SMD Jfet soldering tips?

[Gentle_Jack_Jones]

Ah, I see. I just got a big order of through-hole jfets, but it sounds like I should keep ordering before one of you Euro-Mafia comes to the States and smuggles out the last few thousands of them!

[rocket88]

We all must be wary of the FET underground.

But seriously, I'm the last person to say it's worthwhile to use SMD active components, but in all honesty they are better manufactured, more reliable, and really not hard to use adapter boards and essentially turn them into through hole components. I've got a decent stock of various FETs, but once they run out I'm going to replace them with SMDs. Even if it's a few cents more expensive the reliability is worth it, IMHO.

[Senor Avocado]

I was looking for a vero option for a smd adapter board and I stumbled upon this on DIY Stompboxes. It would be good if you only needed one or two. Also the legs should not be on the same side as the component. Hope this helps someone out!

[Travis]

Hmm. Rather than build the stripboard adapter I would just draw a layout where the SMD part can be soldered directly to the main board. I may just give that a try

[bogey]

Recently I finished my first build with SMD Jfets, and rather than using the "bits of resistor wire method"  for adding legs to the daughterboards I decided to use cut down pin headers.

This method makes them very sturdy and easy to swap in and out. Use straight pin headers to mount horizontally or angled for vertical, you can even mount your chosen SMD on top or bottom to give yourself orientation options. Very handy on a crowded board.

The only downside is the pins don't fit in standard SIP sockets so I had to use cut up IC sockets.