Hi,

steer clear of the butane hot air. The air is way too hot and it is not
air, it is mostly H2O vapor aka steam and CO2. You risk to burn the board.
What you could do is use the butane flame indirectly as an 'open' IR
radiation oven.  You'd put a thin metal plate (canned food lid) on
supports above the board (1/4"to 1/2"  would be right I guess) and heat it
red hot with the butane. This should work right after some trials. Beware
the flux fumes (they are flammable) and don't look into the butane flame
(UV) or into the red hot plate (IR) too much. This takes so much tinkering
imho that you shoulld invest in a carpet-setting hot air blower (400 deg C
2 speeds, 1500W or so), which you can get for under $50 in most places,
and use as is. Still takes practice but it works. I have years of
experience on this (@home) ;-).

hope this helps,

Peter

On Tue, 30 Apr 2002, Drew Vassallo wrote:

>This is a bit off-topic, but since I'm using a PIC in my circuit, I guess
>it's on-topic :)
>
>I'm thinking about using some SMD components on my next project, but I want
>to use something relatively simple (at home) to assemble a few dozen boards.
>
>I've read on the internet that you can use some solder paste and a toaster
>oven, but I've also read that you can use a hot air solder station (mega
>$$).  I've seen some portable butane soldering irons for $50 that have an
>optional hot air gun tip that supposedly fires out a 1400 degree F stream of
>"air" (or whatever products result from burning butane).  Anyone ever try
>this out?
>
>--Andrew
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Join the world s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
>http://www.hotmail.com
>
>--
>http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us!
>email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body
>
>
>

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic:
[PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads