Philco Seventeener II

[Notimetolooz]

I find the concern about SMD parts a little surprising. I've worked professionally with SMD parts for over a decade. Its really not much of a problem unless you are dealing with large IC or very small parts. I regularly worked with resistor and capacitors as small as 0402 size. For something like that you do need a stereo microscope, sharp tweezers and small iron tips. Just melt some solder on one pad, position part with tweezers and remelt the solder blob. The first connection will hold the part while you do the other connections. The small two terminal parts you can actually remove by melting the solder on both pads at the same time by laying the iron against both pads and then pushing the part off the pads. Clean up one pad and put down the replacement. Larger parts will require solder-wicking each connection before removing part.