I’m getting to the point where I have a bit of funding for designs and I’m looking at buying a bench-top reflow oven for prototyping and low-volume production. I haven’t done much reflow myself before so I’m wondering what people would be looking for when making such a purchase.
I’m looking at this one right now:
http://www.apsgold.com/reflow-ovens/low … flow-ovens
Any thoughts? Any favourites out there? Has anybody had any positive or negative experiences with certain brands?
Also, am I being naive in thinking things are pretty easy once I get an oven? I’m planning on getting a stencil made, squeeze on some paste, then bake and all’s good? Is it difficult to do components on top and bottom in an oven?
Thanks for any advice!
My advice would be to solder prototypes by hand if you can, or to use a contract manufacturer who has a complete PCB assembly line otherwise. I wouldn’t have thought having your own reflow equipment was likely to make economic sense unless it’s in regular use.
I’ve looked at the setup costs for assembly and it just seems like that will add up very quickly. If I do a few prototype per month, it wouldn’t take long to cover the cost of a $3k oven.
Maybe I’ll try the toaster idea for now to see how easy that is.
My advice would be to start with the skillet technique - see the Sparkfun tutorial. For anything other than simple designs, I highly recommend Ryan O’Hara’s $25 Kapton solder paste stencils.
If you really want a reflow oven, I suggest one of the cheap (a few hundred $ on Ebay) Chinese units. Check the forums to see which units people recommend. I have one and it works quite well. I certainly wouldn’t spend thousands for what you’re doing.