V1 Vacuum assisted solder stencil box

Solder stenciling can be hard to get accurate and precise each time. Specially if you only have unframed solder stencils, and no fancy machine.
The good old tape circuit board to the table might work for some, but i was just tired of not getting it good enough each time. With many iterations on trying to solve this problem in a better way.
I ended up with a simple 3d-printed box and some battery connector springs from LCSC as the best solution.I collaborated with Seon the Unexpected maker on the project that eventually led to this design.
You can find his channel over at:
/ @unexpectedmaker
And also remember to visit his webshop over at, unexpectedmake...
There is a hackaday.io project for this device, you can find here hackaday.io/pr...
I will be joining a live-stream at the Unexpected Maker youtube channel.
• Special Guest - Marius...
Fusion 360 files are coming!
My social media:
Instagram: / mariusheier
Twitter: / mariusheier
Twitch: / mariusrh
Join my Discord server:
/ discord

[@SuperHouseTV]

I haven't been this excited about a 3D printing project for ages. Great work!

[@MariusHeier1]

Thanks. I know the feeling. Had it last week. Wait until you see the magic "automatic" lifting, and hear the sound. So satisfying!

[@janpetersen8441]

I was thinking, adding fiducials to the stencil, and alignment pins on the top printed plate, should fix the stencils location in place.
Then the frame that holds the PCB, can be scaled, so that the PCB line up correctly with the stencil, maybe with two fine pitch threaded rods (one in the X plane, and one in the Y plane) to slightly nudge the PCB for fine tuning alignment.

[@MariusHeier1]

Yes i think that will work! Im trying to just use the outside of the pcb to frictionhold the pcb down. With an extra plate between the lid and the lifter.

[@andymouse]

Hi Marius, enjoyed your chat with Seon.

[@MariusHeier1]

Thanks for the feedback andy! I really enjoyed it.

[@kennorman3586]

I follow Seon, when he posted this. It got me thinking on how to mod my current stencil printer to add a vacuum bed. Went a different way, but now doing the solder past no longer sucks. :)

[@ohmschool]

Thanks for sharing, Cool Idea! I had same problem for years but solved it by applying an electromagnetic directly under PCB (24v / 400 Netwon), combined with placement of small screw-nut or flat-iron nail (must be ferrous metal, not stainless) placed on the surface of the stencil. Nail and screw nut come from local hardware store and I think electromagnet was $12 USD. To avoid paste from from sticking to to stencil when lifting it, I apply first flux to the stencil using small paint brush, then apply electromagnet, then swipe with paste. Sometimes I dilute/mix paste with flux to reduce viscosity, especially with QFP/QFN footprints.