Clearly, the route to dealing with SMD's is a very personal one. I would like to offer my US$ 0.02 worth on this matter. A good, small-tip, temperature controlled soldering pencil is very important, as is fine gauge solder. I use a ceramic tipped iron which needs no extensive cleaning (a wipe on a damp sponge is all), and despite several years of use, there is no sign whatever of the tip being eaten away (as was common with the copper tips of yore). Fresh solder wick is indispensable. A comfortable, non-bulky head-mounted binocular (!) magnifier is also indispensable.
I also caged a few hemostats from my MD friends...these get a bit tarnished with repeated autoclaving, and are usually just discarded. The ones I use are quite delicate. They are of the "needle-holder" type (used in stitching) or the clamp kind. Some have serrated tips, others are smooth. These will give a gentle hold on even quite small parts, and can be used either for installation or removal of double-ended SMC's. I use a small stainless scribing tool to hold parts in place for the initial tacking. I touched up the tip on a stone so that it is not needle-sharp. I have found this to be an invaluable tool for "Manhattan" and dead-bug construction as well. There are excellent tutorials on SMC/SMD mounting that can be found using Google. A key psychological attribute is confidence. John Ragle -- W1ZI ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
