At 11:16 10/05/97 EDT, Harold M Hallikainen wrote:
>        So far for prototyping SMT, I've used solder paste and TRIED to
>dab a little on each pad, then drop the part into position.  I then hold
>the part in position with the point of an Xacto knife and heat up one
>pin.  Once that is secured, all the other pins can be heated with a fine
>point iron.

This sounds pretty good -- I'll definitely try it with solder paste.
(Sounds like it spares you a hand :-)

>        Years ago I saw a vapor-phase soldering system at a convention.
>It was a Pyrex jar with condensor tubes around the top.

>        I also wonder about using a low flow temperature controlled heat
>gun for soldering.  High flow blows the parts off the board.
>Nontemperature controlled melts parts.  Anyone have any experience with
>this?

I'm also interested in any small numbers production type tool, like you
mentioned some. If anybody has any suggestions...

Thanks for the replies.