I tried a few different numbers at This site linked by Texaspyro in post 129. Down to .8 mm there’s no extra charge and they’ll go as thin as .6mm. Color other than green is extra as is lead free HASL (:money_mouth_face: or enig gold($:money_mouth_face:. I’ve asked Matt to look them over but if anyone has a suggestion for another fabricator now would be a good time to mention it. Anyone with experience with panelizing might save everyone some $ with your input. Thanks.
that was first thing I did. I am on gmail so even if something is classified as spam by gmail I can see it (as “Spam (1)” for example)…
Maybe they don’t accept public email domains like gmail, hotmail and similar!!!
Just ordered a dozen and also got some new Hakko tips in today. Including a couple of wee bitty ones! lol .5mm bevel tips, perfect for the tiny resistors and stacking chips, or at least I think they will be, will see soon enough I suppose…
THANKS MATT! And thank you as well Scott for implementing these and riding out the storm of change.
Edit: Oh yeah, also got my very first flux! Maybe I’ll turn pro…
I tried my hand with a new bevel tip and some flux. Stacking the first row of chips went very well, I used a toothpick to put just a trace of flux on the legs of the 2 chips, they soldered together beautifully with nice shiny silver joints. Then I went to stack a 3rd chip and the solder would not flow between the 2 legs! I couldn’t get it to bridge that tiny gap to save my life! I could plainly see the solder wet and flowing on either side of the bridge, now I’m talking about a half mm here or less, I could drag solder across that tiny gap and it would separate immediately. What’s up with that? I finally got the 3rd row on but it was far more difficult than before.
So what did I do wrong? Iron is set at 370C with a 1.5mm bevel tip, brand new. The flux is MG Chemicals 8341 No clean in a syringe.
Perhaps try a lower solder temperature, I sometimes think that my solder iron works so well (also with stacking chips) because it is only 18W and does not make the solder too hot. (but I'm not a electronics guru by any means, so it is probably wise to wait for a better opinion)
Most likely operator error but I only post after I get it working and usually leave out the confessions. The temp sounds a bit high and might cause the solder to be too fluid and flow away from the bridge. There are oodles of suggestions out there for bridging but I found the most helpful was the one suggesting to start the tip at the bottom against the board and draw the bead up across the pins. It worked sometimes. Throwing breakables definitely relieves built up tension but be sure the range is clear.
Finally delurking and ordered a few to play with… many thanks to everybody involved.
I’m frankly petrified by the idea of soldering these, but am thinking that maybe I could do a bit of stovetop reflow. (If it worked for emitters, it could work for this, right?)