is this crystal hand solderable?

ErnieM

Joined Apr 24, 2011
8,377
Well... I believe I could do it, I do not know if you could do it. Nor do I know if it would be acceptable to any given inspection criteria.

What I would do is flood one pad with a bit of solder. Then place the part with tweezers in one hand and heat with the iron in the other hand. This depends on having a bit of exposed pad or solder, so you may need to offset the part some to heat the pad.

Let the solder cool and hit the other end with solder and the tip. With any luck you will get molten solder between your tip and the pad, and capillary action will do the rest.
 

mcgyvr

Joined Oct 15, 2009
5,394
Yes it is hand solderable if you've got the skillz :)

I would do it like Ernie suggested assuming you just have a regular soldering iron.
Hot air gun/solder paste would make it simple.
 

BobTPH

Joined Jun 5, 2013
8,807
I would extend both the pads outside of the size of the part, put paste solder on each, place the part, then heat the pad extensions to melt the solder. This should be quite easy. I have soldered LEDs that have similar pads that way.

Bob
 

Sensacell

Joined Jun 19, 2012
3,432
One trick I use for parts like this is to solder some fine wire-wrap wire to the pads, then mount the part upside down on top of the mess, bending the wire over the pads on the part. You can now solder the pads easily.

I only do this if I just need to get things working, not pretty, but it's easy and fast.
 

THE_RB

Joined Feb 11, 2008
5,438
I like that approach, especially if it is not on the original pro-made PCB. ie; if it is for hobby use on a simple PCB etc.

I use fin multi-strand hookup wire, and strip half an inch then pull one single strand separate to the others. Then while it is still attached to the hookup wire, solder the end of that one tiny strand to the SMD pin.

Then repeat for the other SMD pin. Then after that you have two tiny strands of bare wire, one on each SMD pin, you can treat the XTAL like it is a component with two leadwires.

Keep the leadwires long enough to solder them to the PCB without melting the solder on the SMD pin, obviously using very fine single strand of wire helps as fine strands don't conduct much heat down the wire.

You can see the single strand technique here on this tiny trackball modification;

 

ErnieM

Joined Apr 24, 2011
8,377
I used to do it that way until I discovered paste solder, which makes it much easier.
I have spooled solder and my iron on my bench. Using paste takes a trip to the fridge, but then I'll turn on the hot air side of my solder station.

If you use a syringe of sodler I do hope you get one of these. It keeps your fingers intact even after a long session:




Manual syringe dispensor
 
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