Tools useful for home assembly of a small batch of PCBs

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rayshobby
 
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Joined: Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:01 am

Tools useful for home assembly of a small batch of PCBs

Post by rayshobby »

Hi, first time posting here :) I was recently building a batch of the AASaver boards (which I demonstrated at show-and-tell and got blogged at http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2012/05/02/aasaver/). I thought it would be fun to document the process and share my experience. I used some tools that I found and purchased recently, including an electric vacuum pen, SMT feeders (manual), and a reflow oven. They are not very expensive, but make it quite a bit faster to assemble a small batch of PCBs at home. The blog post I wrote is here:
http://rayshobby.net/?p=5081
Feel free to leave comments, questions, suggestions. Thanks!

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Tools useful for home assembly of a small batch of PCBs

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Nice writeup!

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lyndon
 
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Re: Tools useful for home assembly of a small batch of PCBs

Post by lyndon »

Do those SMT feeders come in different sizes for various components or are they adjustable in width? I built a feeder like that out of plastic, but I'm thinking of making a better one from aluminum.

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rayshobby
 
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Re: Tools useful for home assembly of a small batch of PCBs

Post by rayshobby »

The feeders I bought only fit 8mm tape. I have yet to find other sizes.

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