In the process of working on a PCB for another project, I ended up with a component that was harder to solder properly than I had originally expected, and had not ordered a solder paste stencil with the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I ended up thinking if I could find reasonable material, I could cut a stencil for this part using my laser cutter. Some stencils are made of kapton, but I don’t have any larger sheets of kapton, nor do I think my 10W diode laser would cut it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I ended up finding that my standard printer paper was just about the right thickness for a stencil, at about 4 to 5 thousandths of an inch thick. I was a bit worried that the finer features between the pads might tear, but it was worth trying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turns out, that at least for low quantities, paper makes a pretty reasonable homebrew stencil material.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the process of working on a PCB for another project, I ended up with a component that was harder to solder properly than I had originally expected, and had not ordered a solder paste stencil with the board. I … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/digitalnigel.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_0448-scaled.jpeg\")
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