mattamatta
Well-known member
whiskeynipple0088 said:If learning/buying a hot air station was all that stood between me and DIY (quality) DAC - sign me up!
Hot air rework stations are neat tools, but don't underestimate what can be done with a hand iron and magnifier. A good microscope is worth its weight in gold, but even lesser magnifiers are greatly useful. You don't actually need to be able to individually target each pin on something like a QFP, as you can sweep solder across all the pins and then use solder wick to remove excess. I just did an 0402 part (onto 0603 pads though) today just to see if I could because I've never gone down past 0603 before. Though I am using a nice boom arm stereo microscope which makes it almost feel like cheating.
Something like the QFN mentioned about is where a hot air rework nozzle shines, though a lot of the hacker/DIY guys doing SMT have been doing parts like that in even unregulated toaster ovens or on hotplates.