Ha ha ha ha! I was doing great, till I looked at that dinky little THS4031CD. When I first grabbed the bag, I thought they forgot to put it in the bag. Then I saw it and the horror began to set in. To think I actually had to solder that to the board. I guess it just didn't register with me. being a newby to such things. I soldered some DIP components a while back, but this is untried territory for me. Now where did I put that magnifying visor I have around here some where? I need to tear some stuff apart and put it back together for practice before I touch this. Any suggestions for a new guy to surface mount soldering?
Would it be OK to use a small spring clamp to hold it down on the board? I have used this to hold multi-pin DIP sockets down. It has fairly light pressure. My Weller 40 watt controller does not have temperature readout, but goes from 1 to 5. I normally use 3 to do circuit board soldering with 60/40 solder. I have a pin point tip on the iron. This clamp is small like ones on a low amperage motorcycle battery charger.
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If that clamp give you more confidence then use it. I never use something like this but i use a small rubber mat so my pcb stays still on the bench. Another personal technique is to put a little solder on one pad of the pcb and with help of tweezers i put a little pressure on ic body to keep it on position while heating up that small blop of solder. In this way one leg is soldered and the other ones is piece of cake. Dont worry if you have solder bridges in this first soldering phase, use solder wick to collect the extra solder. It;s easier than you imagine just exercise a little. The 60/40 soldering alloy is melting very fast than lead free.
