Has anyone tried using sand to even the temperature when soldering with a hob?
There are variety of options to utilize when using a hob/skillet, aluminum block, copper block, other metals, thick pan or similar. I have never tried sand, but it could work? How does sand behave with heat? How would you build something with sand? Put it inside a receptacle/box?
I thought it may be useful for double sided boards, solder one side first, then the other, using the sand to hold the bottom components in place. We had the idea at work. Some of our customers test pipes that are heated with sand in aluminum trays on hot plates.
I’ve got some Samsung LH351B to solder, so I thought I’d try something a little safer than may helping hands and a mini blow torch.
I think it’s maybe time to invest in a reflow oven if you’re soldering double sided boards that regularly. Use a higher temp solder paste for the bottom components.
I’ve used a toaster oven before for some SMD boards. The main IC had a hidden thermal connection, so soldering iron was out of the question. Only had a 50% success rate though. I’ll see how the hob, pan and sands works out (>£15 outlay).
Just realised I bought LH351B’s, it was LH351D’s I was after. LOL, thought they were cheap.
@ecotack, if you live near a university/college, go look if they sell any used temperature monitored hot plates, or even just scientific hotplates.
These have the advantage of being able to easily monitor the temperature and adjust it. The temperature rise is extremely consistent, time wise and surface wise, even with an analog one.
The analog one was free, but not the digital one. Which one did I take since I knew they literally had the same regulating hardware and specs? The free one of course 
This is how I reflowed LH351Ds onto my Q8, and the LEDs work very well, with the proof that the light gets hot much faster than even my initial modded Q8, meaning thermal transfer from the LED to the board is excellent.
One of the PCBs I have to solder is to up-grade a pop can 6 LED (fake Cree’s) to a Q8 4 LED reflector. Another is for 6 LEDs in a C8.
We supply digital heater stirrers, may even have one in stock, but they are a few hundred £, so best not experiment with them. I’ll try the £10 eBay hob first.
The other (OT) solder job we have has 68 pins soldered to the bottom of the PCB and a 68 pin PLCC chip soldered to the top. I think using a solder with a higher melting point on the pins will be our pest option.