Heated Build Platform Solder

[Woofpickle]

After having meticulously manually soldered all one hundred and
seventeen individual joints, I can not stress enough: BUY THE KIT! It
will save you hair and many hours of patience, turn a six hour build
into a hour and a half build, and make you feel really good about
yourself for finishing it faster than me! Unless you are looking to
waste half a day or gain some insane soldering skills, the kit will
save you from many hours of pain.




Oh yeah, it works great ;)

[Antonio Santos - Brazil]

lol I soldered mine manually and took only half an hour to do it...
and yes, I soldered all the components... leds and everything..

[Mark Cohen]

About 30 minutes for me also. You didn't use the paste and a hot plate I
guess.

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[Protonite]

Half a day to solder that? I did not really measure the time i
"wasted", but with all the wiring, resistors and leds, and without any
solderpaste i definately finished it under an hour.

[Mark Cohen]

Don't forget the paperclip to keep the wires from stressing.

-----Original Message-----
From: make...@googlegroups.com [mailto:make...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf
Of Protonite
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2010 11:17 AM
To: MakerBot Operators
Subject: [MakerBot] Re: Heated Build Platform Solder

--

[mctrivia]

I have reflow oven. Didn't bother using for such a simple build took
10 min by hand. I am use to 0603 and 0402 these huge parts were
simple.

[Tox]

On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 10:22 AM, mctrivia
<squarerooto...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have reflow oven. Didn't bother using for such a simple build took
> 10 min by hand.  I am use to 0603 and 0402 these huge parts were
> simple.

Which goes to show what a difference experience makes. It'd been a
decade since I'd used solder paste for board rework, and even with an
optivisor it still took me about 75 minutes to paste and flow the
board on the heat spreader on my stone..;)

Tox

[Koen Kooi]

My HBP build took a few hours as well, but it included a trip to the store to get a new capacitor since I dropped the original on the floor and couldnt find it again :)

regards,

Koen

[Mark Cohen]

I wasn't counting the one I set on fire.

-----Original Message-----
From: make...@googlegroups.com [mailto:make...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf

Tox

--

[Marty McGuire]

To add to the chorus, a bit: this was my first SMT soldering job, but
my Hakko 936 helped make short work of it. I learned this trick:

1) Turn the board to work on one column at a time
2) Tin all of the left-hand pads with some solder
3) For each resistor, hold the resistor in a pair of needlenose pliers
and tack down the left-hand side to the solder blob
3a) Using the same pliers, apply pressure to the top of the resistor
and reheat the pad, pushing the resistor flat
4) Apply solder to the right-hand pads of each resistor
5) Repeat steps 3-4 for the LEDs on this column
6) Rotate the board 90 degrees and repeat. :)

--Marty

[Gian Pablo]

Thanks for the tip, I did exactly as you suggested and was done in
about 30 minutes.

[themitch22]

I ended up soldering it like you said after I realized I needed to
suck up the big globs I put on the pads at first. I'm also using a
really cheap 35W soldering iron I got with a tool kit so I was afraid
of burning up the components. This was my first time smt soldering but
those parts were big enough I didn't have a problem. 2 LEDs don't turn
on but it's not a big deal. Now to hook the HBP to a relay instead of
burning up my controller board...

[Brendan]

@ Marty

Another thanks for the great instructions. I didn't have a hot plate
and was worried about doing with a normal iron cus I hadn't done SMT
before. Your instructions made it easy. Thanks!

Brendan

[Marty McGuire]

Glad to have helped! Thanks, Brendan!

[Jordan Miller]

what temp does the solder reflow work at? we have hot plates and ovens (science only, no cooking please ;), just not sure what temp is "safe" for the boards but that will also get the solder to melt properly.

jordan

[JohnA.]

The standard 'Zeph' paste that MakerBot recommends melts at 183° C.

The HBPs were the first SMT soldering we'd done with a hot plate but
it worked well. We used a cheap hotplate from Target.

A few pics of it here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/botbuilder/sets/72157624049513783/

JohnA.

On Jul 24, 10:23 pm, Jordan Miller <jrdn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> what temp does the solder reflow work at? we have hot plates and ovens (science only, no cooking please ;), just not sure what temp is "safe" for the boards but that will also get the solder to melt properly.
>
> jordan
>

> On Jul 24, 2010, at 6:00 PM, Marty McGuire <schmartiss...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Glad to have helped!  Thanks, Brendan!
>

> > On Sat, Jul 24, 2010 at 5:53 PM, Brendan <bren...@whatsnewla.com> wrote:
> >> @ Marty
>
> >> Another thanks for the great instructions.  I didn't have a hot plate
> >> and was worried about doing with a normal iron cus I hadn't done SMT
> >> before.  Your instructions made it easy.  Thanks!
>
> >> Brendan
>
> >> --
> >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MakerBot Operators" group.
> >> To post to this group, send email to make...@googlegroups.com.
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> >> For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/makerbot?hl=en.

[Jordan Miller]

hmm, interesting. isn't the FR4 for the HBP only rated to 140 C or so? does the board itself not decompose because it is a short interval at that temp?

jordan

[Dave M.]

I wish I had the kit -- I'm doing it by hand. But by far, I wish
there was a kit for making it easier to open those darn SMT packs. I
was trying to peel off the cover on the capacitor, and flicked it off
of the table. Now I need to order a new one. LOL!

On Jun 24, 6:22 pm, Woofpickle <ross.mossh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> After having meticulously manually soldered all one hundred and
> seventeen individual joints, I can not stress enough: BUY THE KIT! It
> will save you hair and many hours of patience, turn a six hour build
> into a hour and a half build, and make you feel really good about
> yourself for finishing it faster than me! Unless you are looking to

> waste half a day or gain some insanesolderingskills, the kit will

[tmo]

its not that hard, this was the first time i really soldered anything
(i built 1 makerbot dc motor driver board the day before) i used a
cheap junker soldering iron

helps to have lots of light (i used a headlamp), some tweeters or
hemostats

here is a timelapse of both my boards
http://nam-num.com/nom/cupcake_cnc/Entries/2010/4/18_hot_zone_timelapse.html

t