Eurorack DIY: Dispensing solder paste and reflow soldering 

Cool, thanks for sharing the design files of the dispenser!

awesome, want this as well.

Nice video, and what a skill progression on freecad !

Thank you! This is awesome you shared this now! I am moving to a new place Jan2 and will be setting up a workstation for building a small rack of FX mostly. I have a korg KP3 I need to fix too, uh maybe. I might have a lot to learn.

When it comes to solder paste I like to use SD-528 for most prototypes (as it reflows perfectly at 140-150C), the only problem is that adding a bit of lead results in dropping reflow temperature to 90C, which is really bad in some cases. For reflowing I usually use some old frying pan filled with sand (we've flat-rate gas for stove, so it's cheaper and way faster than electricity). (Maybe I'll finally build my reflow oven using that old mini that I got in my basement). Stencils are necessary when working with 0402 or 0201 components (I often need to do so due to dimension constraints from client) - it just makes your life easier and 7$ per stencil is not that much at all. Basing how your hand shakes - if you want it to shake less always keep your elbows on flat surface (aka. desk) and your arms crossed together (use secondary forearm as support for dominant hand's wrist) - it's way easier this way to do precise movements - that method is often used in small-scale painting of figurines. Also: never reflow parts with plastic, especially with lead-free high-temp. paste - it usually ends up melting them (it's better to use hot air or wave soldering technique for this).

I just use the dispenser that comes with the solder paste and it works great for me. I definitely don't have super strength or anything :) Maybe some pastes are more liquid than others? I have only found it a problem when the needle is left for a while and it gets blocked. It can fairly easily be cleaned though to resolve this. I place the solder paste with a microscope using a smaller needle (25 gauge) so that there is only a small amount in the centre of that pad (a bit more for the transistors, elec caps etc..). I generally use a low temp solder paste which works well eg..SOLDER PASTE, SN, BI, AG, 138DEG C, 15G SMDLTLFP By CHIP QUIK Using a stencil is much quicker, unfortunately I have found buying stencils on their own (when building diy modules where I bought the pcb/panel online) as quite expensive

I've been using those 3d printed paste dispensers that have a big knuled screw for years now and was quite happy with them (never held anything professional in my hands to compare....) -I'm looking forward to test your design and see if it's an improovement for me!

Nice dispensing tool! I have tried stencil and hot plate so far, but yet I find my manual pick and place a bit labor intensive anyway. Maybe the next step is to have a real pick and place machine 😊

Thanks for another great video. I have been considering getting into the solder paste hot plate/oven methods and you may have convinced me. Can I ask which Andonstar scope you opted for?

Thanks for sharing the designs. Can you share more about what solder paste and wires you use? Also that hot plate is interesting. Is it from AliExpress?