[balogna]

PCB Assembly Blues
-------------------

Slumping is dreary,
solder gets smeary,
someone please answer my thixotrop query.
To discard is a waste,
but the flux is debased
and I can't call this runny stuff paste.

Ball grid arrays
might be the new craze
in the circuit board real-estate daze,
And I must confess
I get pick-and-place mess
when spacing is 12 mils or less.

HASL*, silver and OSP,
these things make circuit boards pretty.
When they've sat on a shelf
for more than I know
I only hope they reflow.

Since the customer asked,
I laid blame on the mask
for the shorts he observed in the past.
FR-1, FR-4
it's an incomplete cure,
and I've seen this old problem before.

If the pin test goes well,
then no one can tell
that the solder pot smoked and developed a smell.
I'm not one to shirk,
but as long as things work,
who gives a darn that the line went berserk.


* pronounced "hassle"