hello all

I am trying to avoid spending 140 dollars on a monocular 35x zoom from
bargain microscopes.com, it has an optional focus lense upgrade to make
56x

i need this for surface mount device rework (repair and resoldering)

i suppose 30x is enough for surface mount so what i am asking is there
any way to achieve 20x to 30x magnification using compound magnifiers.
So far i have found that sticking a 2.5x to a 2x (compound) both with
about 6 to 8 inch focal length is enough for larger SOIC's.

so i am thinking a good 5x desktop magnifier lamp (about 30 dollars)
and a decent 3x magnifier (about 10 dollars) both with about 6 to 8
inch focal length should provide enough to at least do soic's. I say
this cause my 2.5x/2x compound is almost good enough for bigger soic's
so the 3x/5x compound might be enough to handle quad flat packs (those
100+ pin IC's you see on PC motherboards etc. ).

at any rate, that is my real question. Does anyone here have experience
or KNOWLEDGE about cheap improvised magnification using compounded
magnifiers with adequate focal length (working distance from lense) for
taking out Flat packs and soic's, in other words, the very small
surface mount stuff? In fact, any sort of magnification including diy
microscopes would be okay.

Thanks for your help (i am trying to avoid having to read a very large
microscope FAQ cause i am still too busing reading all the stuff i
found google.com searching "electronics tutorials" and Horowitz's "Art
of electronics")

; )