[dlosborne]

For those of you who fear bringing the iron near the little-bitty bits in the DIY world:
Surface Mount Soldering

This fellow has a couple of other videos on the subject as well.

What does a good solder joint really look like?
NASA knows.

 

[jacc1234]

Interesting video. I have done some simple surface mount work on the mini3 one pin at a time. I have seen the drag technique before but am still worried about using it. I am about to start a y1 DAC build and might give it a shot there.

 

[Emooze]

Ok its decided, I need to learn this.

I'll see how well an Alien DAC handles the drag technique...

 

[deltaydeltax]

The "drag" technique isn't done with a straight tip, or sharp tip. It's done with a mini wave tip. The station the guy in the video has is a PACE MBT station and he's using this tip:

Welcome to Pace Worldwide

Trying to drag solder with a non wave tip usually causes headaches.

Pick up a training kit and book:
Pace Direct -Accessories
Pace Direct -Accessories
Pace Direct

I can solder like it's nobody's business, but it took many many years to be able to do it. I also burned my fingers a lot at first (even have a scar on my leg, true story).

 

[TimmyMac]

Buy some solder paste and be done with it. Smallish stuff like SSOP-28 is no problem.

 

[Juaquin]

Can anyone suggest a Weller tip for this purpose (a "wave" tip?)?

 

[pinkfloyd4ever]

WOW, I CAN NOT believe that any of the following haven't been mentioned yet. Anyway, these are probably the best surface mount soldering tutorials you'll find:

SparkFun Electronics
Surface Mount Soldering Techniques
Curious Inventor - Guides : Surface Mount Soldering

 

[thedips]

ive seen a drag technique done with a pin tip... alteast i think ive seen it done with one? is it not possible without a wave tip?

 

[SiBurning]

A hoof or grooved tip is usually recommended. The groove holds solder. I can't see the difference between a hoof and a bevel. I know the bevel has a flat tip. Does the hoof have a concave surface to hold solder? It's hard to see exactly what that pace tip is.

Weller has a hoof and bevel.

 

[deltaydeltax]

The Pace tip does have a concave feature. There are different sizes of them as well to hold more or less solder.

The "crater" in the tip not only puts solder down like the video, but it also picks up excess solder so you avoid bridges. They make soldering like the video incredibly easy.

Dragging a pin tip to do this isn't impossible, it is a bit harder though. You also do more damage to the nickle plating on the pin tip than the wave which is designed to be dragged.

As far as I know, Weller doesn't offer any tips for special purposes like the Pace systems. I did have a Weller made for SMT once. It lacked too many accessories I like to use so I gave it away.

Metcal has a few tips made for dragging.

Hakko looks like they might have a few. This is the closest I was able to find on their site, I can't quite tell if it's "cratered" for wave:
http://www.hakkousa.com/AHPDirect/images/A1050.jpg

 

[cobaltmute]

I recently tried the reflow skillet method using a old frypan on the stove:

SparkFun Electronics

You really need a stencil to apply the paste, but I just dabbed solder paste on all the spots I wanted to do which left a bit of bridging to deal with later. I'll post pics when I get a chance. It does position all the parts really well.

Note: If you going to try it in a fry pan - DO NOT DO IT IN ONE YOU ARE GOING TO COOK IN AFTERWARDS unless you like eating lead.

 

[deltaydeltax]

People used to use their stoves to solder back in the day too:
VINTAGE**SOLDERING IRONS**Group of 4 - eBay (item 370178791789 end time Apr-04-09 03:52:18 PDT)

 

[dlosborne]

...been away from civilization for a bit...

Pinkfloyd4ever – great links; thanks for bringing these into this.

On tip selection, I’m afraid I’m not much help. I ground a medium tip into a pseudo-hoof with a sharp ‘V’ on the other side (pointy bit out). I polished with a ScotchBrite pad and a fingernail buffer. After that, I plated the tip with a bit of Cool-Amp silver plating polish (though I suspect that didn’t help a bit and was most likely alloyed and melted away in the first few minutes). I haven’t yet plated with anything out of the platinum metals group yet and didn’t see a need to; my tip has been burning strong for the last year and a half with fair usage.

Oh, yeah, for my soldering station, I have the Rat-Shack 15W/30W special, ScotchBrite No-Scratch sponge with a bunch of holes punched out in a pretty pattern on one side, and a $12 helping hands set from eBay - works great. I spend about eight-ish to twenty-ish hours a month rebuilding circuit boards from medium-voltage electronic relays, motor starting relays, and variable frequency drives with this set-up. So, I don’t spend my full waking hours in rosin fumes and haven’t really needed a full professional station, but my set-up sees a fair bit of use.

For surface mount goodies, I squirt a wee bit of the Kester 1544 all over the pads, position the part and hold it with fine tip tweezers. I have a couple inches of Cardas solder jammed into my sponge and use this to grab a bead from after cleaning the tip. After that, I just wipe the bead across the item. Excess on the end or nearby pads can be cleaned up with copper wick. For through-hole stuff, the ‘V’ back side works just as it did before I mutilated the tip.