[Elecraft] (OT) Baking PC boards in the toaster oven...

[EricJ]

-----Original Message-----

   Unless you want to buy good equipment, you will be inspecting every
joint, doing a lot of touch up and replacing fried components.  You'll have
a lot of field failures from intermittent joints.  Toaster ovens don't make
sense.  Single cavity ovens could be made to work well if there's a lot of
moving air and if the walls of the oven and the air can be kept very close
to the temperature profile, including the cool-down phase.

[Hams aren't switching to SMTs to avoid having to inspect every board. We
will still have to do that with SMTs no matter how we install them.]


   For experimenters, it makes much more sense to stick with the larger smt
sizes and solder them in by hand with a soldering iron and hand-held solder.

[Technical hobbies don't advance by doing what "makes more sense." They
often advance when some wacky guy commandeers the family toaster oven to
solder parts and doesn't burn the house down...or poison them all with lead
exposure.]

Henry AC5LA

[Thanks for the background info, Henry. I never even realized such equipment
was used until one of the Elecrafters mentioned the toaster oven idea. There
was another article in Circuit Cellar magazine that said commercial ovens
also use infrared as well as air convection ovens. All in all, it is pretty
amazing technology. It's something I want to try just because it's...well,
just because.

Eric
KE6US


  

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