My first reflow attempt

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1

I could not find a skillet going high enough so I just bought a $30 toaster oven at Wal-Mart. I just wanted to solder something simple, so I went with a gadgeteer socket.
The solder was not applied to the pads individually, I just did a thin line across all the pads.

The first board I added a little too much solder so I got two bridges. Second one was flawless.

I set the oven to 400F (on toast), and used the metal tray in there to place the board on.
The solder I used started flowing at around 380F. I didn’t monitor the temp closely, I just watched the board. Took about 1 minute for the whole process.

I am amazed at how easy and good this turned out. I wonder if I got lucky with the solder paste (lead free).

Mod:
I just now noticed that the board on the left are missing the traces on the top layer. Wow. I guess it passed the electric test since there were no traces to test.

2

Very nice. All these ovens lately have me thinking I’m missing out :wink:

I need to get you on the calendar to do a demo of UV DIY PCBs & PCB toasting for NashMicro. Whatcha think?

3

Sure, we could do a start to finish deal using eagle, printing it out and etching it? It might get a little tricky with fine pads for UV pcbs. But if we did 0805 compoents and a gadgeteer socket it should work.

4

Sounds great! December or January? Shoot me an email.