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DIY pc boards-tips I learned

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ALL is not good in DIY land

I drilled out the boards and wanted to start mounting parts--oups!!!
the printer must have made the printout slightly smaller. Never had this problem before??
the pads on the IC's are off slightly. On an 18pin socket its off by one pin over the 9 pin length.
lets see .1 spacing so its off by .01x9??
need to start over and get it right. Using a perf board sucks when running numerious wires in a tight space.
need to recheck print settings or ??
 
Don't know why but it worked??

printed in portrait and everything is correct
go figure
 
Check your printer's settings to make sure it doesnt have "fit size to page" or something like that selected. My 600dpi laser and my cheap 300dpi $50 bubblejet both print at the exact size, well as close as I can measure.

Any more info to share about SMD soldering?? I've always used a toaster oven, which does the job fine but I hate putting tiny boards back into a "murky cave" and the delays to open doors etc.

I've been thinking of changing to a electric frypan so I can get my face over the board to check and poke at it if needed, with good light, using the frypan for the main preheat 150'C and then using a modified heat gun blowing gently down on the pcb to lift the temp for the main melt. I think this will work better than the toaster oven and also allow many more options for just doing an area of a board, or for reworking. And should involve better heat control and less potential damage to parts.
 
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