12 Aug
2006
12 Aug
'06
6:13 a.m.
On 8/12/06, Brad Parker <brad at heeltoe.com> wrote:
On another topic, I do SMT all the time. You do need
a few tools - a
nice maginifying lens w/light, tweezers, a very very fine tip (a low end
metcal is very helpful). A special hot air gun is also helpful for
removing parts with lots of pins. And if your pcb's are finished with
"hasl" - hot air solder layer I find you don't need flux as much (but it
does help).
I picked up a surplus Hakko 850 hot air rework station for around $60,
the nozzles run around $15-25 on ebay and MPJA has a hot tweezer setup
for around $60. MPJA's price for a Hakko 851 clone is $99, so you can
set up a fair SMT work area for a couple of hundred at the most. Some
careful surplus and ebay shopping can minimize the cost if you aren't
in a big hurry.
James
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