Hi Ed,

Congratulations.  First we crawl, then we walk, etc, etc....  Sounds like you're a much happier camper.

Not to point out the obvious, but... what about putting your oven toward the rear of the workbench right in front of you and building a little platform to hold the board while you populate it?  The top of the platform should align with the top of the oven rack, touching it where the two meet.  That way when you're done getting all those teensy-weensy-itsy-bitsy-tiny-nerve-wracking components placed you can just slide the board into the oven.  At least it would keep you from tripping over the dog, dropping the whole schmear, or otherwise endangering the fruits of your labor.  Just a thougt.

  <Marv>







"Ed Anderson" <eanderson@carolina.rr.com> wrote:
"""
 After digesting the lessons learned from the first board, I got up my
gumption to try another board.  The second board turned out much better
although I still had to work the 0.25mm pitch socket manually to get it
acceptable.
 
...snip...

 After I did the solder past run, I removed the solder on the .25mm pitch 30
pin socket as it has "slumped" and covered several adjacent pins.  Flux may
have seen it draw onto the pins, but I think there was just too much and it
would bridge again.  So I removed the paste in that area before popping it in
the oven.
"""