[Elecraft] OT - Hot Air Soldering Guns for SMDs

[Kevin McQuiggin]

Hi Ted:

I wanted to get into some SMD building and tried the hot air approach initially.  It was difficult and unreliable, and I messed up more than I had success.

The best decision I made was to invest in a modestly-priced infrared SMD oven from Amazon.  This works perfectly for me and I have now successfully made well over 100 boards with the device.

Price range was under $200.  There is a lot of negatively about some of these ovens as they are made in China, but despite the poor English in their documentation I found that they work just fine.  Put your pasted board inside with properly placed components, and “voila!” - a working circuit board in 7 minutes!

While the English in the documentation for my particular oven was poor, one can easily figure out what the writer means.  Similarly, the user interface on my oven leaves a bit to be desired, but one can easily figure out what the screens mean, and get the job done.

The oven has about 5 pre-programmed heating cycles for different types of solder and different heating profiles.  I just use the default cycle as it matches my configuration (lead-based solder paste).

Another suggestion is to invest in aluminum solder paste stencils for the boards you are building, if they are available.  These are about $8 from a place in Utah.  They beat trying to squirt paste onto closely-spaced pads with a syringe or other tool!

Hope this info helps, 73,

Kevin VE7ZD / KN7Q





> On Oct 20, 2019, at 12:33 PM, Dauer, Edward <edauer at law.du.edu> wrote:
> 
> I am thinking about trying my hand at building a kit with a bunch of SMDs.  I don’t yet know the gauge.  Any suggestions about the brand or type of hot air soldering gun I should buy?  Any other tools I’ll need, like narrow-gauge solder, wicks, whatever?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Ted, KN1CBR
> 
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