21 Jun
2010
21 Jun
'10
2:30 p.m.
On 6/21/10 5:12 PM, A. Christoff Baumann wrote:
Well ok, I'll grant you that. I'm just saying, if I can do it, most
anyone can. And I've helped many people get (re-)started in SMT
soldering with near 100% good results.
I am 100%
convinced that the vast majority of people who have trouble
soldering surface-mount components are the ones who say "ah knows howta
solder!" and charge in with their 20-year-old, $7 Radio Shack iron and
1/8" diameter solder ("it's just a hobby, I don't need good
tools!") and
try to solder like it's through-hole, refusing to accept the notion that
it's a DIFFERENT TASK and as such requires DIFFERENT TOOLS.
I've had the right tools. I don't buy cheap RadioShack soldering irons. I have
a very nice digital temperature controlled Weller soldering station with the right tips.
I can do it, I just don't like to, and I have a high enough failure rate to make it an
exercise in frustration when dealing with large-pin count flat-packs.
It does require different skills than through-hole soldering. Not everybody is up to the
task. I build on average two-three kits a year: at that pace, SMD just isn't a skill
I get enough practice using. I can probably dress and lace telephone and datacom cable
faster than you can, I'd wager.. but I wouldn't expect your home network to have
all the cables dressed and laced, either, because you probably have never laced cable in
your life (I'm assuming you don't work in the telecom sector like I do).
Different people have different skills and abilities. Also, not everybody wants to invest in $300 worth of
soldering equipment to build a $120 kit.
It's really not that expensive.
SMD components were designed to be picked-and-placed
by robots.
No they weren't, not originally. A lot of them (beyond prototyping)
are now, I'll grant that. But I build SMT boards every day, and I'm no
robot. ;) I will have a pick-and-place machine here eventually, though.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL