>Whatever happened to the toaster oven soldering line that flowed for a
>while?  Was there ever a summary by anyone with easy to follow
>directions on how to do this and any pitfalls to watch out for?

Previously, I did try using a Portasol Weller butane solder iron with a
hot-air attachment and the air is just too damn hot.  It really heats up the
chips, but does in fact reflow the solder paste in SECONDS.  Although it
worked OK for me for a few chips, I wouldn't recommend using it in any sort
of production quantity.

If you want to use a toaster-oven for surface mount stuff, go to:

http://www.seattlerobotics.org/encoder/200006/oven_art.htm

The information is detailed enough for any moron to follow.  My only
addition to the instructions is to dip any IC that has a pitch <= .050 into
some paste flux before installation.  This will keep solder bridges from
forming and help prevent misconnects.  I haven't had ONE problem yet in
building approximately a dozen boards.

I've tried the toaster SMT soldering technique described in the link above
with a Toastmaster toast-r-oven and it works GREAT!!  What I would recommend
is "profiling" the temperatures on the crude dial by using a thermocouple to
find out where the temperature REALLY is.  My oven was only 25 degrees off
between what the dial said and what the oven temperature really was, so I
was happy.  I really can't express how lovely this method really is.  The
only caution I have is that if you're using FR-4 laminate, you have to watch
the board at the high temp (~450 deg. F) so it doesn't bake for more than a
minute, as it will start to turn brown and smoke.  The solder should have
reflowed LONG before this ever happens, though.

Good luck.

--Andrew

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