[sdiy] DIY reflow soldering, was:There is no fun analogue chips anymore!

[mark verbos]

On Jul 1, 2012, at 11:41 AM, Ingo Debus wrote:

> 
> Am 01.07.2012 um 03:11 schrieb mark verbos:
> 
>> I bought a convection toaster oven at Target for $60 and have very much success doing boards as big as 10" across. 
>> A stencil helps a lot, but is not required. For me, SMT is vastly superior to through hole. I do still use through hole for panel components and special parts (vactrols for instance).
> 
> That's interesting, I have tons of questions :-)
> What are the smallest parts you have soldered so far?

Smallest was 0603, but I usually just use 1206.

> How do you do temperature control?

I turn the temperature control with my hand.

> How do you apply the solder paste if you don't have a stencil? Tiny dabs of solder paste on each pad?

You can buy solder paste in a syringe and squeeze it on to each pad. It's slow, but on small boards it's fine.

> Can you solder boards with components on both sides, or do the components from the first side fall off while you solder the second one?

I have not tried parts on both sides. I am told it works though.

Mark