I've used a toaster oven with a controller and found, especially with
the small boards I generally make, that it can overheat the board.
This is due to not being able to measure the temperature exactly at
the pcb, and not being able to see the pcb as it cooks. Currently I
use a very nice lab-grade hotplate (ebay) where I can see exactly
what's happening. I recently saw where someone had put an ir
thermometer focused on the hotplate to provide feedback to a
temperature controller. Simple to do and might be an excellent solution.
The best solution would be to clamp a very small thermocouple to a
pad on the pcb itself and use that for feedback.
Mark
At 10:57 AM 1/2/2013, you wrote:
>Then I guess it comes down to "what you have on hand" compared to
>the price of buying something....
>
>I got my toaster oven local for less than 20$ used ... another 14$
>for a digital thermometer that goes to 500 degrees ... a bit of
>tinfoil for heat shield and im up and working ....
>
>To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
>From: kalle@...
>Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2013 14:43:46 +0000
>Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: Nuwave PIC
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> Interesting gadgets, too expensive still for what is
> inside. I have pondered making may own but not much into
> cooking. Bearing heaters are distant cousins, they let you slip
> the 'turn' of the bearing over a transformer core leg and heat it
> fast and repeatably to expand it for dropping onto a shaft with a shrink fit.
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>The heating is via eddy current fields (no EMP) so you need a
>conductive 'pot' on the cooker before it will work correctly. The
>frequency should not be particularly high perhaps 100-120 Hz. Very
>little of the AC magnetic field will penetrate a good electrical
>conductor (such as a copper, aluminium or silver plate/sheet) and if
>you are nervous you can add a sheet of iron or mu-metal to block out
>any residual field that bothers you (just check the temperature
>handling and curie point of the mu-metal before you pay for it).
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>There was an up-market eddy current heated soldering iron but this
>had the magnetic coil enclosed in the bit so no expected field leakeage.
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>The built coocker in profiles may have slightly low temperatures but
>hacking it could do the trick. A South African made similar
>hotplate (similar price too) claims and appears to have a
>temperature sensor but I have only seen the units at shows so not
>sure, if a non-contact IR thermometer is built in then it could
>indeed be an interesting heating plate controller.
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>Kalle
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>--
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>Johannesburg, South Africa
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>--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Mark Lerman <mlerman@...> wrote:
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> > Hi all,
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> > Anyone have any thoughts about using this to solder pcbs - it would
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> > seem easy to hack the controls of the cooktop to create soldering
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> > profiles. But, would the "inductive" heater damage the ics?
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> <https://www.nuwavepic.com/?ref_version=PPC-ADWORDS-PN07&gclid=COKKu_WqxbQCFcuZ4Aod9h4AxQ>
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> > Mark
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>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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>------------------------------------
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>Be sure to visit the group home and check for new Links, Files, and Photos:
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBsYahoo! Groups Links
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