't flick some parts off at the critical moment. This usually follows a rule of twice - the first time I miraculously find the part fairly quickly. The second attempt it's gone for good. Also, I have a gravitational anomaly at my workbench that causes objects to fall sideways in random directions. For example, something that should land on the floor in normal physics appears sometime later on top of a storage box stashed away under the bench.

[duck_arse]

Am I weird for just using tweezers to hold the components while I'm soldering them down?

I have a [big bore] clutch pencil, holds a specially sculpted bamboo skewer - has a double-flat with notched tip, so it holds a 1206 down. tricky to hold that, and the iron, and the solder with any accuracy.

[iainpunk]

i have never seen people put SMD in little drawers like that, at school, people leave the components in the tape/reel to keep them from mixing up...


cheers, Iain

[StephenGiles]

Thank goodness I have a large stock of proper sized components!!

[deadastronaut]

mrs astro bought me a pcb microscope with viewing screen (which can record video too) for xmas....very timely. as my eyes are shot..

i also bought a smd practice board that comes with some components so i can mess with that and not worry about messing it up.....

[Fancy Lime]

Anyone know a good fab house that does pick'n'place? I don't think I'll have the patience to do manual SMT any time soon. I just want to develop stuff, not produce it.

Cheers,
Andy

[marcelomd]

JLC does SMT assembly, as long as they have the part in their (big) catalog.

[vigilante397]

tricky to hold that, and the iron, and the solder with any accuracy.

Tack and reflow:

Step 1 - Add a small bit of solder to one of the pads
Step 2 - Without removing the soldering iron place the component on the pad
Step 3 - Remove heat from the first pad and solder down the second pad
Step 4 - Add additional solder to clean up first pad as necessary

Sounds like a chore, but I promise it's not bad with some practice, and you never have more than one thing in each hand at a time.

i have never seen people put SMD in little drawers like that, at school, people leave the components in the tape/reel to keep them from mixing up...

And that's common to do, but I use the bins because they allow me to find and pull components MUCH faster, and since 99% of the time I'm placing components onto solder paste for reflow in an oven I move pretty quickly from one value to the next so I don't want to worry about keeping track of tape. Also I close the bin I just used before opening the next one, so I don't mix up components.

[bluebunny]

tricky to hold that, and the iron, and the solder with any accuracy.

Step 1 - Add a small bit of solder to one of the pads
Step 2 - Without removing the soldering iron place the component on the pad
Step 3 - Remove heat from the first pad and solder down the second pad
Step 4 - Add additional solder to clean up first pad as necessary

Thanks for clarifying, Nathan.  For one horrible moment I thought you'd grown an extra arm.   

[kraal]

Step 1 - Add a small bit of solder to one of the pads
Step 2 - Without removing the soldering iron place the component on the pad
Step 3 - Remove heat from the first pad and solder down the second pad
Step 4 - Add additional solder to clean up first pad as necessary

Sounds like a chore, but I promise it's not bad with some practice, and you never have more than one thing in each hand at a time.

I do it a bit differently. I first do step 1 for a single pad of all footprints (for instance right if horizontal footprint, top if vertical), then i prepare components by type/value and solder them all to the pad with solder, then I turn around the pcb and solder the remaining pins.

i have never seen people put SMD in little drawers like that, at school, people leave the components in the tape/reel to keep them from mixing up...

And that's common to do, but I use the bins because they allow me to find and pull components MUCH faster, and since 99% of the time I'm placing components onto solder paste for reflow in an oven I move pretty quickly from one value to the next so I don't want to worry about keeping track of tape. Also I close the bin I just used before opening the next one, so I don't mix up components.

Same here, however I only use bins for the components I'm about to solder, otherwise I leave them on tape (it helps avoiding unwanted oxydation as well). it drives me crazy to work directly with the tape so I prepare everything beforehand in bins. Side note, manual / semi-automatic pick an place machines allow yo to use both reel and bins.

[PRR]

...Thanks for clarifying, Nathan.  For one horrible moment I thought you'd grown an extra arm.   

https://i.postimg.cc/G90jDHvq/img.gif

[deadastronaut]

just saw this use of a clothes iron for smd. ... from 2:00