[HeyLaughingBoy]

I do have a side business building custom electronics, but I think I still qualify as hobbyist :-)

I do both: for small fixes I solder by hand. Complete boards I usually use an old toaster oven, but often if the boards are really small, I use a soldering iron. I try not to go below 0805, but 0603 isn't hard.

I typically won't get a stencil for custom one-off jobs since they tend to be small and ordering them introduces delay. When I do, I use oshstencils.com. Had great luck with them and they are very price competitive.

[jabl]

Thanks for your answers, I appreciate it. And same to the others who answered my original question!

> I do have a side business building custom electronics, but I think I still qualify as hobbyist :-)

Taking this even further off-topic, could you elaborate a little? What kind of stuff are you doing? I imagine there is a niche for one-off or small batch stuff, but OTOH on aliexpress (or whatever) you can find almost every electronic gimmick you can imagine (and plenty you couldn't imagine!) for ridiculously low prices.