DIY SMD Reflow Oven in Elektor January 2006

[RickB]

This sounds interesting, according to www.elektor-electronics.co.uk
Elektor will be publishing an article on how a cheapo pizza oven can be
modified into an SMD reflow oven. Brilliant idea, never seen anyone
doing that. I haven't seen the article yet (I'm on subscription, mag is
due next Saturday 10 Dec.) but I'm very curious to see how the
temperature for the various solder phases is accurately controlled as
that seems to be the critical factor.

http://www.elektor-electronics.co.uk/Default.aspx?tabid=27&year=2006&month=1&art=52955&PN=On

There's also a dedicated topic on their Forum.

RickB
(on pizza for most of the week)

 

[Robert Lacoste]

May be a brilliant idea, but published some months ago in Circuit Cellar :
http://www.circuitcellar.com/library/print/0704/Lacoste_168/

Friendly,
Robert

 

[RickB]

thanks for the pointer Robert, I was not aware of this publication. I
noticed from the CC article that infrared heaters are preferred, I can
see why.
Circuit Cellar, wasn't that just Steve Garcia many moons ago?

Rick

 

[Mike Young]

This sounds interesting, according to www.elektor-electronics.co.uk
Elektor will be publishing an article on how a cheapo pizza oven can be
modified into an SMD reflow oven. Brilliant idea, never seen anyone
doing that. I haven't seen the article yet (I'm on subscription, mag is

Maybe not for the faint of heart... I reflow in a wok on a gas range. Medium
flame is about right on profile judging from visual cues only: flux
activation in about a minute, and reflow starts about 2 minutes later. ISO
certification is unlikely, but not a concern here.

 

[Dirk Bruere at Neopax]

Maybe not for the faint of heart... I reflow in a wok on a gas range.
Medium flame is about right on profile judging from visual cues only:
flux activation in about a minute, and reflow starts about 2 minutes
later. ISO certification is unlikely, but not a concern here.

And I just thought you ran a blowtorch up and down the board untill stuff starts
to drip...

--
Dirk

The Consensus:-
The political party for the new millenium
http://www.theconsensus.org

 

[Joel Kolstad]

And I just thought you ran a blowtorch up and down the board untill stuff
starts to drip...

The wok approach is required for mil-spec compliance.

 

[ehsjr]

Maybe not for the faint of heart... I reflow in a wok on a gas range.
Medium flame is about right on profile judging from visual cues only:
flux activation in about a minute, and reflow starts about 2 minutes
later. ISO certification is unlikely, but not a concern here.

I guess it can be truly said, you wok like a man.

Ed

 

[Rich Grise]

thanks for the pointer Robert, I was not aware of this publication. I
noticed from the CC article that infrared heaters are preferred, I can see
why.
Circuit Cellar, wasn't that just Steve Garcia many moons ago?

Ciarcia, IIRC.

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Rich Grise, but drunk]

I guess it can be truly said, you wok like a man.

And, of course, don't neglect that famous Chinese cookbook, "How to wok
your dog"...

Cheers!
Rich

 

[petrus bitbyter]

thanks for the pointer Robert, I was not aware of this publication. I
noticed from the CC article that infrared heaters are preferred, I can
see why.
Circuit Cellar, wasn't that just Steve Garcia many moons ago?

Rick

FAIK he still is. You may remember him from the days of Byte. Never knew
what happened but one day Circuit Cellar disappeared from Byte and came out
on its own. (I missed some issues at the time so it might have been
announced.) Byte went down, once tried to rise again but did not make it.
Apparently Circuit Cellar is still alive and kicking. Guess Elektor wants
(or needs) to follow the CC formula if it wants to survive. The popularity
of hobby electronics seems to be decreasing to say the least.

petrus bitbyter

 

[Joel Kolstad]

The popularity of hobby electronics seems to be decreasing to say the least.

I don't think that's necessarily true. My observations have been:

1) For basic electronics, people seem to want to find resources on-line these
day, and there are some very good web sites out there. This eliminates some
of the demand for printed articles that are mostly of a tutorial nature.
Likewise, for people looking for projects to put together, there's thousands
of them instantly available on the 'net.
2) Many people who historically would have designed some circuit with a 555,
discrete transistors, etc. can now just "use a PIC" or similar microcontroller
to solve a much broader range of problems, and for a price that's still quite
inexpensive. In other words, a lot of people out there who might historically
have been hobbyist circuit designers are now closer to hobbyist systems
integrators. (To a large extent, this is out of necessity -- no single person
is going to sit around and design their own WiFi adapter at the transistor
level...!)

If anything, I'd say there are MORE electronic hobbyists out there now than
ever before; countries that have recently become more technologically focused
such as China and India are significantly contributing to this. It's just
that the type of information these people want is often not necessarily in
like with, e.g., Elektor...

I don't think publications like Circuit Cellar Ink, Nuts & Volts, or Make
Magazine (just celebrating its one year annivesary!) are going away any time
soon. Personally I'm surprised that QEX is still around, advertising a
circulation of 8,000 copies per month -- I hope it doesn't go away anytime
soon either.

---Joel

 

[RickB]

I've now had a chance to compare both designs and if we are beleive the
time/temperature graphs the Elektor project seems to have the better
temperature control.

Rick

 

[RickB]

Strange you should say that. Elektor being alive and kicking too (cf
EPE and EW) witness their recent free offerings with the mag (DVD in
November 05, VB booklet in January 06) and I can't see why they should
'follow the CC formula' . The Americans may not like to hear it, but
the European electronics DIY and small-lab scere dwarfs anything still
going on in the US. The total print run of the international editions
of Elektor is >100k, their strength is in languages (the spoken ones, I
mean).

Rick

 

[JeffM]

RickB wrote [without context]:

Strange you should say that.

Context on Google Groups--the easy way:
http://groups.google.com/group/sci....omated-blockquote-*-*-*+click-THAT-Reply-link

 

[Nick.]

I've now had a chance to compare both designs and if we are beleive the
time/temperature graphs the Elektor project seems to have the better
temperature control.

Rick

It looks interesting... I'm going to give it a try.

Argos sell a Hinari toaster oven for 19.95 ukp. It has a 6.5 ltr capacity
- about a 3rd of the size (and cost) of the oven used in the article.