Where to get solder paste screen in the UK.

I came across this video

Solder Stenciling Video - News - SparkFun Electronics

showing how to paste boards using a Mylar stencil.

My question is where is the best place to get one made in the UK? Has anyone got any experience of any UK suppliers?

It's the same as making a PCB board, you coat it with an etch resist etch away the parts you don't want and you're all set. There's a good chance that you could directly print a pattern onto Mylar and use an etch that will eat the Mylar but not the toner on both sides, but I'm not sure of the practicalities of that.

Another option is using punches to manually make masks. Solder paste will tend to reflow to the nearest soldering point so ribbons across, so even if you do a solid strip across the legs of an SMD component when it reflows it will avoid filling gaps all by itself as long as the available solder paste is low enough, you'll only get shorted legs if you use too thick or too wide of a mask.

I really didn't want to get into etching. I have made boards with photo resist, but not for some time. The boards I want to use this with have some components with pin pitch of 0.5 mm and I don't have any punches or any way of aligning them accurately.

Anyhow, I've risked a few pounds here:-

www.smtstencil.co.uk

and I'll post again to say how it turns out.

The stencil from www.smtstencil.co.uk arrived yesterday, and I tried it out today.

It works very well. I followed the video from Sparkfun Solder Stenciling Video - News - SparkFun Electronics although I used an old credit card as the spreader. I also have a reflow oven and controller from here

Reflow Soldering - REFLOW-KIT.COM

It all went very well. The 0.65 mm pitch ICs soldered fine. When I had dispensed the paste from a syringe, with a pressure dispensing system, I had always had too much solder and several IC legs joined with solder blobs. That didn't happen with the stencil.

I will be using stencils from there on any other SMT boards I make.