I thought I'd share my little experience last night.
I usually reflow my LEDs with a heat gun. The gun comes to temperature quick, takes less than 10-20 sec for the emitter to set and less likely to burn myself. All I have to do is plug in the gun and clamp it in my workworking vise and I'm all set to go.
Currently, my workshop has been converted into a finishing booth as I'm spraying shellac & poly for my kitchen centre island project. I do not want to disturb the air in the shop as it may stir up the dust as my boards cure.
So last night I was planning to reflow some LEDs on the cooktop but my plan was quickly spoiled as I was kicked out of the kitchen by the wife. Rats!
I thought to myself, "What would MacGyver do in my case?". (Damn, did I just date myself?)
Two words, "Clothes iron!". It works quite well. I was worried at first that it wouldn't come up to temperature but it was fine.
Don't worry. My iron is dedicated for the shop for fixing/steaming dents on boards and edge banding so no chance to piss off the wife there. Happy wife, happy life!
Now thats thinking outside the box BIGWOOD. You must nearly be the perfect husband. A man that has his own iron. Can you use the steam function to smooth out any wrinkles in the star?
Great creativity BIGWOOD. I got caught reflowing the other night too. I luckily had just finished. Good thing because I would not have thought of that great solution.
I use a small vice sitting on my desk to hold a wooden clothespin horizontal above the table. I then put the star into the clothespin. The clothespin keeps the star in place for hands-free reflowing and because it is wood, it doesn’t absorb the heat from my reflowing.
The last step is to hold my 30w soldering iron to the underside of the star until the low-temp solder paste melts. Works great.
After getting caught reflowing on the hob in a decent frying pan and then a few months later burning the oven mitts whilst experimenting with flaming anodizing, I am totally banned from any led related projects in the kitchen!
I use an old frying pan which became mine after the first time I re-flowed in it. Sometimes I gotta wait for the stove top to became available, but haven't been kicked out.... yet
Can you use the steam function to smooth out any wrinkles in the star?
