At 12:48 PM 1/10/2012, Cristiano Cesaretto wrote: >It's not main main job but I solder 100-150 small boards every month. >Boards are small, usually around 5cmm x 5mm and they mount mainly DIP chip= s. > >At the moment I put the chip in place, use adhesive tape to keep it still, >put the pcb in the vise, solder, remove the pcb, put next chip, adhesive >tape... so I spend a lot of time putting and removing the pcb from vise. > >I am wondering if anyone has any suggestion to become more productive. Several companies make PCB stuffing holders designed for through-hole=20 boards. The basic design is fairly simple and you could fabricate=20 something yourself in an afternoon or two if you wished. One example of these is=20 ,=20 although they don't show the foam-filled lid that holds the=20 components to the PCB when you flip the frame over for soldering. This unit=20 =20 does show the lid. The basic idea is that you have a set of adjustable rails that are=20 grooved to hold a number of bare PC boards. First, adjust the rail=20 spacing and insert all the bare boards. You flip the frame so that=20 the top side is exposed, then put in all of the parts lowest in=20 height. Put the foam-filled cover on, flip the frame so that all of=20 the leads are exposed, and solder away. Then cut all the excess=20 leads off. The foam in the cover presses the components tightly to the boa= rd. Flip the frame back over, remove the cover, and do the next batch of=20 components. These are higher than what you did the first time. Put=20 the cover back on, flip, solder, clip. Rinse and repeat as often as needed= .. I find that I get away with 2 sessions: the first is all of the axial=20 passives and radial mono-caps. The 2nd pass is small vertical=20 electrolytic caps, ICs, IC sockets, small screw-type terminal blocks,=20 header pins. Large components are installed on the boards individually (large=20 electrolytics, large connectors, etc). You should note that the 2nd frame I linked to (above) shows a fixed=20 middle rail and two adjustable rails (one above, one below). This=20 lets you stuff 2 rows of boards at a time. We use a couple of different units here: one is a large unit made by=20 Farnsworth, the other 2 or 3 units are old OK Tools units. All are=20 some 20 years old or more - and still working fine. dwayne --=20 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 --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .