[aredox]

Nice write-up.

For something so thin, your soldering woes aren't surprising. The standard way to manage that would have been to solder everything in one go on a hot plate (reflow soldering).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QarizoUnRfk

[sgraz]

Thank you, My first few attempts were with a SMD stencil and a 50x50mm hotplate, it's true that maybe a larger hotplate that could span the whole PCB might have done a better job. But with the smaller plate it was "easier" to just manually apply solder paste and do 4 switches at a time.

I think this method is also highly specific to these switches. They are known for being difficult to solder with hobby-tier equipment.

[shellfishgene]

I just reflowed a board in a cheap cast iron pan filled with some sand on my induction stove. Worked fine!

[ghostly_s]

This video features the exact same technique and hot plate that was used here.

[stronglikedan]

> reflow soldering

one of the most satisfying things to watch