Yeah, that’s the idea. :+1:
And with an only 30 Watts soldering iron?
But in that topic someone suggested this:
https://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10002875/1214600-150w-temperature-controlled-soldering-pot
I’m not sure what the mains voltage is in AU,but it has a AU plug.
It’s not ideal, but it’s cheap, stable and regulated.
Au is 230v.
What is wrong with using the 2nd electric hot plate pictured in the OP or a 6” electric skillet like this?
I have always just balanced the PCB on the side of my soldering iron barrel and have gotten good results. No special anything needed.
When I was a kid, my parents had an automotive vinyl seat repair kit that included a soldering iron type of tool with a flat paddle tip like pictured below. I’m curious if one of those would work for reflow.
could a copper bar be used instead of aluminium? Heat up the bar with a gasburner with the star on it. Or would the heat release unhealthy gasses from the copper?
A hot air station is great if you plan on reflowing tiny components on pcb's. If not, get one of these. Often on sale for about $8. Just put your star, solder paste, and led in a helping hand. The heat from below and with in seconds, it is reflowed. Very easy to control the level of heat by the distance you hold the gun from the base. Plus you can remove the heat instantly with a flick of your hand. Less stress on the LED/base and no disturbing the LED as the solder cools. You'll never reflow by another method again.
ImA4Wheeler, I already have one of those in my garage! It has two heat settings: 1. Hot as Frick, and 2. Auto-ignition of anything within 12 inches. Lol.
I had not even considered using it as hot air for reflow, but I’ll certainly give it a shot now that mention it.
This looks like a very good option. I have just now started to reflow leds (melted the dome of one in the process) and was using the tip of the (obviously too hot) soldering iron under the MCPCB to heat it up. As this is far from perfect I am looking for another solution.
I’ve always used my heat gun, it works great. I do a tail-stand with it. Then I hold the PCB with a pair of needle-nose pliers over it at about a 2.5” distance. It works fast too.
A huge advantage of alumimium is that solder does not stick to it, and so the surface stays flat and clean much longer.
i use Alumium block and Heating Element from 3d printer, cost only 3-4$, 12V, 30W, work very well
This is what I use, less than 1 minute and it is done. I also use it to warm bullet moulds and melt pewter when I do not fire up the 100 pound lead pot.
I just Googled that, I like it. Basically the same as the soldering iron in the Al block, but without the handle and such - looks like the most compact option for the workbench/toolbox so far.
I’m glad I asked this question, lots of good options I had not considered!
Those ones from Banggood look pretty cool. Do they work well? I just use a soldering iron but wouldn’t mind a more controlled device. Especially for triples and some other more difficult tasks.
how hot do these 3D-printer hotplates get?
Since we are all brainstorming here I just wanted to highlight another option, albeit not a very compact one:
I understand that this not the hot plate/skillet option, but with a reflow oven you woud have good control over the temperate profile, can reflow multiple boards/pcbs at once and even larger projects, and the costs would be reasonable if you have an older oven somewhere. Also, this can be a fun build project. IMO, this should also be a better reflow option for boards with both sides populated.
Oh, drat. The $60+ Gopher power supply promotion deal ends before they expect to restock.
I reflowed several tripple xp-g boards in the past days and solder pot is a very good option. Once you find good temperature setting reflowing is a breeze. I’m not going back to solder iron or heat gun.
I have been using cheap hot air reflow gun for reflowing LED and changing MCU on a driver board with success, never tried a large board but a small board is easy. Set to 250c, proper airflow and the solder flows nicely.
i have that on my 3d printer, without insulation it could reach 80c with insulation 100c. never tried higher than that as there is no need to go that high on 3d printer. in standar config it runs on 12v but can be modified to run 24v for lower amps. I dont think this would be enough to melt solder as the total power is only 144watts. There are other Heatbeds that run on main voltage which can go as high as 700watts i have no experience with that though but then again it is not design for high temperature operation where the solder will melt so probably not worth it.