Fran Blanche (of Frantone) posted some pictures of a clever device to hold down SMD chips while you solder them in place. I had planned on building such a device that used weights to stabilize the probe, but her hack is so much better!
A dental pick, a couple of screws, block of wood and rubber bands are all you need to make this tool. Check it out on Fran’s page.
I have a simple method of soldering SMD parts.
I learned it at work, whilst soldering NMEA Optocoupler PCB’s.
You solder one pad, then take the SMD part with a plier, heat the pad with the solder on it, slide the SMD part into the solder, let it cool down and then solder the other pad.
If you’re unhappy with the solder on the first pad then just unsolder it and apply new solder.
Easy.