Howdy gentleman - I got into surface mount soldering about 4 years ago. The first board I did was full of 1206s and 1210s, along with a couple 0805s, along with a TSSOP. Man those 0805s scared me. I did the TSSOP with the flood technique. On my next board, I used all 0805s and by that time was comfortable with them. I did a TQFP on that board with the flood technique still. After that, I switched to 0603s and got comfortable with them. I also switched to the drag technique for ICs. A couple years have gone by now and I've stuck with 0603s. I had to send out a new PCB a couple weeks ago, and so I decided I'd throw some 0402, 0201, and 01005 pads on an unused part of the PCB. So - I got the PCBs on Monday along with some parts to throw on those pads. The 0402s were a breeze - only the slightest bit harder to solder than
0603s. The 0201s stepped up the game a bit, but were still fairly straightforward. However, the 01005s were another story. I barely could even see the things!My standard technique is to put a small ball of solder on one pad, pick up the discrete with my tweezers at about a 45 degree angle away from vertical, then heat up the pad that already has solder on it and hold the part in it while removing my iron. This technique worked just fine for the 0402s and 0201s. The 01005s, however, just were too darned small. I mean my tweezers pretty much covered the entire part. I think I might try and find some ultra fine tipped tweezers (the tips on mine are maybe .5mm wide). Is that all I can do, or are there some clever techniques to solder these buggers that I just don't know about?
Thanks!
-Michael