An Hour to Surface Mount

Most of us have made the transition from through hole parts to surface mount. There are lots of scattered tutorials, but if you want to learn some techniques or compare your technique to someone else’s, you might enjoy [Moto Geek’s] hour-long video on how he does surface mount with reflow soldering. You can see the video below.

What makes the video interesting is that it is an hour long and covers the gamut from where to get cheap PCBs, to a homebrew pick and place pencil. [Moto Geek] uses a stencil with solder paste, and he provides links to the materials he uses.

Instead of a conventional squeegee, [Moto Geek] uses an old driver’s license which is a bit more flexible than a typical credit card. There are a few other tips and tricks you can garner from the video.

For the reflow oven, [Moto Geek] uses a modified toaster oven. However, you can get cheap reflow ovens that are made for that purpose. In the end, the results look good. This is one of those rare videos where you feel like you are in the shop looking over his shoulder while he builds his boards.

If you don’t have an oven, you can always try a blowtorch. If you’d rather 3D print your pick and place tool, we’ve seen it done before.

Filed under: tool hacks

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