Hi Techies!! I have a difficult process that I need some advise on. I have a PCB that has on one side a surface mount Hirose connector (40 pos.), and 6 - 0805 chip resistors. I run this side through our oven with no problems but, the PCB also has a 50 position (2mm) through-hole header that is inserted through the opposite side of the surface mount components, and we solder this in place by hand (solder side is same side as surface mount components). What I want to do is possibly try the pin and paste process and try soldering all the components at the same time, relieving us from hand soldering. I'm trying to figure out how I can achieve this, since the header needs to be held in place while it goes through the oven. I'm thinking of having a pallet made up that would nest the 50 position header and help hold it in place while the PCB goes through the oven. But, my fear is that the pallet would take all the heat needed, away form the solder joints (both surface mount and through-hole). So one of my questions would be, what type of material is out there that does not absorb all the heat of an IR oven? What do you guys think? Just to let you know, I have tried using a solder pallet that masked the surface mount components and was slotted to try and allow the solder from our drag soldering machine to flow up and solder the connector. The problem I had with this, was the pallet acted like a boat and floated on top of the solder and caused a soldering nightmare (insufficient solder, bridges etc.), plus the flux remained trapped under the PCB and when you removed the board you would have flux all over the place. Thanks for your time, and help!! Jim West Manufacturing Engineer ############################################################## TechNet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ############################################################## To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TECHNET <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TECHNET ############################################################## Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information. If you need assistance - contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ##############################################################