Homebrew PCBs

I got one of their free stencils on thursday. The first board went OK,
with the second the stencil lifted slightly and I got paste
underneath, I could not use that one.

I built a rig similar to their L shaped PCB pieces, but still the
stencil lifted. Initially I was hoping to just stick a great huge
magnet underneath the board but the stencils are stainless with poor
ferromagnetism, it hardly sticks although one man can not pull two of
the magnets apart.

The soldering had a better quality (more consistent), and I did knock
maybe 10 minutes off the assembly time, compared to the pneumatic
syringe, but I still don't think I will be ordering many stencils if
they are not free. A stencil like the one I got goes for about 50eur,
which pays for an hour around here, so it doesn't work out unless you
do more than 5 boards with the stencil. I only do one or two usually.

They also offer a small oven, but I found that a hotplate is far more
convenient if you only do single-sided SMD assembly. With the hotplate
you have quick and even heating, and you can tweak the components
while the solder is molten if there are any soldering defects.

ST

On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 12:10 PM, leon Heller <leon355@...> wrote:
> This kit might be of interest:
>
> http://www.reflow-kit.de/rkuk/index.html
>
> They now provide free stencils with their PCB orders.
>
> Leon
> --
> Leon Heller
> Amateur radio call-sign  G1HSM
> Yaesu FT-817ND transceiver
> Suzuki SV1000S motorcycle
> leon355@btinternet.com
> http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller
>
>