I used to work for a small circuit board assembly shop that had a nice line
of pick-n-place machines

When I first started they were using a manual solder paste screen dispencing
unit
It was basically a flat piece of metal the was unique to each PCB that had
the SMT pads milled out (probably lazer ethed)

Then you place the pcb under the "screen".  On the top was a big pile of
solder paste.  Then you just "squeegee" the paste over it. Only one pass was
needed.

The thickness of the metal screen determined how much past was on the pad.

Unless you are doing REALLY fine pitched devices, I think you could make the
solder paste screen on a home-brew CNC MILL

if you are doing a larger run of PCB's, that would decrease the time it took
to make the boards, instead of having the a CNC machine place each solder
paste pad

They eventually purchased a nice machine that automated it (for LOTS of
$$$$)
but that should be just as easy to make.

That's my two cents  (for now)
g

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http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different
ways.  See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.