Took the SMD Plunge!

[Droogie]

Well my Mouser order arrived on Friday, and after a weekend of painting the den, and a day off today, I had no more excuses. I soldered my first SMD board, the NoMoJo Fuzz Face!

When I first saw the resistors in person my reaction was "You gotta be effin kiddin me! I can barely see these things with the naked eye!"

But I read some  threads on how folks go about working with these things and figured, hell, I spent 8/10 of one cent on each part, why let 'em go to waste? My expectation was, as with many brand new things, that it would take a lot longer and be a lot messier than what I had done before. And it did not disappoint!

My method this go round was:
1) apply flux gel
2) try to wipe off excess flux gel
3) use tweezers to unpack resistor
4) use tweezers again to unpack another cause the first one vanished, pronto (I actually only lost 3 out of 15 parts)
5) place resistor on pads,
6) adjust position repeatedly until "perfect"
7) dab solder on the tip of the iron
8  ) attempt to hold part steady with tweezers while applying way too much solder to one end of the resistor
9) reflow cause it was a bit crooked
10) apply too much solder to the other end of the resistor
11) Rinse and repeat

Needless to say, I'm hooked.

What I learned:
1) Don't use too much flux. Next time I'll put a blob down and dab it on with a toothpick.
2) Parts will inevitably fly away on occasion. See: the angel's share
3) Buy multiples of at least 10 of each—it's much easier to hold the tape while removing parts
4) Don't use so much solder—with the flux gel, it takes up really fast
5) Be patient
6) Two words: FLUX REMOVER!

All snark aside, this is very f**king possible. It didn't feel that much different than the first time I soldered a through hole board. Wednesday night, I'll do the Bender side! If you haven't done so already I encourage you to just do it. Don't worry too much about the results. It'll seem strange and unfamiliar, but like anything else, it will get easier the more you repeat the process.

In all it's soldery, fluxy glory:

[alanp]

One other major skill that you learn quickly -- macro photography! More seriously, on ya for having a go.

[stevie1556]

Glad you enjoyed it! Much neater then my first go on SMD!

I personally love SMD and currently trying to put all my pedals into it. I don't use seperate flux though as I find it too messy, but I find using 60/40 solder with a flux core works well. What I do is I tin a pad, then hold the component down while heating the pad up until the solder melts and holds the pad, then just solder the other side normally.

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[muddyfox]

I don't use seperate flux though as I find it too messy, but I find using 60/40 solder with a flux core works well. What I do is I tin a pad, then hold the component down while heating the pad up until the solder melts and holds the pad, then just solder the other side normally.

This is exactly what I do. No mess whatsoever.
I'll try to take a few pics of my first couple of attempts, if I find a way to get all macro on it...

[twin1965]

I do it like this as well. It's actually not as hard as everyone thinks it is. Sure the components are tiny but soldering on one layer is surprisingly easy. No leads to cut and no holding components in place while you turn the board over so they don't end up wonky! If more smt projects became available then I would surely be buying them.

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[muddyfox]

Apart from my Barbershop smd that got gobbled up in no time flat (branding issues notwithstanding  ), I've got some easy boards coming in from China... if you are interested hit me with a PM...

[pickdropper]

You're off to a great start!

There is no one correct method for soldering, but your method is very close to mine.  I too prefer (by far) to put down flux first.  I don't use gel, as I prefer the lower viscosity standard Kester RMA stuff.  You can get it in pen dispenser form for convenience.   I bought a dispenser the other day that has a needle tip.  That should be even better.

[Droogie]

Great tips re flux or not. I ended up doing a pad or two without flux since I had to redo a few parts. I may try that on the Bender side of this board. The thing I found most challenging was holding the part steady in place, and part of that may have been the flux. Also definitely worth checking out the kester if it's lower viscosity.

No leads to cut and no holding components in place while you turn the board over so they don't end up wonky!

I noticed this when I finished. I had no bits to clean up and used fewer tools and no blue tack to do the board.

[rullywowr]

I'm a big fan of the flux pen for through hole and smd. The pen puts just enough on. Lately I've been using no clean flux and really like it vs rosin.

[stevie1556]

With regards to the comments about holding parts in place, I got some SMD tweezers off of eBay. Get them direct from china though as they are a lot cheaper then UK/US sellers

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