Joe Bento wrote:

On 2009-05-10 22:24:07 -0600, "Michael A. Terrell"
said:

What? You haven't had the pleasure of hand soldering 0201
resistors? It takes steady hands, .015" solder and a stereo microscope.


Nope. Never hand soldered 0201's. The company I worked for did not
provide stereo magnifiers either. So, I'd place 0402 parts under a 5
diopter lighted magnifier with tweezers and syringe. A bit tedius, but
manageable. Nowadays, 0603 and 0805 components seem gigantic!


I used a pair of Ungar 'Loner' irons and a drop of RMA flux to solder
them to boards on the 'Module Line'. We had a brand spanking new Heller
Reflow oven that replaced to old pair of chain driven 'Pizza Ovens'.

Some of the Sallen-Key video lowpass filters were so critical that a
less than perfect solder flow on the resistors and 100 pF capacitors
would change the response. 14 1% components, and it was hard to hit a
10% specification. Sometimes swapping the pair of 100 pF caps would drop
a failed filter to less than 2% of center.


Then there's using a modified toaster oven to solder a populated board.
When you are building a one-off prototype, you can do wonders with
minimalist equipment.

Vacuum tubes? Leaded components you can actually hold? What a pleasure!

Joe


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

http://www.flickr.com/photos/materrell/