One other thing worth mentioning -- well, two.

If you have some silver solder, this is the place to use it. Silver solder
flows better than regular tin/lead, so it works nicer with surface mount
stuff. It's virtually impossible to get out of plated thru holes, tho, so
it's not so nice for leaded parts, unless you never make mistakes. The
difference is not so great that it's a must have. It's a LITTLE better on
SM stuff. It's a lot shinier, though, so it looks good, but I wouldn't go
out buying some for mounting one part.

In spite of the little bitty parts, you want to be sure you have enough
temperature on your iron. For soldering the corners, you can often heat a
trace a few mm from the pin and touch the solder to the trace. If all is
hot enough, it will nicely flow under the pin. If you have a steadier hand
than I, and a microscopic tip on your iron, you can heat the pin directly,
but I have neither luxury so I gotta get by. I get a little lighter on the
temp for the big blobs on the side, as I am always afraid of toasting the
part. However, they always amaze me with their tolerance for heat. Still,
I give the part time to cool between operations - maybe just paranoia.
Obviously, the quality of the board comes into play here - you don't want to
lift the traces with the heat. It does seem like both the boards and the
parts are more tolerant of a short time with a lot of heat than a longer
time with less heat.

Oh yes, if you discover you need to remove a part, the heat gun is the only
way to do that, short of buying some super expensive desoldering station.

...

"Tom Kreyche" wrote in message
news:h5lqb.88642$9E1.450556@attbi_s52...
Great, thanks for the advice...I will have no fear and not drink coffee
for
two day...Tom

"xpyttl" wrote in message
...
Pretty simple if the board you are putting it on is well solder masked.

Run down to Staples and get a package of Tac 'n Stik. Pity, that
package
is
2 oz and you'll need about a milligram. The two buck package will last
you
about ten lifetimes.

xpyttl wrote:

[deleted]


Oh yes, if you discover you need to remove a part, the heat gun is the only
way to do that, short of buying some super expensive desoldering station.

I've just tried some sample ChipQuik alloy made for removing SM parts.
It's a low MP alloy (based on Wood's metal) that you melt and blob over
the leads with a soldering iron. It works quite well, so I've bought one
of the kits - about 15 GBP.

xpyttl wrote:

[deleted]


Oh yes, if you discover you need to remove a part, the heat gun is the only
way to do that, short of buying some super expensive desoldering station.

I've just tried some sample ChipQuik alloy made for removing SM parts.
It's a low MP alloy (based on Wood's metal) that you melt and blob over
the leads with a soldering iron. It works quite well, so I've bought one
of the kits - about 15 GBP.