Workshops/smd stencil vputz

SMD Stenciling with vputz

This is a (roughly) three-hour workshop on SMD Stencil Reflow soldering. SMD devices can often be soldered by hand, but reflow soldering with stencil paste is faster and easier when you can apply the paste quickly and accurately using a stencil.

The focus of this workshop is small batches -- larger than one-off prototypes which can either be soldered by hand or by manual application of paste, but smaller than multipanel boards using expensive metal stencils and an aluminum fixture and a nice reflow oven.

Instead, we'll use cheap laser-cut PET stencils held with electrical tape to bodged-together jigs made of cutting boards and perfboard--then cook them on a cheap hot plate. Plan on cursing a bit, swearing at whoever designed micro-USB connectors, and eventually building an Orbotron 9000: