@ RobvanSchelven - great!
How is the build quality of the oven? Did you have to do any alterations/modifications?
I think its great, It feels all very solid and stable. I didnāt have to do any modification. I am even thinking of buying the larger version of this oven so that i can also can solder PCBās build up in a panel
Thank you. Have you tried lead-free paste?
No, just because of the higher melting temperature
I only have lead-free paste on hand. I wonder if that could be a part of my problemā¦
Yes, maybeā¦ You should take a look at the data sheet of the paste.
ā¦ and itās expiry ! IIRC, shelf life of lead free is more important than leadedā¦
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+1 for the expiry dateā¦ Iāve learned it the hard way very recently, thus wasting one of the 3 sample PCBs I had.
I ordered a small syringe of Kester 256 (which has lead). I will be testing it later this week,
Just made a test with the cooking oven 
Result is not perfect, of course, but all connections are ok and the board is behaving as expected. Iām happy for a first attempt.
Gadgeteer header #1 was previously soldered with hot-air. Although it was working, you can see that the plastic has begun to melt. Not that much, but still. The two others were soldered in the oven and they look fine, without any melting mark. Of course, every pin of each header has been test OK.
About resistors and capacitor, wellā¦ They are ābigā enough to be soldered by hot-air (1206 size) but itās faster in the oven 
Now, what is not that good ?
[ul]the quantity of solder paste was too much on some resistors
I think the reflow time was not enough (about 45 sec)
I forgot the flux :([/ul]
[em]Edit: the solder paste is Sn62Pb36Ag2[/em]
All in all, I still find that it is not that bad. And since itās working, itās almost good. I now know how I will do my next boards
This evening, I will try this method to solder a Texas Instrument DRV8821, which is an HTSSOP48 chip. Iāve had very hard time to solder it with hot-airā¦ Letās see how it will do in the oven
Looks good. I thought solder paste supposed to have flux.
This one was explicitely marked as āSolder flux neededā but maybe other brands do contain flux ?
As promised, hereās a test with a HTSSOP48 chip. I have chosen this chip for 2 reasons : I had a spare PCB that could receive it and had a chip with 2 twisted pins (on the left side of the chip) that I could destroy
Result : to me, it"s near perfect. After close inspection, the chip is not quite well aligned. Itās visible with a magnifying glass but not with naked eyes. But the traces on the PCB are long enough to accomodate this.
Iāve been very precautious with solder paste and did not forget the flux, this time. Reflow temperature was set at 220Ā°C during 60 sec.
Now, I have to admit that a new world is opening its doors to me I may even order Gadgeteer headers 
Crazy, isnāt it ?
Exciting indeed! How did you apply the paste?
With a syringe and a small needle. This time, Iāve tried to put a relatively small amount of paste, though 
Crazy indeed!
Congrats on the reflow. Seeing your results with the Gadgeteer sockets, you have me thinking about giving it a try. Sad thing is that we threw out a toaster oven during our last move 
I tested with the kester leaded paste and had better resultsā¦ However, without a stencil I tend to get bridging on fine pitch chips. I just go over the bridged pins with hot air and all is well.
This particular chip (DRV8821) is really hard to solder, even with the oven ! Thereās not much room between pads : 0.23mm for a 0.27mm pin width
Iāve just made another test and it doesnāt seem that good 
I have yet to check for real bridging, but visually itās not good. What Iāve done this time is putting a ābandā of paste along the pads, to see if reflow would still āremoveā paste between pins. It does not. At least, not completely and/or not on all pins.
Also, it seems that my oven (the one we use daily in the kitchen) does not heat fast enough, which could be logical as it is a ābigā oven, and so the temperature for the soaking and reflow may not be good.
It still needs some adjustments, measures and tries, but I think this is THE way to go when soldering either small batches of boards or when a big SMD chip is needed.
Dude, leaded solder in your oven? Any solder in your oven? Bags not eating the first loaf of bread out of it !
I think that for that fine a pitch you are going to need a stencel. Doesnāt matter how good the oven is if the paste distribution is wrongā¦