What do people use for picking and placing small parts? Iāve been using tweezers, but theyāre always getting sticky with flux and half the time I donāt get the part flush to the board because of the way Iāve grabbed it, the other half if I try to let go of the part before itās soldered it sticks to the fluxy tip and the other half I drop and flip the part (yes I know that was three halves).
Iāve looked at vacuum pens but the cheap ones understandably have horrible reviews and Iām not sure if more expensive ones are any better.
I found that a pair of Rhino tweezers (I think Adafruit stocks them) helped a lot. I suspect, as @jonathan stated, that much of the stickiness with my old tweezers was due to magnetism. Are you using a sticky flux? Iāve used a Chipquik super-sticky flux for really hard-to-manage parts (it will even hold parts onto a board upside down). However, at @ChrisGammell suggestion I switched to a non-alcohol mildly activated no-clean flux pen, and have never looked back. It doesnāt make anything sticky, but everything solders well. It even helps to add some when trying to clear solder bridges on fine-pitch pins. I have also built a home-brew vacuum pen based on a Hackaday.com design - it worked but using tweezers is faster.
The Vetus tweezers have a coating that dissolves if exposed to certain solvents - even isopropyl will start the coating peeling. Kyzen fluid finishes the job FYI!
@ALeggeUp, Iāve found that some tweezers that are advertised as anti-magnetic can still become magnetic. You might try a different brand and see if it helps. My tendency to be fumble-fingered and drop tweezers onto a concrete floor āpointy end downā has given me the opportunity to try a few different tweezers until I was happy with a set.
FYI!