Soldering from *both* sides of a PCB

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This is a luxury usually available only for those who opt for a 2-sided board w/plated through holes. In that case, if the soldering is done reasonably properly, it hardly matters at all which side, as the plated through hole is filled either way.

I usually design my boards for single-sided (bottom). In some cases (output devices on a heat sink), I'll want to solder from above to make sure the mounting is ok. In those instances, I install swage-in eyelets, sort of a mondo plated-through hole. A 3/32" eyelet works for both TO-220 and TO-247 packages.
 
To be more precise, it's only necessary when you are home prototyping a 2 sided PCB before ordering commercially made ones, and of course you lack through hole plating to join both sides.

Then at each via you insert a specially made copper "nail" or rivet or a hollow rivet (although these require much larger holes than the typical via); for such purposes I have some brass wire the kind street artisans use for "jewelry" , solder it both sides and clip the excess.

You can use a part leg for that, if the track jumps sides there, but it's not recommended, on many parts (ICs or "box" type capacitors or radials) the body makes difficult or hides the top pad.
 
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