[sdiy] Another dumb question about reflow ovens

[Adam Schabtach]

I've assembled several smallish PCBs with surface-mount components, both
commercially fabricated boards and boards I've etched myself. I don't use a
reflow oven; I use an ordinary soldering iron (it's a temperature-controlled
Weller, but I count that as "ordinary"), a flux pen, tweezers, a magnifying
Luxo lamp and a steady hand. It seems straightforward enough to me and I now
generally prefer it to through-hole assembly.

My question is this: is there any advantage to using a reflow oven for a
one-off board assembly job? It seems to me that applying solder paste and
placing the components represents a greater amount of work than just
soldering the components on by hand. On top of that there's the cost of the
reflow oven (either paying for one outright or cobbling together a toaster
oven with temperature control), the paste dispenser, and the hassle of
storing the paste. These things seem unattractive to a hobbyist; aside from
the flux pen, all of the stuff I bought for doing SMT work can also be used
for through-hole work and hence doesn't represent an additional outlay of
cash.

Thanks in advance for any opinions offered. 

--Adam