I did a review, mini-teardown, and test of an imported pneumatic solder paste dispenser that I picked up on eBay.
[youtube 9RdAL-ysBhA]
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That is a knock-off of the EFD unit. We used one about 20 years ago to dispense glue. We prototyped a lot of PCB’s with fine pitch parts and we tried solder paste. We stopped using solder paste and used fine solder with mildly activated rosin flux. If we got any bridging, solder wick cleaned it up.
I’ve had relatively good luck with solder paste, but I really hate dispensing it by hand. That’s why I was interested to check one of these out. But it’s just another tool in the tool box; I like having an arsenal of assembly techniques at my disposal. Last year I tried out drag soldering for the first time and was blown away by how well it works. With good tacky flux paste, and a good hoof tip it’s like magic for soldering even high density packages. So now I tend to solder chips with the drag method and discretes with paste and hot air (or sometimes my Metcal “talon”).
I thought it looked awfully similar to an EFD unit!
Did fresh solder paste make a difference?
I haven’t had a chance to try fresh paste yet, but I expect it will help. I will probably have some projects this winter and will get fresh paste before I assemble boards.
Hi Steve,
How do you clean the syringe?
Cheers,
Ross