Making money from home soldering - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: Kfire778
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2019, 02:34:07 am
content: I'm new to the board, and using forums in general so please forgive me in advance. I have been practicing the skill and learning to solder. My primary setup is a hakko FX 951 with the fm 2027 hand piece, an a Quick 861dw. I have been practicing an have managed to fix a few boards laying around the house using diode mode. The main thing I want to know is there anyway to make money from home assembling boards, or is repair gonna be the only way to make money. I'm a full time exterminator an i deal with solving enough of people's insect and rodent issues in the day to becoming mentally exhausted some days to feel like making repairs at night. If it is possible I would love to just be able to assemble a stack of boards and send to whoever and await a check. I know nothing I'd that easy but you get the general idea of what I'm going for.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2019, 03:00:58 am
content: unless you find some weird deal your going to need a full ESD setup, ISO5000 compliance, JDSTD soldering cert, good tools, recommendation. It's still a weird prospect. You would need to cold call small businesses.Like no real buisness is going to deal with you unless you have those things minimum. And they would still prefer you come in because of postage (or you work for pennies).Not to mention you would need to package them proper for ESD and have shipping supply chain traceability. Means buying ESD bags, vacuum sealer, carbon lined boxes, packing materials, etc. (and you can't reuse this stuff !!) You would need like a legitimate work room that only does that. Everything needs to be protected as soon as you open any packaging from start till its sealed in the final ESD container.And you would need inspection tools and actually inspect every single board and be able to comply with ROHS if necessary (unless its military your going to have to).Also humidity control that's tracable and controlled temperature of storage and stuff. And you would probobly need to get certified for ESD and have ESD and Solder related measurement equipment and get that calibrated and maintain calibration logs. Means checking your soldering iron temp, monitoring humidity, monitoring room temp, checking integrity of ESD mats, and checking integrity of testers. Wrist strap and other ESD systems too (ESD chair, ESD floor, ESD bench, etc).+ you will get a back and forth later possibly with people blaming your solder on bad handling or you blaming bad handling for good solder.And have chemical tables that list the solder and flux and other chemicals that you use with expiration dates and accountability so you are sure you are not using outdated flux or such (and you NEED to go by the manufactures guidelines). Yes that means solder too because its flux cored and because the surface oxidizes. Not an issue for prototyping or home assembly but for manufacturing they will ask. Everything in your process needs to run like a clock even if it seems like stupid shit.And you need name brand stuff, multi-core, weller (maybe not anymore), pace, etc. And keep solder contamination in mind.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 20, 2019, 03:13:00 am
content: As an assembly service, you will have hard time to find customers and will need to cope with thin margins. You'd have much better luck assembling your own boards and selling them, say on ebay. Of course it depends a lot on your location, because if you live in some expensive place with high salaries, it would be quite hard to make a good business out of it. If opposite, and with cheap shipping available, you could make a decent income (for your location) from it. Still, it's not like anything you make would sell. But there really is some market demand for this.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2019, 03:14:23 am
content: if you do it yourself you can get the home gamer benefit of not having to be so strict with everything because you don't need ultra high reliability selling DIY stuff on ebay (I seriously doubt its all done to high end military/industrial standards lol, probobly some guy nylon soldering in his underpants on a shag rug half the time).

author: Kfire778
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2019, 03:22:04 am
content: Oh wow I didn't realize assembly services had to go through all that. I'm just looking for something that the parts an pcb are available to buy, an then sell on eBay. I just have no idea what would be good to start with offering for sale. I'm looking for some way just to make some extra money on the side, but without having to jump through 10 miles of hoops. I've seen people assembling and soldering keyboards an selling on etsy an eBay,jist not sure where to start, or even what to advertise for sale.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 20, 2019, 03:34:35 am
content: Quote from: Kfire778 on March 20, 2019, 03:22:04 amIt's not like you need to go through that. But you'll need to compete with cheap Chinese assembly services which is a lost game.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 20, 2019, 03:36:33 am
content: Quote from: Kfire778 on March 20, 2019, 03:22:04 amYou need to make something specific what does not sell in high quantities but you can make a decent margin on. Don't try to compete with China on thin margin products, you'll never win.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 20, 2019, 03:36:55 am
content: I used to get my uWatch PCB's assembled by hand by a guy in his garage in Melbourne. I asked on the aus.electronics usenet group for someone to do batch of boards and he replied.So yes, possible, you just have to find the work.

author: OwO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2019, 03:50:47 am
content: PCB assembly is a very low value-add, design is where all the money is at. I would not offer assembly services but rather design and manufacture novel products that people actually want (e.g. decent test equipment for very cheap).

author: FrankBuss
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 20, 2019, 04:51:11 am
content: Quote from: wraper on March 20, 2019, 03:34:35 amIt is difficult to find real prices for PCB assembly, do you have examples? Last year I ordered a new batch of 50 PCBs for my Kerberos cartridge. This was the initial prototype, hand soldered by me:Unit price at PCBCart was $36, components included, and a PCB with gold fingers, hard gold plated, not just ENIG, for the edge connector. Attached is the full quote from pcbcart.com. I could already program all CPLDs of all 50 boards, no faulty board so far, but I still need to do a full test for the RAM and flash in the C64.But it is not much cheaper than using a German manufacturer. Most difference is the higher setup cost for the German service, like EUR 500, no matter how many PCBs you order, and then 2-3 times for assembly cost.Would be interesting to see examples for lower quantity prototype PCB assembly. I tried this website:https://www.pcbgogo.com/pcb-assembly.htmlbut it doesn't work. You can enter any number of SMD parts, always the same priceThe fine print says you get the final quote only after submitting the PCB file and BOM.This site looks much better:http://www.macrofab.com. The demo project for a slightly similar board as my Kerberos cartridge shows $110 for one prototype. So it is possible to compete with cheap Chinese companies for prototyping, even if it is more expensive. But I'm sure they have all the things mentioned by coppercone2 regarding proper equipment and process etc.Another price of a product of a client for which I'm developing the firmware is EUR 1.700 for 5 prototypes fromhttps://www.kuttig.de. But this was a more complex PCB and includes about EUR 100 parts cost per board and a 8 layer PCB, can't show the details.Maybe it is possible to offer a cheaper service than Macrofab, if you do it as a hobby or small business, like the job Dave gave the guy for the uWatch and what you are asking for. But I think you can get the best price for unique products which you sell yourself, with case etc. There are many open source hardware projects out there, like the uCurrent. Build it cheaper, then sell it athttps://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/, just don't use the name uCurrent. You can offer your service in this forum as well. Don't forget to show examples of your work.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 20, 2019, 05:02:07 am
content: Quote from: FrankBuss on March 20, 2019, 04:51:11 amYou may get some occasional orders but it would be really hard to make some stable profit. Also you'd need to invest money to make it serious. Not only you will be very limited in what you can do with iron only, you won't be competitive in assembly quality either.

author: Kasper
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2019, 06:33:29 am
content: I've soldered at home for a couple clients. Both were local tech startups and I started with them by applying to job ads they put out.That's one way to get paid to solder at home. Another way is to invent something and hopefully sell it. Then you can hire yourself as production staff. That might be hard to justify when you compare to costs of paying someone else to do it.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2019, 06:51:17 am
content: I did a bit of assembly work for a local shop when I was between jobs, it gave me something interesting to do and a bit of extra money to augment what I got from unemployment insurance. It doesn't pay much though and after building about 10 of the same thing it gets really tedious. I enjoy it as a hobby but I sure wouldn't want to do it for a living.There are technician jobs out there, people that do hardware rework and prototyping and whatnot at hardware companies. It's rare to make more than about $50k/yr though and you have to be an expert able to do surface mount assembly and rework, re-ball BGAs, troubleshoot faults, etc. Sadly this sort of work tends to be undervalued despite needing quite a lot of engineering knowledge on top of the separate hands on and troubleshooting skillsets. Some of the smartest most clever guys I've ever met were technicians but while they were interesting guys who impressed the hell out of me, that didn't translate to much of a paycheck.

author: AndersonJoan123
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 04, 2021, 05:18:12 pm
content: I remember my dad used to do soldering to make extra cash. I was a kid, and my parents barely could afford some stuff. So, soldering was one of the options.

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 04, 2021, 06:57:29 pm
content: For through hole components, a simple soldering station is sufficient. For SMDs, you will need to invest in a qualified reflow oven. Qualified, not one of the retrofitted toaster ovens. You will absolutely have to be able to confirm your temperature profile complies with the chip manufacturer's recommendations.The components are too expensive to leave to chance.You can tell when SMDs like 0805s are hand soldered, they aren't well aligned and the solder filet is a mess. Nobody is going to want to pay for that kind of work.Expect a need to solder BGA and if you have to inspect the results, I think it is done with X-ray imaging. I'll bet that has licensing requirements!Basically, you will be likely wind up soldering hobby level stuff for hobby level prices. Not worth the time or equipment expense.

author: Renate
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 04, 2021, 07:22:51 pm
content: That seems a tough way to make a living...I see a few possibilities:Engineering modifications to boards that are in the field and come circulating back.Repair to boards with a known problem that are in the field and come circulating back.Making cables for some obscure mini connector that are a pain to make.

author: wizard69
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 04, 2021, 09:24:45 pm
content: This is a tough one and likely will be area dependent. However some ideas:Don't market yourself as a soldering business, instead market as a custom build business. That is offer services beyond a simple board solder job.If you live near by universities (or corporations) with large research budgets they often need one off builds of something. For example an op amp interface to an odd transducer. The task might be to literally build one or two units, but this isn't just a soldering job. You may have to do the engineering and they will want a finished project (board in box). Finding such work is not easy as you pretty much need to be wired in to the environment. However if you get known in the world you can find work, it isn't just a soldering job though. So custom instrumentation can be one avenue to supplemental work. I can't really say people are making a great living doing this, I get the feeling that often these are handled as doing a favor for somebody. Again it is a environment you really need to be wired into somehow.One area that you might want to consider, again it depends upon locality, but making custom cables / harnesses, is one way to leverage soldering or assembly skills. One guy I knew got a business off the ground making cables for a helicopter manufacture. However that was a real business, running real hours, paying taxes and so forth. It might be better to setup a business to pursue such subcontracting. For one you will not be taken seriously with out being setup as legitimate business. Second you will need to be able to maintain records to make the business offering the contract feel comfortable that you will be doing the work to spec. The nice thing about such work is that you don't have the massive investment in capital that might be required for PCB assembly. It isn't a trivial investment, a proper crimper for example will not be cheap. You may also need a rather large assembly area to build the cable assembly.

author: gnuarm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2021, 04:35:19 am
content: If you want to make money doing soldering work, you would be better off getting a job as an assembler with an contract manufacturing company. There are reasons why such companies exist and why they are used. Much of it is they have massive amounts of experience and provide a wide array of services typically, not just assembly of small quantities of boards, for example, product assembly, cable assembly, testing.Once you work at such a place for a while you can advance to higher levels of responsibility and pay. Or if you prefer, once you learn every part of the process for the various parts of the job and have certifications, then you could strike out on your own, either moonlighting or starting your own business. Be aware the there is very little demand for hand assembly of PC boards. There is more demand for rework and repair. Rework is making changes to boards either from faults or for upgrades. Repair includes debugging the board and has nothing to do with insectsYeah, i had to get a joke in once you said you were an exterminator...There will be work out there, but the trick is in finding it and landing each job. It will be hard to get the confidence of customers until they've seen your work first hand.

author: BitsnBytes
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2021, 06:13:18 am
content: Most of the PCB manufacturing companies also grant services of assembling they call it PCBA. Customers like these companies to ship them complete PCB with assembly as they don't want get into trouble of soldering SMD components.PCB and PCBA costs are almost same which means customers does not have to pay for assembling. If you are PCB assembler you will definitely have hard time getting customers.However you may find a job in PCB manufacturing companies where assembling, paste masking is not automated!!!Best of luck!!Regards

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2021, 07:21:20 am
content: Quote from: Kfire778 on March 20, 2019, 02:34:07 amOthers have answered quite nicely and I'm sure you can avoid them but please be aware, there used to be and may still be 'earn money home assembling' scams, typically aimed at people with little or no knowledge of electronics, they ask you to pay a deposit on or buy a kit tools from them to set yourself up and then send you a pile of junk parts to 'assemble' into a sub module of some product.The one I was asked to assess were a badly cut out piece of stripboard, a few random resistors, an op-amp and a relay, the instructions were nonsense and the layout didn't even make a circuit.The first batch of bits goes out to you and when you send them back (at your own cost) they get rejected by "Quality Control" so you don't get paid.The tools you've 'borrowed' or bought are the cheapest crap possible and attempts to get your deposit back or a refund are ignored.

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2021, 01:46:19 pm
content: Quote from: KarenJms on February 05, 2021, 03:17:52 pmWell, you could always fall back on posting spam links for cash.

author: fcb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2021, 02:12:03 pm
content: Quote from: Kfire778 on March 20, 2019, 02:34:07 am1. Buy some cable, heat-shrink, banana connectors.2. Come-up with a clever brand based on aggression/musicality/snake name.3. Make and sell custom length 'hi-fi' cables for the discerning listener.And I'm only not even half-joking.

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2021, 03:24:23 am
content: Wages and cost of living in the US is a huge issue with margins cut to the thinnest imaginable everywhere. This is why jobs often go elsewhere. In electronics fora for example, when people talk about manufacturing here, you'll notice that is sometimes just assumed people are talking about manufacturing in China. China is positioned as the factory of the world,. India the back office of the world (the desk jobs) countries have to find a niche they do better than anybody else, for less. Its the proverbial "race to the bottom".Quote from: Kfire778 on March 20, 2019, 03:22:04 amSomething you wouldn't mind getting stuck with, in other words, something that remains of value to you in the future, if nobody buys it.How risk-averse are you? Sometimes you can buy broken hardware on ebay, fix it and (maybe) sell it.

author: perieanuo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2021, 12:04:34 pm
content: Quote from: Kfire778 on March 20, 2019, 03:22:04 amwell, it depends on what clients you haveI soldered a lot for pcb's in R&D and production company in France (clients named C-RAd for example), application: medical safety apparel, quite expensive, involving micro/dsp, lasers (we made industrial lasers also), motor controllers with integrated trajectory mgmt, wifi products (secure communication based on internal protocol).NEVER used mats ang all sort of paranoia soldering tools, my boss proposed this but after some hundreds lasers fabricated and dsp motor controllers and microcontroller soldering and programming (bootloader+ eep + flash via bootloader), he realised the technique was more important then the mat, the anti-static bracelet and other gizmosthe importanty is good soldering equipment (metcal jbc and so on), respect to rules in soldering and electrostatic AND most important, finding the clientso don't listen to 1000 requirements iso99999 and so on, they are just sh...t on paperfind your clients, do the job with care and good hardware and you're doneI fear finding the client as you being a freelancer will be the problem, not the mat. of course if you don't dress correctly and you don't manipulate correctly electronics, you can fry devices.by my side, if you do respect some basic rules, you'll never ever fry a diode, a micro or other sensitive devdon't listen to paranoia requirements, test the market and if you find clients and succeed 2-3 correctly done and clean pcb batch, you're settledI saw this done in a company in Budapest/Hungary, called CXE, they soldered the pcb's from our r&d, the pcb was made in europe and the components from china, france (like digikey, farnell... for the serious devs like dsp/microcontroller), germany and so on. you just need 2 things, client and savoir-faireiso 9001 comes AFTER, I lived this in 3 companies as main iso9001 lead engineer

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2021, 01:44:39 pm
content: Please note that the original poster, kfire778, has last been seen on this forum in May 2019. You are wasting your time giving them advice.This thread was resurrected by two link spammers who like to dig old out threads, add a meaningless post, wait a few days until people forget about the thread again, and then add a spam link to some commercial site. One of them has already done his thing and was removed from the thread and forum; the other (AndersonJoan123) is still waiting or has lost track.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2021, 07:33:54 am
content: Quote from: perieanuo on February 11, 2021, 12:04:34 pmI think this is cocky, you might never get information about some product fails, you might cause damage that precipitates way down the line. I agree that the equipment might cause a false sense of security and might result as a worse job because of psychology, but you just cannot control the damage induced by invisible triboelectric forces. Not all problems are reported, companies often just chuck equipment worth thousands of dollars (great for my curiosity) without ever contacting the manufacturer about a problem because they have gigantic budgets, gigantic mega bosses trying to crush budgets. Hell some people might like that the equipment breaks because it makes spending the budget easier to help maintain the equipment budget at the very least without it being shrunk because someone is happy about something turning into a 'NRE cost'. It's also easy for sales to get involved and not report a problem if they think someone thinks that something breaking might be normal and they can sell another one.. please as if its encouraged to change anything on a assembly line ever .. (yeah find me one person that works near a line and has a boss that even wants to consider thinking about that kind of shit~! its 'give them one on the house' so the product keeps moving out the door!)This is bad advice. Especially as technology gets smaller.immune to ESD damage... hmphh why is that multimeter drawing 5mA quiescent turned off after all this years and grubby hands going into the battery compartment..i hope you did not work on the plutonthen again I sure want to finish my new shed made out of cement and discarded VFD's and drives. also I must say if your company cares about a 150$ for a mat and some wrist straps (realistically at least the mat will be in contact with the person at all times) I am scared to think about your water cooler. whats in there rain water?