Beam Leads

So adorable!

Wow, I'd say start with a proper soldermask and a via hole to drop the body of the diode so the leads are flush... I'd guess you want very little solder because the joint itself will dominate the parasitics of the package if it's too blobby. I'd put a little soldermask dam on each trace. Tin the traces, and then hot air? If no soldermask, just a home made Kapton temporary dam.

I think the preferred connection scheme is welding.

Cheers

Nice picture, it looks like the parts are hovering. Please send me the construction manual for your anti-gravity machine :-)

I don't know, but for manual soldering Google finds this interesting text:

It looks like they are levitating (see those shadows). Are they, and if not, how are they held above the paper?

You cannot use the soldermask dam scheme because that has been "recently" patented...

TIG or carbon arc?

Robert Baer Inscribed thus:

They are sat on a clear plexiglass sheet over square ruled paper.