Cheap oven to solder SMD components in Europe

[lilmantis]

Hi all, I will make soon some PCBs for an LED lamp and due to the dissipation of pads I think the only way to assemble them properly would be in an oven. Excluding an expensive assembly house of course.
Does anyone know if I can buy something already made from Europe?
Any suggestions for an controller and adapt an oven for it?

[danadak]

No small number of people have adapted toaster ovens, search the site for those threads.


Regards, Dana.

[lilmantis]

I was wondering if there is anything ready made that I can buy from Europe.

[rstofer]

I have a converted toaster oven but a hot plate works just as well if the board is small - say 2"x3" or so.  I used a GE Hotplate and just turned the power knob all the way up and watched for the solder paste to flow.

My toaster oven is a simple Black and Decker Infra Wave from which I gutted the controls and replaced them with a solid state relay and a PID controller:

http://www.rocketscream.com/shop/reflow-oven-controller-shield-arduino-compatible

I insert the thermocouple into one of the vias so that the controller sees exactly what the board is doing.

I also filled the cavities between the walls with high temperature insulation to make it easier to get up to temperature.

The hot plate is still a viable alternative...

[rob77]

buy a cheap toaster oven - Severin makes some nice and cheap toaster ovens (i have the SEVERIN TO2054 - it's a tiny one) + buy a PID temperature controller + a temp sensor. and you have a crude but usable setup for reflow soldering.
if you plan to reflow only few boards a week then go for a hot air station.

[Fred27]

If you want something of the shelf then take a look at this. Really just a packaged toaster oven and PID controller.
https://www.beta-estore.com/rkuk/order_product_details.html?p=624

[savril]

You may be able to get an halogen oven. This oven use an halogen lamp and a fan beside disperse the heat evenly. Toaster oven use IR and have a tendency to overheat black parts and underheat PCB that is behind the metallic grid, ...
A basic one with 1400W power cost 50€. You can get these in France and UK easily (mostly by internet), I don't know if you can get those in Romania.

Take a look at http://andybrown.me.uk/2014/05/11/awreflow/ for an example. The guy made also another reflow controller which is more easy to duplicate and has a better "PWM" control: http://andybrown.me.uk/2015/07/12/awreflow2/ .
The temperature curve he get with his last setting is interresting :

[lilmantis]

Thank you all for the suggestions. It would appear that one project leads to another.