OT: SMT kits?

[Ron D'Eau Claire-2]

I dunno Stuart. I think of "sneezing" and ending up with the parts for my
new all-band Elecraft K-92 scattered all over the shop floor.

Besides, the knobs on my K2 are WAY too small already.  

I'm reminded of the segment in "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" in which
the alien invasion of Earth begins with a thousand fully armed space ships
streaking down into the earth's atmosphere in rigid formation, ready to take
on all of mankind with their loaded weapons and, just as  they are about to
touch down, the entire fleet is inhaled by a very small dog.

Perhaps the day is coming when a binocular microscope will be as much a part
of every Ham's workbench as a soldering iron.

Ron AC7AC

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Stuart Rohre

Yes,
I think we can do simple kits with 1206 parts with home hand tools and
possibly a hold down fixture home made.   In fact, that would be a great
"kit", a set of SMT sized tools:  Needle Nose pliers, light spring tweezer,
hold down device that would sit on desk and exert weight on a 1206 component
as you soldered it, Maybe a Spudgeon tool, or dental wide tip blade to apply
flux to hold 1206 as a "glue" until soldered, a roll of 0.01 low melting
point solder, and list of suggested fine tip irons, and desk magnifiers that
a ham could locally procure.
///




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[Eric Swartz - WA6HHQ]

41 SMT related posts in the last couple of days. Wow!   Looks like we've
beaten it to death.

Time to let this thread rest. :-)

73, Eric   WA6HHQ
Elecraft List moderator

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[Peter Burbank]

At 04:20 PM 8/11/2004, Stuart Rohre wrote:
>Yes,
>I think we can do simple kits with 1206 parts with home hand tools and
>possibly a hold down fixture home made.   In fact, that would be a great
>"kit", a set of SMT sized tools:  Needle Nose pliers, light spring tweezer,
>hold down device that would sit on desk and exert weight on a 1206 component
>as you soldered it, Maybe a Spudgeon tool, or dental wide tip blade to apply
>flux to hold 1206 as a "glue" until soldered, a roll of 0.01 low melting
>point solder, and list of suggested fine tip irons, and desk magnifiers that
>a ham could locally procure.

Snip
That's a great idea Stuart. For me, the hold down fixture wood be crucial
and a good design welcome.
The mention of hold down fluxes left me with an uneasy feeling in that most
fluxes are a bit active
and I would be concerned about the state of the flux after soldering. I
have visions of an active flux
residue progressing as a corrosive agent over time unless it could be
completely cleaned out after
soldering. A glue type holding agent might carbonize with the soldering
heat. Has industry settled
on a flux that addresses these issues?
73
Pete NV4V


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[Stuart Rohre]

Peter,
There are water clean fluxes that might answer your concern.  I was thinking
of ones that dissipate with soldering heat, just a dot on land of the
component that was to be the "down side."
Stuart
K5KVH


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[k6dgw]

Well ... it is a little known fact that the US of A is slowly converting
to metric ... inch by inch.

Fred K6DGW

David Toepfer wrote:

>
> Not that any of it really matters.
>
> dt
> .
>
> --- David Toepfer <[hidden email]> wrote:
> > Everyone seems to be missing my point, which is, all of these things are
> > designed and fabricated in metric specs.  The machine tools are made in
> > factories to metric specs, but when the but the dials on them or the labels
> > on
> > them they are converted to english so we sad american masses who just
> > cant/wont
> > work in metrics can understand.  I can, for example, make a 1/2" bolt by
> > makeing it 12.7mm.  My point is, the machining specs are actually in metric,
> > but the end result is marketed and labeled in english.  If the US was not the
> > huge economic power house and consumer it was all of the rest of the
> > countries/companies of the world would not coddle us on issues like this as
> > they do.
> >
> > dt
> > .
> >
> > --- Bob Baxter <[hidden email]> wrote:
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "David Toepfer" <[hidden email]>
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > I recall reading somehere a while ago that absolutely all precision
> > > > instruments/tools are fabricated in metric and the only thing that is
> > > english
> > > > is the labels and the specs which are all converted to english.
> > >
> > > Have you checked your car?  95% of the nuts and bolts in my 88 Chevrolet,
> > > made in Texas, were metric.
> > >
> > > Bob Baxter AA7EQ
> > > Bisbee, Az.
> > >
> > >
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[Stuart Rohre]

Pete, I have tried cyanoacrylate and when it heated it let go.
-Stuart
K5KVH


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[Tom Hammond-3]

It can liberate cyanide (or some derivative) when it is heated as well.

73,

Tom   N0SS

At 06:03 PM 8/13/04, Stuart Rohre wrote:
>Pete, I have tried cyanoacrylate and when it heated it let go.

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[Bob - W5BIG]

I've used the "wire around the tip" trick too and it worked for me. Later I got a small tip (0.5mm) for my iron. I think an even
smaller tip might be better.

For fine pitch IC's I found that liquid solder flux makes soldering much much easier. You can get a flux pen from Mouser or Digikey
for $4 or $5.  If necessary, use solderwick to remove bridges between the leads.  This leaves enough solder to still form a joint
between the lead and the pad. When using the liquid flux, I haven't had trouble with bridges, even on 25mil pitch leads.

73/ Bob - W5BIG

============================================

----- Original Message -----
From: "Larry Makoski W2LJ" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2004 5:05 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] OT: SMT kits?

> A "trick" that I learned was to take a long piece of solid "bell wire"
> or hookup wire (copper) about 6- 8 inches long.  Remove the insulation
> and wrap a coil around your soldering iron tip.  Bring the last bit of
> wire out, parallel to the axix of the soldering iron. Plug the iron, in,
> let the wire heat up, cut the "tip" to the length you want and you have
> a very fine tip for soldering SMD devices.
>
> I wouldn't want to build a kit this way; but if you only have a couple
> devices to solder it works pretty good.
>
> 73 de Larry W2LJ - Vivat Morse! © ®
>
> [hidden email]
> http://www.qsl.net/w2lj
>
> ARRL Lifemember  QRP ARCI #4488     NJQRP #47
> FISTS #1469  QRP-L #778   FP #612  QRPp-I #759
> ARS #1528,  AmQRP, CQC #746
>
> K1 #1647  -  K2 #4090  for QRP
> Icom IC-751A for QRO
> Butternut HF9V and G5RV antennas
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> John Payne wrote:
>
> > Who needs an expensive "soldering station" for SMT?  I've built a
> couple of
> > SMT projects with a standard soldering station (using a fine tip)with
> no
> > problem.  If one looks for excuses, one can find them, and never do or
> learn
> > anything new!  There are many cheap and easy tricks for SMT work, if
> one
> > only cares to look a bit!
> >
> > 73 de John N4FLJ
>
>
>
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