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I have tried searching the form for info on sources for solder paste but have not had much luck. "solder paste", solder AND paste; no joy.
Where do you find reasonably priced, fresh solder paste, quanity 1 ?
Shelf life is said to be 6 months when refrigerated. It may last longer. They are nearby so the stuff should show up in a day or to if all goes well.AMTECH NWS410063T38735S Water Soluble Solder Paste in 10cc Syringe W/needle and plunger. $16
I work a bit with SOIC and 805 size, parts. The drag method works well for ICs but I am having a tough time with resistors and caps. I know this sounds backward.
I seen a video where they applied paste to the pads, positioned the resistor and heated it. It nearly jumped into alignment. No tweezers or hemostats!
I want to try the smaller parts. Much of the 'neat' stuff seems to be in increasingly smaller packages.
In time I want to try the Sparkfun fry-pan or a revamped toaster oven with the paste.
@dknguyen
HEI has
Shelf life is said to be 6 months when refrigerated. It may last longer. They are nearby so the stuff should show up in a day or to if all goes well.
Thanks
Are you having a hard time tacking the 0805 or something? You add the flux to the pads first, then place the part on the pads and then poke down on it with tweezers to do the final positioning and keep the tweezers there with your hand, then you take a bead of solder onto the tip of your iron (all with the 2nd hand only since you are holding the part down with your first hand) and dab one pad. Let it cool, then remove your tweezers and proceed to dab the other part.
You need to keep the tweezers on the part after the final positioning is done so that the iron tip doesn't move the part when it contacts the "bulb of flux" on the pad and so the stiction of the melted solder doesn't move the part when you remove the iron.
Hands shake a bit and the eyes are far from 20/20.
I can do what you describe but it does not work that well for me. I made a spring hold down by inserting a wire into a block of wood and bending the wire to put tension on the part. PCB rests on block. It worked better. My hemostat collection is growing and that helps a bit too. Could be if I worked at it a while longer I might get better(faster).
It sounds easier to add paste to the board position the part then heat it.
I bet my eyes are farther away from 20/20 than yoursProbably not the hand shaking though
Does it freeze well? If so you could probably keep it for years.Shelf life is said to be 6 months when refrigerated. It may last longer.
Sad to hear that. I was thinking the paste would contract back to the copper even without a mask.I wanted to try it to see if it made 805's simpler. It really didn't. Of course, I don't have a solder mask on my homemade PCB's.
..
Persoanlly I don't use solder paste. I use tweezers to place the part on the PCB, then I apply the solder to one pad in order to fix the part, then I complete soldering it - as dknguyen said.
3v0, using small diameter solder and a proper tip improves soldering SMD parts a lot. Which tip and solder are you using?
... and then poke down on it with tweezers to