Here at mimicEducationalRobots we farm out most of our production circuit board assembly, but we still assemble all prototypes in house. Most people are surprised to learn how relatively simple the process really is. This blog assumes that a unique PCB of your own design has come out of your wonderful brain, or at least that you're interested in how we do things here. Post continues below video.
You can design our own board using the free EAGLE CAD software, or any of a number of free tools. To do this yourself you'll need:
Bare PCB of your design (OSHPark)
Solder Paste (DigiKey)
Flux Pen (DigiKey)
Tweezers (Sparkfun)
Components for your design (DigiKey)
Soldering reflow oven for small parts (Whizoo) (you can do anything down to about 1/8 inch by hand)
Desolder Braid (Sparkfun)
Solder (Sparkfun)
10x or more magnification (Amazon)
Soldering iron (Adafruit)
Watch the video to see how we use all that stuff to make complex electronic components.