SMD Work

[Sandy]

You can do SMD too -

I just built a SMD Frequency Counter, and it was not all that bad, most of
the stuff that Fredric said is right on the money, ie, a bright halogen
desk lamp is a must. A couple of pair of different tweezers, until you find
a style that works for you. I got a cheep pair of revlon's and it works
pretty good. The thinnist solder and finest point tip are next on the list.
A magnifiying glass or loop is also a BIG help. Most of the SMD caps and
resistors are easy to get on the board, I just tinned the pad with a very
small amount of solder and placed the component on with the tweezers and
heated the one side till the solder became molton, and then did the other
side. Not too bad. The SMD dips were a bit harder, but what I did was to
take a small piece of tape over the top an tack the end two down, then
remove the tape (adjust position if need be) then start hitting the rest. A
good too would be one of those solder suckers, and/or solder wick for the
blobs that could build. Not that bad, just getting my vision back after all
the squiniting of parts. Oh, get extra parts if possible, as them small
things get away pretty easy. A nice clean, white work area is required! Now
the 332 would be a bit more difficult...

Sandy