In no particular order: Metcal soldering system with sttc-125 & sttc-126 tips Vision Engineering Mantis or Dynascope stereo microscope. We have an older TS4 (zoom to 40X) which is invaluable. Lead-based solder if you can. Liquid flux (rosin or water-soluble, depending what your solder uses) Fresh solder wick. Make sure its fresh - stale solder wick is just awful. Good quality tweezers. Spend way more money than you would ever think such things are worth ($10 or so) 'cuz the cheap tweezers just don't work. Nice-To-Have: Metcal Talon system with tatc-601 tips (used for removing incorrect or damaged resistors & capacitors). Various SOIC and blade tips for the Metcal station. I've probably left out some major items but the above list pretty much describes what we use for our prototype and repair stuff. dwayne At 09:23 AM 11/15/2007, DSELEC wrote: >My company is soon to receive an order to populate a series of prototype >PIC-based circuit boards with about 120 SMT components, some with very fine >pitch (ssop and tsop) packages. -- Dwayne Reid Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd Edmonton, AB, CANADA (780) 489-3199 voice (780) 487-6397 fax www.trinity-electronics.com Custom Electronics Design and Manufacturing -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist