Professional SMT Soldering: Hand Soldering Techniques - Surface Mount

John Gammell · 4.3M views · 2010 · 3:20

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Repair, teardowns & right to repairElectronics & circuit designtutorial

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN points to it as proof that SMD soldering is simpler than people fear.

What it is

A three-minute demonstration of professional hand-soldering techniques for multi-lead surface mount parts, to IPC class 3 criteria.

Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2016 to 2023.

What Hacker News said

Recommends tzs · 2016-04 · on “I decided to make a graphics card for my Amiga 2000”

Soldering surface mount devices doesn't seem to be too bad, actually. Here are a couple of short videos: [LINK] [this video]

Recommends godelski · 2023-07 · on “FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool (2006)”

I'd say that this is going to be one of the easiest surface mount (SMD) soldering jobs you'd ever do. Removing is easy, adding is hard. Fwiw, my first time doing SMD I was really nervous but then found it to be quite easy and so it opened up a lot of things for me (making and repairing). It is much easier than you think (often easier than through hole!), just when placing something you need to hold it in place (or use a heat gun, making these sometimes easier). Here's a short video if you want some guide[0]. As for soldering tips, any would be fine, but I learned that the flat tips, like this[1], tend to be my goto rather than the pencil like tips. The mass helps it keep heat and the larger

Cites severino · 2023-02 · on “Setting Up an Electronics Workshop”

Yes, drag soldering was the only technique I considered. However, it didn't work very good. As said before, the main problem was that solder created shorts between pins, and some others were left with bad connections. I also tried to use braid to remove the excess solder, etc., but I felt the more I tried to fix it, the worse the result. I once watched this video about SMT soldering, and while the guy seems to be using just a soldering iron and flux, the result is outstanding. I don't know however which specific equipment and solder/flux he is using, and if it's real or there's some kind of trick involved :-D [this video]