Lgbeno 189 Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 After a few years with the toaster ovens, I recently upgraded to this T-962 Reflow oven that I picked up on eBay for $184. Not sure why I waited so long, I baked my first 3 boards printed with stencils from OSH Stencil and they turned out great. Highly recommended! chicken, bluehash, Fmilburn and 3 others 6 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
greeeg 460 Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 Nice addition! I've got the same one. Just for fun one weekend long ago I decided to load up the custom firmware available for it. https://github.com/UnifiedEngineering/T-962-improvements/wiki It makes the UI a bit nicer, and add some extra settings. If it's working well for you now, there might be no need. chicken 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chicken 630 Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 I still use my unmodified toaster oven, eyeballing it with a thermocouple and watching through the window while manually operating the dial. But at less than $200 this is very tempting, even though I stopped home baking for anything else than prototypes. How much babysitting does it need? Is it set and forget? Any noticable difference in results compared to a toaster oven? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
greeeg 460 Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 How much babysitting does it need? Is it set and forget? Any noticable difference in results compared to a toaster oven? I find mine is quicker than my particular toaster oven was. and I set and forget mine. The profile I have runs for 7 Minutes. My workflow goes like this: Apply Solder paste to 4 PCBs PnP components for 1 PCB (manually with vacuum pickup tool, and tape laid out flat) Place PCB in Oven, run cycle Continue to (2) if more PCBs remaining. The vacuum pickup tool has halved my manual placement time. Highly recommend over tweezers. Note the temperature of IR heating elements isn't ideal for PCB reflow*. Because it's Radiation heating vs Convection heating. The thermocouples generally don't track well with the PCB temperature. Once you've tweaked the profile for your PCBs it works great. *IR / Radiation heating for PCBs is bad because the temperature rise of the PCB will be related to the emissivity of the PCB. ie a black soldermask PCB will heat more quickly than a green one. tripwire and Fmilburn 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Lgbeno 189 Posted May 1, 2016 Author Share Posted May 1, 2016 Yep, mine is very much set and forget too which is nice because with my last oven I accidentally put in a pcb and then went and made lunch. 15 min later it was a bubbly black smelly piece of trash. Its not perfect like Greg said but a hell of a lot better then what I was doing previously. So far I'm happy with the stock firmware but that mod is good to know if I want to dial it in further! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to post Share on other sites
spirilis 1,265 Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 I find mine is quicker than my particular toaster oven was. and I set and forget mine. The profile I have runs for 7 Minutes. My workflow goes like this: Apply Solder paste to 4 PCBs PnP components for 1 PCB (manually with vacuum pickup tool, and tape laid out flat) Place PCB in Oven, run cycle Continue to (2) if more PCBs remaining. The vacuum pickup tool has halved my manual placement time. Highly recommend over tweezers. Note the temperature of IR heating elements isn't ideal for PCB reflow*. Because it's Radiation heating vs Convection heating. The thermocouples generally don't track well with the PCB temperature. Once you've tweaked the profile for your PCBs it works great. *IR / Radiation heating for PCBs is bad because the temperature rise of the PCB will be related to the emissivity of the PCB. ie a black soldermask PCB will heat more quickly than a green one. What solutions would you recommend for the vacuum pickup tool? I've wanted one for a while... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
greeeg 460 Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 What solutions would you recommend for the vacuum pickup tool? I've wanted one for a while... My setup is still very simple. A small vacuum pump from ebay, a pack of glue dispensing syringe tips, and some PVC tubing. It's not perfect by any means, but the whole thing only cost $20 or so. I'm planning to improve on it when I find some time. spirilis 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
zeke 693 Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 Your comments about a vacuum pickup tool reminded me that I want to build this manual pick and place rig for myself: http://vpapanik.blogspot.ca/2012/11/low-budget-manual-pick-place.html yyrkoon, Fmilburn and Fred 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.