Cheap reflow with a Hotplate
Spark Fun has barely had the capitol to invest in a hot-air rework station… as business has increased, revenue has allowed us to purchase a few bottom-dollar machines to help… it was all a waste of money…
If you have ever tried soldering ICs and surface mount elements to a circuit board, then you know how hard it is. Unfortunately, the only commercial alternatives cost thousands of dollars. At least until Spark Fun turned a $30 hot skillet into a reflow oven! “I don’t think anything can replace the large scale, multi-zone, IR/convection reflow ovens. But I could by 100 hot plates at $30 a piece”
They also review the traditional toaster ‘reflow’ oven and commercial alternatives. $30 is still outside my price range. I’ll take the soldering iron.
I have constructed several SDR SoftRock kits this way, works like a champ, not one component failure.
I soldered a DDS daughter card with the skillet, had a few bridges, no sweat – solder wick took care of that.
I would like to use the toaster oven though but need to find thermostat controller circuit board and micro-controller info.