Hi - I use stencilsunlimited for $99 metal stencils, and a 4-burner w/fan toaster oven with a $25 thermocouple+meter from Jameco to monitor temperature. This works pretty well, the reflows are fine, but I have yet to be able to do tssops without a bunch of solder bridges. You may just need to bite the bullet and use a contract manufacturer. I suggest someone relatively local to you. I'm in the bay area and recommend Meritronics, they've been very good, they'll do real low volume but of course the NRE ($350 for their fancy high-quality stencils) and the per-piece for qty 25 won't be cheap. Maybe you can find a relatively cheap assistant to help when you need to make 10 of something? I'd like to do this, but haven't taken it seriously enough to really do the search for this someone. So I just either do it myself or hand it to Meritronics, depending on money, schedule, qty of boards, etc. Good luck- J Tony Vandiver wrote: > Sort of in keeping with the topic, what's generally accepted as the next > step between these hand-soldering processes and mass production? I > routinely run into situations where I need to place a couple thousand > SMT parts, and it kills me to do this by hand. I've got a bid in on a > very used screen printer, but would still have to place parts by hand > and reflow somehow. I've done reflows on preprinted boards on a hot > plate in a pinch, and the capital investment for a hot-plate is small > (I'm sure that a placement machine is way out of my budget) but does > anyone have any further advice on not-so-mass production that doesn't > involve one at a time connections with an iron? > > Thanks, > > Tony > > > solarwind wrote: >> On Sun, Jul 19, 2009 at 1:07 PM, Jason Hsu wrote: >> >>> I'm looking for suggestions on how to learn surface mount soldering, as I >>> only >>> know how to solder through-hole. >>> >>> What training products can I buy to learn? What surface mount project kits >>> would give me good practice? >>> >>> What soldering iron tips should I buy? I have a WES51 soldering station and >>> would prefer to stick with that. >>> >> SOIC is good to start with as they generally have larger pin pitch. >> Next, try (T)SSOP. Finally, go for the (T)QFP. >> >> Rip open a dead electronics device like a stereo or something. The old >> ones have mostly DIP chips in them though. >> >> -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist