First, for the hot plate. If you throw a piece of aluminum on that skillet, you will spread out the heat of the element so there shouldn’t be a noticable cold spot in the center.
Anybody willing to share cost, part number, and supplier for solder paste?
I may have a supplier for laser cut stencils that’s cheaper than the one you list on the surface mount tutorial. He bought his laser cutter for one job and is trying to find other ways of making money with it 
(not me unfortunately)
-Jacob
I bought a syringeful of silver-bearing solder paste from Mouser for $5 (p/n 557-7459). I haven’t actually used it yet, still waiting for the PCB to arrive from batchpcb :?
It’s supposed to have a higher melting point than the non-silver-bearing solder I have been using, I hope it won’t cause a problem, but I’ll see…
bought my solder paste
easy 256
cost was 52 dollars (with shipping) for a 600 gram cartridge.
not nearly as expensive as i was expecting, but i used to buy pure silver paste and that ran about 5 bucks a gram
almost forgot…the supplier: www.kem-tron.com
didn’t have to pay for overnight shipping, as they are close enough that shipping only takes one day anyway…even if you lived a ways away, I think they would ship ground if you requested.
snowman:
Anybody willing to share cost, part number, and supplier for solder paste?
Chip-Quick also now sells a small syringe with solder paste in it, maybe $15? I got one and tried my hand at soldering a 14 pin SSOP with my newly aquired Hot Air rework station and I was not very happy with how things came out. I was actually able to solder the chip faster and with better results with a cheap radio shack solder pencil and solder from the same place. I should point out that I had no stencil I just basically smeared a bunch of paste on the pads and heated it up.
Soldering /w hot air is an acquired technique - I usually use a combination of both hot air + soldering iron.
However, nothing beats hot air for desoldering 
/ rework. Its also great for removing solder bridges between pins on tssops + the like.
–David Carne
I’ve had good results with solder paste from Zephyrtronics and hot air. They come in 12g syringes for $12.85.
I’ve had good results with solder paste from Zephyrtronics and hot air. They come in 12g syringes for $12.85.
Ditto. The short black needle tips work well; get one per use.
I do wish they’d offer a silver-based (i.e., non-lead) version in that syringe. I think Radio Shack’s syringe is silver-based, but the tip is way too fat.