Homebrew PCBs

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, DJ Delorie <dj@...> wrote:
>
> 
> "James" <jamesrsweet@...> writes:
> > You could attach a thermistor to the hot plate and build a simple
> > temperature control circuit to keep the temperature FAR more stable
> > than the controls, if any, that are built in.
> 
> I've thought of that, but mine is cast iron - it has way too much
> thermal mass to be accurately controlled *at all*.  It takes about
> three minutes to get up to temperature, and the ramp-up is pretty good
> for reflow soldering, so as long as I don't mess with it it works for
> one board at a time, or multiple boards simultaneously, just not for
> multiple boards consecutively.
> 
> If I'm going to start hacking up an mcu-controlled reflow device, I
> won't start with a cast iron hotplate.
>

In my case, it is *literally* a hot plate -- a piece of aluminum sitting on a portable one-eye electric burner. I am wanting to move towards surface mount components and reflow, so that is why I thought I'd do some experimenting to see what I could do with something along these lines. I was looking for an electric skillet at all the thrift stores near here ... apparently they sell quickly when they get one. Finally one store had this electric burner, so I decided to give it a try. Clearly, I need to do some more experimenting with the temperature settings ...

Meanwhile, I don't have any of the liquid tin stuff, nor am I in a position to get any anytime soon, so I thought I'd see if I could manually tin a board quickly this way. I fluxed the board, heated it, dabbed on some solder, and brushed it out. Worked great ... except for the small problem of over cooking the board!