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Pay Someone To Assemble Your Surface Mount Parts?

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rs14smith

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Is there a company or PCB manufacture that will let you send them the parts for your board, and they will assemble the surface mount components for you?

I have done through-hole components which are very simple to do, but I have a project coming up that will require a ton of surface mount components, and I'm confident enough that with time I'll be able to do some myself, but I am curious if there are companies out there that do this inexpensively?

Thanks!
 
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There will be companies that do it yeah, any PCB house does syuff like this. If its just a one off best off finding someone who does it as a hobby or owns a small repair workshop. If you were in the UK i would have done if for you. :)
 
Your files wouldnt open for me, tells me theres a problem. But not to worry. Anyway 0402 is small, you need good eyesight, or a nice magnifying glass. Those ones on an arm with a light in are pretty good. Decent tweezers will be a must, and a good soldering iron with a nice sharp tip.
Using fine solder will help enormously.

Alternatively if you fancy it, you could solder paste them and use a toaster or skillet to reflow the solder.
 
Your files wouldnt open for me, tells me theres a problem. But not to worry. Anyway 0402 is small, you need good eyesight, or a nice magnifying glass. Those ones on an arm with a light in are pretty good. Decent tweezers will be a must, and a good soldering iron with a nice sharp tip.
Using fine solder will help enormously.

Alternatively if you fancy it, you could solder paste them and use a toaster or skillet to reflow the solder.

I have heard of the skillet method which seems simpler? What major concerns do you have to have other than you getting your pcb too hot?
 
component heat is always a bit of a concern, most components can only take the heat for so long then they die, electrolytic caps would need to be done by hand, as would anything else particularly sensitive.

how many do you have to do?
 
Is there a company or PCB manufacture that will let you send them the parts for your board, and they will assemble the surface mount components for you?

I have done through-hole components which are very simple to do, but I have a project coming up that will require a ton of surface mount components, and I'm confident enough that with time I'll be able to do some myself, but I am curious if there are companies out there that do this inexpensively?

Thanks!

Surface Mount is for MASS PRODUCTION only.

Like a factory geared up for thousands of boards weekly. With proper machines.

:rolleyes: Why are you messing with SM now?. Testing maybe???. How much exactly is a ton of assembled boards....two or maybe three thousand ??????

You are literally going to burn your fingers if you cannot bring in the quantities...

The cart before the horse is never a good thing. And people trying to assemble your SMD "testing prototype/s" are really going to be pissed off at you if their burnt fingers come to no reward. This is something you should rather do yourself and experience first hand OP. SMD are really crappy to work with in a non automated environment.

Hope this helps and makes you think....a lot :eek:

Cheers,
Tv Tech
 
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Yeah by the time they setup the CAD file and load all the machine reels and error check, you are up for a setup fee usually $200 or more, then probably $200 an hour and may have a minimum 1 hour or 2 hour etc in the billing.

You have to budget for at least $500 on most jobs even if they are small quantities. By the time you pay >$1000 for an assembly batch the price per PCB starts to get cost-effective.

And I don;t want to sound mean but if you think laying out $1000 is way too much then you need to stick to through-hole, or get good with tweezers and an eyeglass. ;)
 
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