SMD rework and micro soldering with Louis Rossmann

Ray Gianelli

Super Member
I tripped across this guy when I decided I wanted to learn what it takes to do SMD rework/repair work. He does component level repair on iPhone's and iMac's, without benefit of support from Apple.

What I like about his video's is that they are in real time. If it takes an hour to fix something the video is an hour long. It shows how his techniques work and leaves nothing out.

He rants about Apple and calls them out over alleged design flaws but backs it up with video through his microscope. He's opinionated, foul mouthed and a good tech. Basically my kind of guy!

Here's a link to one of his video's:

 
Louis is a good technician with good skills for SMD rework.

He does what he calls "practical board repair" and with a few exceptions - I agree with his techniques - Chris
 
Louis is a good technician with good skills for SMD rework.

He does what he calls "practical board repair" and with a few exceptions - I agree with his techniques - Chris
Chris , what exceptions do you find? I'm completely inexperienced with SMD work and am starting from scratch. Louis seems to get the job done. What do you do that's different? Any comments you can make are appreciated!
 
Chris , what exceptions do you find? I'm completely inexperienced with SMD work and am starting from scratch. Louis seems to get the job done. What do you do that's different? Any comments you can make are appreciated!

After thinking about your question for a day, I would say that I don't agree with Louis's use of components from donor boards (even though I understand why he does it) and I don't agree with him removing parts like JTAG headers from boards (without telling his customers) when they could easily replaced

As for his actual skills and techniques for SMD rework - I can't really fault him.

Louis has a strong personality and his coarseness and crudeness in his videos can easily polarize a viewer. I know that he's playing to his audience to some degree. . . but we can only form an opinion about someone we don't know personally by the words they use. I also don't like his blatant bias for the equipment he sells, his audience is mostly people who are inexperienced in any type of repair work and they may be easily mislead. - Chris
 
After thinking about your question for a day, I would say that I don't agree with Louis's use of components from donor boards (even though I understand why he does it) and I don't agree with him removing parts like JTAG headers from boards (without telling his customers) when they could easily replaced

As for his actual skills and techniques for SMD rework - I can't really fault him.

Louis has a strong personality and his coarseness and crudeness in his videos can easily polarize a viewer. I know that he's playing to his audience to some degree. . . but we can only form an opinion about someone we don't know personally by the words they use. I also don't like his blatant bias for the equipment he sells, his audience is mostly people who are inexperienced in any type of repair work and they may be easily mislead. - Chris
Thanks Chris. As I said, I'm just getting into SMD work. So any input is welcomed.

Louis is very open about the tools and products he uses, as well as why he chose them. He doesn't edit his videos, so you can clearly see what he's doing. I've been putting aside dead boards taken from LED TV's I've repaired by buying a new or used board on eBay so I'll have something to practice on.

As far as Louis's personality, well, I'm a transplanted New Yorker. So he just sounds like most of my family!
 
As far as Louis's personality, well, I'm a transplanted New Yorker. So he just sounds like most of my family!

Too funny. . .

The best money spent to be setup to do SMD Rework is for:

1. A decent Hot Air Station - with several different size nozzles - I like the angled nozzles
2. A good Microscope - Amscope
3 A Micro-Soldering Iron
4 Some .010 Solder - it's supper expensive to but 1 pound spools - you can buy 10' lengths on eBay
5 Good Flux - Amtech is great stuff

Chris
 
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