Thanks TKall. I actually do have a pad board but just one and I wanted to save it for a different project. but ive been thinking, for example there is a Discrete Board from schmartboard, similar to my pad board. How would I solder a 3 pad device like a transistor? In holes or pads?
What if the holes or pads are not spaced correctly?
I use a scalpel to cut strip board. You can cut a slot between the holes to give you 0.05" spacing. You can cut either side of a hole and mount the two connections of a transistor either side with the third spanning the gap to the next track.
I also use bluetack to hold things steady. Also get a good pair of tweezers.
You pretty much need a PCB with the appropriate pattern on it for most SMD work - however beyond that, the actual soldering often isn't that bad.
Breakout boards for specific packages are also reasonably available on ebay and from the usual hobby electronics vendors - the common ones are dirt cheap on ebay - though inevitably you end up with a mess of little boards.
As it happens, I sell some prototyping board that has slots for SMD parts on it, which sounds like it might be just what some people here are looking for: (image is a link)
My technique for soldering them I think is pretty standard....
Securely hold board (I use a desk-vise which I can move and rotate easily, but is heavy enough to hold the board still).I put solder on the board, on one pad for each part. Then I go back and tack each part in place on that one pin (tweezers in one hand, iron in other). Then I put flux on all the unsoldered pins. Passives are soldered normally, SOIC/TSSOP/TQFP/etc by drag soldering (youtube it). I frankly prefer soldering SOIC over DIP now.
If I buy a board like this, I can't really cut it up to use parts of it, right? Boards themselves are kind of brittle. So if I want a board I better be ready to use as much of it as possible or be able to part with unused sections of the board. On the up-side, they're cheap.
Transistors are a pretty basic 3-legged component. How come I don't see a lot of specially designed boards with 3-pads in a triangular shape? Most of what I see are straight line grids of holes and even more sophisticated IC designs.
Larry, thanks, I do have a dremel. madbomb, I'll see if I can get thinner wire and a pencil soldering iron. I have 2 irons already, I've gone from a thicker, apparently unremovable tip to a more powerful, fine tip and 2 more tips iron but terribly designed because it's too long and makes it unsteady to hold design. So at least now I know what to look for. I'll definitely look for that blue tack as both madbomb and GrumpyMike mentioned.
This is the smallest thing I have ever hand soldered. It is a bicoloured LED, with a connection in each corner.
As you can see it mounts between the tracks in strip board.
On 9024 image, each track is a long flat copper surface, basically a nice long flat wire?
The rectangles with numbers on them are the resistors whereas the 2-top-left and 2-bottom-left and the 34 top-right and 3-bottom-right slightly longer rectangles are transistors?
Wow! I'm going crazy taking apart old stuff.
Now that I know what they are. I wish I would have kept the optocoupler from an old Wall wart I threw away a few days ago.