gEDA-user: Galaksija motherboard

[DJ Delorie]

> It's very hard to solder such a complex double sided board without
> through-plated holes and soldermask.

Not really, once you know how.  The trick for ICs is to just
blob-solder them on (i.e. worry about good connections, not about
shorts) then hit it with the copper desoldering braid to remove the
excess and the shorts.  It's fast, reliable, and clean.

For the smallest parts, you won't get a solder mask between pins
anyway, with most prototype-level fabs.  It probably wouldn't help
even if you could; the solder would just jump across the tiny gap.