The author of this video sent it to me after I had been complaining about my subpar technique on The Amp Hour. Crowdsourced knowledge, ftw!
1 Like
The real lesson here is that rigidly locking the stencil and PCB is generally more precise and repeatable than other methods. In most production environments this is accomplished by precisely manufactured ($$$$) frames, but for hobbyists this pin & registration hole method is doable and inexpensive.
To be sure, care is still required to prevent damaging the pins and holes - particularly in the stencil - in order to get long life (and repeatedly precise placement) out of stencils. Of course, the same is true with “tape and pray" methods, especially since we tend to have to have to repeat the stenciling process when we rely on tape for positioning.
I’ve never done this particular trick of soldering pins into a dummy board (which will get in the way of your paste squeegee) but I do regularly put alignment holes in my boards and stencils and stick temporary 2mm dowel pins through them to get close to alignment prior to using the vernier controls on my stencil fixture to finalize. The only problem is when an alignment pin happens to end up directly over a hole in the fixture’s matrix - oops! I must have half a dozen dowel pins inside the fixture by now.
1 Like