Homebrew PCBs

I am new to this group, and never thought about making my own PCB's.  
I have usually ordered them, but I see the benefit and am curious 
about this.  

Now on this thread...It would seem to me that you could modify a 
George Foreman grill to use flat plates instead of the ribbed ones 
and limit the heat and whammo a simple small double sided hotplate.

Am I completely wrong on this?  If not, I might look into it as I 
have a couple laying around.  And even so, they are only like 20 
bucks for the small one.

Brian

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Bertho Boman" <boman01@...> 
wrote:
>
> Hi Mark,
> 
> If you are using a hotplate, the contact between it and the PCB 
affects the
> PCB's temperature.  In that case, you also ought to have a cover 
that
> matches the hotplate temperature (good contact).  That then in 
effect forms
> a mini-oven with uniform temperature.
> 
>  
> 
> It might be more convenient to have an oven with proper air 
circulation and
> independently of the oven temperature control, attach a 
thermocouple to the
> bottom of the PCB to monitor its temperature.
> 
>  
> 
> Do you have any pictures of the modified laser printer?
> 
> Bertho
> 
>  
> 
> From:  Mark Lerman     Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2008 08:39
> Bertho,
> 
> I wouldn't have thought that opto interruptors would be that 
> repeatable. I'm going to run a sheet of paper through a laser 
printer 
> twice and see how well duplicate images register - a rough measure 
of 
> what's easily accomplishable.
> 
> I just bought a pid controller - going to put it on a hot plate and 
> see what happens. Or maybe an oven? Which is better for smt 
soldering?
> 
> Mark
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>