What (metric) size have you managed to hand-solder ?

When it comes to electronics solder/repair, there's a very good reason why we have pick and place machines, and ovens to effectively bake our hardware. However if you're in a pinch and don't have this kit available, you're often forced to do it yourself by hand, frankly the sizes of some of this kit require a microscope!

Still, what is the smallest size (in metric) that you've managed to solder yourself by hand?

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Top Comments

baldengineer over 5 years ago

With magnification and patience, I can do metric 1005 (0402). My process of using a polyimide stencil on my laser cutter is limited to 1005. Even then, I usually have to rework those parts by hand.

I can easily do 2012 (0805) by hand and no mag.

I have removed a large number of 0603 (0201) with no hope of repair.
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fmilburn over 5 years ago in reply to Fred27

That is crazily delicate work!
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Fred27 over 5 years ago

How about accessing the connections to an BGA packaged FPGA from the top by using the microvias? (via Hackaday)
Advanced Reworks Forums
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dougw over 5 years ago in reply to Problemchild

I can talk about lack of electronics …. the country had no TV. We had no computers and no cell phones. There were a few land line phones around - we had a phone (rotary dial) but our phone number had only 3 digits - so less than 999 phones in that system.
It was a great place to grow up - we had endless amounts of fun and there are endless stories. It sounds like the dark ages now, but it didn't seem that way back then. We didn't have much electronics other than a HiFi sound system, but we did have electricity, power tools and Meccano.
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Problemchild over 5 years ago in reply to dougw

Douglas, went to the Ecuadorian Jungle last December It would be interesting to hear of your experiences ...especiallly if it can be made vaguely electronically related ;-)
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Problemchild over 5 years ago in reply to Jan Cumps

Good one Jan thanks for correcting me ... I've always wanted a solder ant to call my own!!
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Problemchild over 5 years ago in reply to Jan Cumps

Very sensible all this tidly stuff is expensive or at least the most difficult components are and you really need to have your method off pat before starting on the real boards with the real small pads and expensive chips ..practice practice practice ;-)
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Jan Cumps over 5 years ago in reply to cstanton

Yes, happens .

I like to watch Louis Rossman's repair videos. He's always working with tiny components.
Just watching them gives confidence. It shows what you can get away with, and that fear isn't needed.
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cstanton over 5 years ago in reply to Gough Lui

> Perhaps I've not been looking and have been knocking them off all the boards I touch

I accidentally had the air flow too high on an SMD reflow station, and some capacitors/resistors that were very small went flying... I didn't realise until it no longer powered up and had some pads where they were populated on another board...
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cstanton over 5 years ago in reply to dougw

I feel like we need some kinda spoiler tag/nsfl warning. That's bonkers.
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