SMD/SMT Ideas, Kits, Experience...?

I've manually soldered 0603 and I have repaired a device containing 0402 (where one end of a resistor had been pulled from the board -- don't ask...)

1206 are big and easy, 0805 are relatively easy.

.127 pitch ICs, are a doddle with the right technique.

Billions would be a litre. Early on I purchased a set of 5000 x 0805 resistors in various values 1R to 10M and they came in a small envelope.

get yourself some curved tweezers so you can rest your hand on the bench and hold the resistor at the same time. Something like this (although mine are just plain metal).

I keep the components how I receive them If on reels, they stay on reels, if in little plastic bags, they stay in little plastic bags.

The only exception is if they come on short strips. These get placed into small bags (the strips, I don't remove them from the packaging).

All the bags, reels, etc are numbered and placed in appropriate boxes. I keep an index of what number each component is and which box it is in.

As a warning, some components can be really hard to identify (surface mount ceramic capacitors have no makings in many cases) so it's well worth keeping things well labelled as well.

I purchased some ceramic capacitors early on and they came in small boxes like these. They are handy, but I didn't go that way for any other components. A more upmarket version is here.

In the end, the actual storage will matter less than your ability to find them again!

Note that some surface mount components have a lifetime that they can be stored unsealed, however this is more of a concern for automated manufacture than for hand assembly.

 

For resistors and capacitors, just use leaded components. If you have any components you use regularly, get leaded ones as well. You can also get breakout boards for components not available in leaded form.

Here is an example of something I use fairly regularly. And these too.

 

They're really useful for quickly removing parts, not so much for soldering them.

To solder a surface mount resistor (say) there are several techniques:

1) place the component down with the tweezers and use the tip of the tweezers to hold the resistor in place. Now with your other hand pick up the soldering iron, whilst your third hand gets the solder and you solder the device almost like anything else. This is trivially easy and applicable to all components. It only works well if you have 3 arms (or perhaps a soldering iron which dispenses solder).

2) Tin one of the pads (only one!). Place the component with the tweezers and hold in place. Use the soldering iron to melt the solder whilst you allow the component to settle on the pad. with one end tacked in place solder the other end, then return and solder the first end properly. This is generally the technique I use. It works for anything up to 100 pin 0.5mm pitch chips (the largest I've hand soldered). The important thing is to get the alignment right when you tack the first connection. For devices having many leads, I typically solder an opposite corner next, then return to the original pin, then start on the others. (for very fine pitch devices there are tricks which allow you to use relatively large soldering iron tips)

3) Use a mechanical device (or even glue) to hold the component in place before soldering all the leads. This has the advantage of getting the alignment right to start off with, but it is generally pretty time consuming.

4) place a smear of solder paste on the pads, drop the component on it. (sometimes it can pay to hold the component in place with the point of your tweezers -- better though to avoid this) Then use a hot air gun to reflow the solder. In most cases, surface tension will pull the component into alignment. However if you're not careful you can blow the component away or disturb nearby components (generally through the use of too vigorous an air stream).

5) place lots of components on the board (as above) then place them in a reflow oven.

 

Yes, people use all sorts of things from frying pans to real reflow ovens. Toaster ovens are in the middle somewhere.

Just make sure it can get up to soldering temperature within about 5 minutes and DONT use it for food afterwards!

 

And far less lead (flux aint that good for you either).

 

It depends what you want to do.

How good are you at producing PCBs? (Because you're not going to have an option to use matrix board or veroboard much any more).

You can get lots of components from places like Mouser, RS, Digikey, etc.

For experimenting, or where quality isn't critical (or even important), there's also ebay.

Just like you can get packs of assorted through-hole resistors and capacitors, you can also get the same for SMD components.

 

Seems a reasonable deal. Now you've got to build stuff

I think you'll find the curved tweezers very useful. The straight ones are probably better for picking things out of packets though.