> I'm an SOIC soldering virgin...and now find myself having to solder some
> 8-pin SOICs.
>
> My iron is probably a bit high (30W), but I'll probably have to live with
> that for the moment. Any pointers on a good mail order source for suitable
> tips for fine SOIC/SMT work?
>
> (I'm going to be soldering the SOICs onto mini-PCBs and making them DIPs,
> FYI).

        Best method without requiring fine tips is to pre-tin the contacts on the
board (use solder wick to clean up bridges) and then place the part on the
pins and simply heat each pin/pad combo, one by one. Generally this works
very well, sometimes you'll end up with a no connect, finding that is easy
and a dab of solder will fix it. If you find a solder bridge then you'll
have to start over. SOICs actually are quite big compared to some of the
other stuff out there. TTYL

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