How to Solder SMD parts properly?

The SMD Hand Soldering Technique that always works for me.

Step 1: Add lots of flux (Liquid or Solid). (Folks usually skimp on this. This is the most important step to get a good soldering joint)

Step 2: Add a solder blob to one of the pads initially.

Step 3: Heat the pad with your soldering iron and with the tweezer slide in the part in the melted solder to hold it in place.

Step 4: Solder the other pad with your iron (which should be easy as it won’t move. Add flux if needed)

Step 5: Clean the flux with Isopropyl Alcohol.

PS: Not my best soldering effort is shown in the video below (Trying to get a good mobile camera angle shot and soldering is hard) 😀

But I wanted to show this on a 0402 part to show that this base technique is applicable to any part of any size. (It’s much much easier on larger parts)

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Fix Dried Up Solder Paste

Pro Maker Tip: Have you ever had a tub of solder paste lying around which has dried out and doesn’t reflow properly? You don’t need to throw it away and can reactivate it easily. Pour a few ml of liquid rosin flux and mix it very thoroughly. Break the dried-out parts too and mix well. Solder paste will be back to normal for your soldering purposes. Add small amounts of flux initially to get the level of viscosity you want. (Might not be production quality solder paste but good enough for most applications)

Adding good quality high concentration isopropyl alcohol(IPA) also works, but the issue is that it will dry out again very fast.

For those of you who don’t know, solder paste is just very tiny solder balls put in a chemical mixture to help with ease of spreading as a paste. It’s used for soldering surface mount components on PCBs.

Solder Paste
Solder Paste Flux
Solder Paste with right consistency
Solder paste with the right consistency
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