3 ms·

if you're going to make a board like this, get a stencil, they're not expensive and you don't have to worry about carefully blobbing the correct amount of paste

if you're going to make a board like this, get a stencil, they're not expensive and you don't have to worry about carefully blobbing the correct amount of paste on every pad personally I use a hot plate for small boards

wildzzz 3y ago
Yes, this looked like an absolute mess. Repurposing a toaster oven as a reflow oven would have given much better results or just using a hot plate.
- ilyt 3y ago
  I think there are even some toaster-oven priced hot plates on aliexpress
  - Brian_K_White 3y ago
    If you get one, open it up and redo all the connections. I got one and it was just as bad as some youtube videos showed. 2 of the mains wires female spade connectors were loose and barely making contact, not actually grabbing the male spade. But they WERE making contact, which means the machine would appear to work fine if you never looked inside, at least for some unknown time. And this was actually through Amazon not Aliexpress, so not even the cheapest example, but the same thing of course.
ilyt 3y ago
I just use soldering iron, splurge some flux and hope for best. I should probably get a hot plate...
- Brian_K_White 3y ago
  iron and drag technique is fine for parts with legs, even tiny ones, but this one also has a heat sink center pad, so it needs hot air or oven or plate for that. Personally I'd have done that part first not last, so that you can heat the whole area up without worrying about loosening all the neighboring parts. Everything else can be hand soldered with less fuss than air or oven. I hold parts down with a sharp bamboo skewer or fine tweeser tips, just pushing down on the center while tacking.
  - analog31 3y ago
    I've done the heat sink center pad thing by putting a big plated hole in the middle of it, and filling it with solder. This lets me get down to the bottom with my tip, to ensure actually getting the solder to melt in there.
    - Brian_K_White 3y ago
      Winning at life. I like it.

wildzzz 3y ago

Yes, this looked like an absolute mess. Repurposing a toaster oven as a reflow oven would have given much better results or just using a hot plate.

ilyt 3y ago
I think there are even some toaster-oven priced hot plates on aliexpress
- Brian_K_White 3y ago
  If you get one, open it up and redo all the connections. I got one and it was just as bad as some youtube videos showed. 2 of the mains wires female spade connectors were loose and barely making contact, not actually grabbing the male spade. But they WERE making contact, which means the machine would appear to work fine if you never looked inside, at least for some unknown time. And this was actually through Amazon not Aliexpress, so not even the cheapest example, but the same thing of course.

ilyt 3y ago

I just use soldering iron, splurge some flux and hope for best. I should probably get a hot plate...

Brian_K_White 3y ago
iron and drag technique is fine for parts with legs, even tiny ones, but this one also has a heat sink center pad, so it needs hot air or oven or plate for that. Personally I'd have done that part first not last, so that you can heat the whole area up without worrying about loosening all the neighboring parts. Everything else can be hand soldered with less fuss than air or oven. I hold parts down with a sharp bamboo skewer or fine tweeser tips, just pushing down on the center while tacking.
- analog31 3y ago
  I've done the heat sink center pad thing by putting a big plated hole in the middle of it, and filling it with solder. This lets me get down to the bottom with my tip, to ensure actually getting the solder to melt in there.
  - Brian_K_White 3y ago
    Winning at life. I like it.