Homebrew PCBs

On 06/02/2010, at 3:17 PM, awakephd wrote:
> 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!

I haven't tried the tinning part, but I've soldered SMD parts using an alu frypan over a gas flame - no board discoloration, take it off when all the joints look like they've gone shiny.

PG