I like the look of MELF Resistors and Diodes. They are not something you commonly see, and sometimes, in my opinion, aesthetics play a role in electronics.
As anyone who has ever handsoldered MELF devices surely knows, these are really annoying to solder though. The know acronym "Most End up Laying on the Floor" does not exist without a reason
I imagine though, that with a specialized set of tweezers they should be quite manageable. The question is now, do those exist?
What I imagine is a set of tweezers that to not fully close at the tip, just enough to grip the device, and have a "crossbrace" that allows holding the part down. Essentially giving an upside down "U" shape at the end when fully closed with the proper size for a MELF package. Ideally those should be available in an angled version.
What would such a set of tweezers be called? A cursory search did not show anything, but I am likely missing the correct search term.
You normally would use a vacuum pincet with special nozzletip.
The paste on the pcb will stick it in place.
Some tweezers have cupped ends with an inside radius so they can positively capture circular profiles without slipping.
Engineer pt-24 pt-25 pt-26
Engineer pt-24 pt-25 pt-26
Those are almost like I imagined them.
What I had in mind was open at the bottom, so using these would keep the part off the board a bit.
yea I have these,
swanstrom SMD-200-SAH
their actually curved for MELF
They are also kind of nice for the right size axially leaded resistors if you don't want to handle them by the leads.
If you wanna make your own, find fat tweezers, get yourself a (diamond) file. ROBRENZ on this forum did this with those locking forceps and I made a pair for myself, they are good for manipulating wires if you polish them down nicely. Clamp them in a vice and make some marks to follow so your holes align. Inspect it frequently during work to ensure you don't make a hole thats too big or off axis.
You can also make yourself heatsink clips this way. Very fun to make.
Use a sanding wheel in a dremel if you have knurled teeth on your tweezers or forceps that you want to get rid of. After you grind a trench with your file then a rotary stone on the dremel does a good job of mitering it.
Obviously the best tool for each job is a ground one that fits the exact cylindrical package so you get evenish distribution of pressure on the package.
I got them by accident, I don't know if that model is actually designed for MELF packages. The ID of the closed tweezers is ~2mm (measured with ruler roughly). A melf is between 2.4-2.6mm. It should work decent and provide 4 points of contact. I suspect its actually designed for MELF but I cant find a MELF package.