[mdip]

Speaking as someone with a hot air rework station and no experience soldering SOICs, I can make a whole bunch of melted crap in 5 minutes all while burning my fingers.

5-minutes sounds insane to me, but I know it's accurate (the key being "experience").

Any tips for learning how to do this sort of thing with proficiency? How long does it take to become that proficient? What kind of coating/weirdness would present a problem? I'm asking for a bit OT reasons -- it's always been something I've wanted to learn/teach my kids.

[SpikedCola]

For disassembly practice, I used to collect broken electronics, and desolder various components for fun. You learn the different heat requirements of eg 2 layer boards vs motherboards with many layers.

For assembly practice, you can buy "SOIC breakout boards", the cheapest chips you can find, and go to town. Either with a solder stencil and some paste, or a syringe of paste and a blunt needle (this gets old fast!)

Coatings tend to make lots of nasty fumes when heated. Some can also prevent solder from wetting the pads or legs. Depending on the coating, overheating/burning may change its electrical properties.

[aidenn0]

I have some experience soldering SOICs, but the difference between me and a pro is insane. I've seen someone remove and replace a half-dozen 0805 (2x1.2mm) SMD components with a fairly standard fine-tipped Metcal iron (not even a rework station) in under a minute.

[edit] I misremembered the component size

[koofdoof]

Spend an hour watching Louis Rossman do it on YouTube, and then do it a few times on scrap boards.