Minimum SMD-capable soldering gear

[uoowuo]

Hello there!
I'm a complete newbie and haven't even done any soldering yet, but I figure I'll have to soon. Thus the question:

- What minimum soldering instruments will I absolutely require to do rare through-hole and common-size SMD work?

Say, I want to add a speaker and an SMD LED with whatever helper components needed to an STM32 Cortex-M4 in LQFP64 package, 0.22 mm typical pin width, 0.5 mm between pin centers ( http://www.st.com/st-web-ui/static/active/en/resource/technical/document/datasheet/DM00108832.pdf ) for example's sake. I'm willing to struggle a bit and learn techniques to compensate for crappy instruments, since I don't want to do it too often for now.
Can I do it with a regular soldering iron fitted with special tips? Is it possible to do it at all without bulky and expensive professional rework equipment?
Thank you very much!

[KJDS]

One of this issues with soldering is that with a great deal of skill then you can do almost anything with a selection of nails, a pair of pliers to hold the right one and a gas cooker to heat the nail. Add some flux and solder and it would be possible to do what you need like that. Slow, tedious, hard work but still possible.

The other big thing with soldering stations is that in the US then Hakko are cheap and plentiful, whereas in Europe Weller are more common. Both will do a straightforward job, however if you want the easiest ride then offerings from Pace, Ersa, JBC and Metcal are all worth considering.

Inevitably, the easier they are to use, the more expensive they tend to be.

[nanofrog]

Where are you located, and what's your budget?

BTW, if you go into your user profile and set your country, the flag will display beneath your userID. Makes things faster and easier for everyone, particularly regarding buying stuff (what, where, & how much). 

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It's actually possible to do all of that with an iron with the correct tips (or even a nail and cigarette lighter with enough skill). For example, you can use a fine point conical (or bent fine point conical) to tack the corners of the LQFP, then drag solder it. Specialty drag solder tips work best (has a spoon/hollow in the end of a hoof that holds a ball of solder), but a regular hoof, knife tip, or even chisel can work. Just not as easy to use IME, and 0.5mm pitch will take some practice.

Appropriately sized chisels will usually handle most anything else. Bent fine point conical is good for pulling out bridges, and I'd highly recommend it for that fine a pitch.

Two things I can't stress enough;

• use plenty of flux for drag soldering
• use quality supplies (flux, solder, desolder braid/wick).

Hot air would be nice though given the pitch size, especially for removal without having to sacrifice the chip (cut legs off, then desolder them method). But it's not an absolute necessity, so if it's between an iron and a hot air rework station, get a decent iron first (you'll use it a lot more often).

[savril]

I'll advise you to get by order of importance :

• Flux (mandatory in my opinion)
• Around 0.5mm solder wire, quality solder with a good amount of flux if possible. Eutectic solder is interresting because it 'freeze' quickly parts in place.
• Tweezers
• I'd prefer a temperature controlled iron. SMD are small and more sensistive to overheating. You can use however your iron if you know how it behave and you don't solder sensible and pricy parts. Leaded solder would be prefered in this case.

You can do all with something like a 2.2mm chisel. However, it could be nice to have also :

• a fine conical tip
• a finer chisel
• a drag soldering tip (spoon type). You could solder a LQFP64 in seconds with this.

A lot of things could be added to that list. It all depend on your budget and your location in the world.

[uoowuo]

Sorry I didn't set location. The country is Russia, and we may have a slightly different market here, because there are cheaper local manufacturers that only trade locally and there's plenty of Chinese import of course. So knowing tech specs would help more than brands. As for budget, I'd like to keep it under $150 overall, but again it wouldn't tell you much, there are $2 soldering irons available here, go figure.

Thank you for the tips, what I wanted to know is whether there are some things without which I simply can't solder SMDs, apart from solder wire and flux of course.

I understand there aren't, and having a temperature controlled soldering iron with a good selection of tips covers most use cases with some patience and quality supplies, correct?

[lapm]

Magnification. Trust me if its that's small pitch you want to see whats going on there. I just got myself one of those magnifier head bands (upto 5X)..

Second thing is light, lots of it...

[nanofrog]

Sorry I didn't set location. The country is Russia, and we may have a slightly different market here, because there are cheaper local manufacturers that only trade locally and there's plenty of Chinese import of course. So knowing tech specs would help more than brands. As for budget, I'd like to keep it under $150 overall, but again it wouldn't tell you much, there are $2 soldering irons available here, go figure.

You'd think the tech specs would be enough to go on, but that may not give you the full picture. For example, you can have say a 55W JBC station outperform a 100W temp controlled station primarily due to the heating technology used (cartridge tip vs. traditional separate tip & heating element).

There's also other considerations, such as quality, cost, and availability of spares and consumables such as tips (don't underestimate the importance of this).

As per what will fit your budget, that's going to be a bit tough in Europe, but not impossible. Batterfly sells the Hakko FX-888D for less than that (98EUR before VAT & delivery), so you'd have money left over to put towards tips if you haven't put aside a separate budget for this.

Recommended Tips to Start:

• Chisels (T18-D16, T18-D24, T18-D32; Hakko makes 0.8mm, 1.2mm, and 5.6mm should you need it)
• Drag Solder Tip (900M-T-3CM)
• Bent Conical (T18-BR02)

You can do an amazing amount of things with just these few tips actually. A bent chisel or two is nice for example, but not absolutely critical to have (more comfortable for some tasks, such as soldering connectors). And there's also personal preference. Some might prefer a hoof for a task that a chisel would also work.

To get an idea of what I mean, take a look at Hakko's Tip Selection Page (by operation, how to select tip size for the job, ... options).

If you have to go with a Chinese brand, you should take a look at Quick brand (lots of stations on this page if you move the cursor over the different tabs above the photo). Others have said Xytronics (very crappy website) and Solomon are decent (both are in Taiwan). Not sure if pricing on these will be much, if any cheaper than the FX-888D though.

Quality supplies are also on the pricey side, but well worth it (they also tend to last a long time).

Thank you for the tips, what I wanted to know is whether there are some things without which I simply can't solder SMDs, apart from solder wire and flux of course.

I understand there aren't, and having a temperature controlled soldering iron with a good selection of tips covers most use cases with some patience and quality supplies, correct?

Most cases, Yes.

There are exceptions, namely BGA packages.

[uoowuo]

For example, you can have say a 55W JBC station outperform a 100W temp controlled station primarily due to the heating technology used (cartridge tip vs. traditional separate tip & heating element).

I'm willing to find out the technologies used as well.

There's also other considerations, such as quality, cost, and availability of spares and consumables such as tips (don't underestimate the importance of this).

Which is why I'm more inclined to buy local brands, as much as I don't expect top quality from them.

Quality supplies are also on the pricey side, but well worth it (they also tend to last a long time).

Are there any particular types of supplies that you can recommend?

There are exceptions, namely BGA packages.

I don't even dream of touching them :D
Thank you for your elaborate answer!

Magnification. Trust me if its that's small pitch you want to see whats going on there. I just got myself one of those magnifier head bands (upto 5X)..

Second thing is light, lots of it...

Do you think a tabletop magnifying glass would do?

[rx8pilot]

I tried bench magnifying glasses and hated it. They make me sea sick and just not sharp. I got a cheap stereo microscope and cannot imagine how I did any thing without it. My eyesight is very good and I will always want a microscope. I added an LED ring light and a .5x Barlow lens to get a wider angle of view and more distance from the lens to the object - makes room for hands and soldering irons.

For soldering, lot of choices on brands and tips that have been covered well in previous posts. I would add some hot air as a pre-heater that makes things much easier. I use a Aoyue 852A for removing components of any pin count as well as preheating a PCB just before soldering a fine pitch part. Dont forget to pre-heat the part itself too so you don't temp shock it. You could, use a regular heat gun but they tend to heat up your entire bench.

How much money do you plan to spend?

[uoowuo]

I tried bench magnifying glasses and hated it.

:D But were they useful?

For soldering, lot of choices on brands and tips that have been covered well in previous posts. I would add some hot air as a pre-heater that makes things much easier.

I'd rather go with less gear both because of money and because it would take up space, and I'm not planning to do a lot of soldering for now at all. Nor do I have a dedicated workbench to keep all of this stuff on yet.

How much money do you plan to spend?

I'd say up to $150 for now, but there are cheap local knockoffs that I'll probably go with. There's a different market here, there are even $0.92 soldering irons, good god http://rostov.220-volt.ru/catalog-143656/ . I'm not going for these of course, I sort of care about safety. But the point is, prices are different, and my goal is not so much to fit within a budget as to get the minimum necessary equipment.

P.S. Lol, the delivery service costs 5 times this soldering iron, and from the reviews it simply melts in hand.

[nanofrog]

Which is why I'm more inclined to buy local brands, as much as I don't expect top quality from them.

Are they just sold locally, or manufactured locally?

Easiest thing would probably be to post links to anything you're interested in.

But as mentioned, the units discussed in previous threads I suspect will still apply (same products sold locally). Then drill down to what's being sold locally for spares, assuming the availability will be stable (will carry the tips years later). FWIW, the quality of Chinese made tips are generally poor, which is why people try to use genuine Hakko tips on cloned stations.

Odds are good that name brands such as Hakko, Weller, JBC, Ersa, Pace, and OKi/Metcal will still exist in the next 10+ years to manufacture spares. There are even some 3rd party companies that offer tips for some of their products (simple plated copper tips, not cartridges).

Are there any particular types of supplies that you can recommend?

• Flux Type: RA (Rosin Activated) from brands such as Multicore/Loctite (Henkel), Stannol, or MG-Chemicals (Rosin 835). Not sure what else is good in the EU market.
• Solder: Sn63/Pb37 and Sn62/Pb36/Ag2 are eutectic (melts/solidifies at a single temp), or Sn60/Pb40 which has a plastic range before it's fully solidified. Diameter .5mm/.020", RA Flux @ 3% by weight (might be stated as P3 or Core 66). Brands would be Multicore/Loctite (Henkel), Stannol, Felder (RA series), Kester, AIM (American Iron & Metals), Indium, and Alpha (Cookson).
• Desolder Braid: Chemtronics, Multicore/Loctite, Techspray, MG Chemicals with rosin flux preferably, or no-clean if that's what's available to you. It's sized to the pad like a soldering iron tip, so you'll have to decide which size/s is best suited to your purpose.

[JoeN]

For SMDs with leads, I'd say the minimum is a temperature controlled iron, a chisel tip, a flux pen, and occasionally some solder wick (though flux and a clean tip is usually all you need to clean up an inadvertent solder bridge).  That's all it takes for me.  Without leads, small ICs (e.g. < 64 or so pin QFNs and BGAs) can be done with a hot air gun.  Larger ones need an oven.

This guy shows you how to do it without even using words.  It's simple.  You need steady hands and decent eyes, though.