hi, i assume you have a universal lead forming die of some sort. you surely don't want to trim and form with hand tools. so, you'll need to trim and form the parts before tinning for two reasons. first, the tinning can goof up your lead forming and trimming die. second, the tie bar is going to give you a lot of grief when you dip the leads into a solder pot, or wave, or whatever. our assembly operators are experts at hand tinning these parts (forget about asking us to do them). it can be done, but it's tedious; and your operators might not talk to you afterwards. i'd definitely lean towards getting them done 'outside'. phil -----Original Message----- From: Stephen R. Gregory [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 4:35 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Pre-Tinning Fine Pitch... Hi ya'll! Boy, I may have quite a task ahead of me. There's this assembly that has hit the floor that has just about every part (CQFP's and ceramic SOIC's) in the un-formed state, and we've got to form and trim, then Pre-tin the gold plated stuff. I've already got a call into Six Sigma to get a quote on doing this stuff for me, but it may turn-out that we won't have the time to deal with this build and sub-contracting the forming and trimming, and pre-tinning out (what's new?). But in case I have to pre-tin the CQFP's myself, are there any tips that anyone can share to help me get through this as painlessly as possible? These parts are 320-pin 25-mil pitch and still have the tie-bars attached. I've got a bottle of nitrogen and plan to "Rube-Goldberg" me an enclosure to blanket the pot with nitrogen over the tinning pot that I'll be using...I think that'll help to cut down on the bridging I'll see. I'm going to use an RMA flux as well...any other suggestions? PLEASE? Thanks! -Steve Gregory- ############################################################## 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 Gayatri Sardeshpande at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5365 ############################################################## ############################################################## 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 Gayatri Sardeshpande at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5365 ##############################################################