Hi,
A gang of us have been working on a homebrew solder paste dispenser, using my friend's CNC mill (Mikini 1610L) and a manual paste dispenser (that I bought used on E-Bay), plus some mechanical & electronics & software hackery.
Here's a short video from our first day of testing:
It isn't working well yet for fine pitch TQFP pads, but was doing sort of OK for 0603 and SOIC pads.
Your commercial unit in blog #163 is really interesting to watch. We have some questions:
1) What is the granule size on the solder that you are using, or is there some specific solder that they recommend?
2) What is the needle size?
3) How small of a dot size can you get?
4) It looks like the board is on a spring loaded holder and the needle contacts and deflects the board. Is that right? When is the paste dispensed -- before, during, or after, or <something complicated> the needle contacting the board?
Thanks! Great blog!
-dave