Home reflow uses halogen floodlight
Article By : Michael Dunn
A home approach to reflowing boards by David Sanz Kirbis uses a halogen shop as heat source and enclosure.
Reflowing boards at home can take some practice, but there are workable solutions available that mostly involve kitchen appliances like toaster ovens and various sorts of hot plates and skillets.
Here’s an approach by David Sanz Kirbis I stumbled upon recently that I like even more than the usual kitchen-based designs. It uses a halogen shop or flood light as heat source and enclosure (this limits board size, but it shouldn’t be much work to build a larger version).
David’s also gone and made a slick controller for it—based on an existing design—but this setup could probably be operated manually too along with a thermocouple to monitor the cooking profile. Not that I’d want to do that for more than occasional use.
If I were to build one of these, I’d try some slight modifications, like a light shield between the lamp and board to eliminate the direct and uneven, radiative heating, and perhaps a stirrer to keep the air circulating and at an even temperature.
First published by EDN.