The Shop > Electronics & IC Programing
Which Hot Air Rework station?
PK:
When we are hand assembling one or two boards, we don't use paste. It's better to hand solder two and three terminal parts and drag solder the chips.
We only ever use hot air for individual part removal.
Get a no clean flux pen, actually get a couple. Always add flux rather than solder. solder wick is a must have for us too.
Paste goes off (the volatile elements of the flux flash off and it turns to dried booger) quicker than you want it to. There's a big difference between fresh paste and 3 month old paste. Even if it's been kept in the fridge.
In any event, you want lead/tin paste....
PekkaNF:
Thank you, I knew that paste does not stay good long, but three months.....
So? To solder small SMD opamp or such 8-16 pin bugger:
1) Tin solder pads
2) flux with no clean fluxpen
3) Tack corner pins
4) check aligment
5) Flux
6) Drag solder
7) Check
Pekka
PK:
--- Quote from: PekkaNF on March 01, 2016, 03:47:00 AM ---Thank you, I knew that paste does not stay good long, but three months.....
So? To solder small SMD opamp or such 8-16 pin bugger:
--- End quote ---
Tin one corner pad.
Hold part down and tack corner in place.
Nudge into alignment.
Tack other corner in place.
Drag solder chip with solder wire and a big chisel tip on the iron.
Thought it might be relevant to include a shot of our rework bench. This is where a lot of hand soldering happens.
From left to right.
Little PSU for bringing circuits up and testing them. (Current limiting is an absolute must have)
Fluke 115 Meter, we have a few of these, they are cheap and good.
Pot-o-flux and flux pen applicator. These little pump pots are handy, we use a bigger one for IPA..
Vacuum desoldering iron. Mostly crap, we don't use it much.
Atten inductive heating soldering iron. This thing is just fantastic, see below for a pic of the tip that pretty much lives on it next toa 1/4W resistor.. We solder quite a lot of 0.5mm pitch TQFP packages with that tip.
Another 115. (I said we have a few of them)
ATTEN hot air station.
Brass tip cleaner in holder.
Video microscope. This thing has a 2K output camera on it and a zoom lens. I often pull the whole thing forward and work under it if I'm doing anything smaller than 1mm pitch.
PekkaNF:
Looks nice
I have two Flukes too, often one has kleps and another has pointy cables.
I need to clear my table....too much stuff on it. I'm planning to hang isolation transformer under table and put two selves atop of the table to put PSU and scope there.
I have given some though to soldering "iron". I think I will partially retire my old trusty Weller magnanast and replace it with modern iron instead of buying hot air station right away.
"Atten inductive heating soldering iron. This thing is just fantastic" Is it like Xytronic LF iron?
http://www.partco.biz/verkkokauppa/product_info.php?cPath=2072_2188&products_id=16268&language=en
Another question "Pot-o-flux and flux pen applicator. These little pump pots are handy, we use a bigger one for IPA.."
Is isopropyl alcohol for cleaning PCB before soldering and cleaning no-clean-flux? Does it has to be water free (100% pharmacy quality) or is 30-50% w/ detergent quality enough?
Pekka
PK:
--- Quote ---"Atten inductive heating soldering iron. This thing is just fantastic" Is it like Xytronic LF iron?
http://www.partco.biz/verkkokauppa/product_info.php?cPath=2072_2188&products_id=16268&language=en
--- End quote ---
Well, that iron has the word 'induction' in its name, so I guess so... The things we like about ours:
Tips are cheap and easy to get.
It goes completely cold if it's idle. This is perfect for us as it means we can leave it on all day, pick it up and it's hot before we can find the solder. Seriously, heatup times are in the order of 5 seconds!
--- Quote ---Is isopropyl alcohol for cleaning PCB before soldering and cleaning no-clean-flux? Does it has to be water free (100% pharmacy quality) or is 30-50% w/ detergent quality enough?
--- End quote ---
IPA is our 'go to' first solvent. We use it for all sorts of things (as do most electroncs places). Add some tough wipes and a bristle brush and it it gets flux off, we use a roll of paper towel a day, most of it goes into the bin soaked in IPA.
If you don't handle a PCB before soldering, then you don't need to clean it. Wiping it with IPA is a compromise:
On one hand it removes the oils you put there when you touched it (which you shouldn't have)
On the other, it smears any part of the solder mask or screen print compounds that will dissolve in IPA over the board...
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