>Hmmm... specific implementations aside temporarily, I've got apparently
>similar usage questions as the original poster of this thread.  Tell me if
>this is the correctly assumed process ... melt solder in pot, brush flux on
>PCB bottom, populate components, clip leads, dip board in for a few=
 seconds,
>then remove flux... ?

Somewhat what I was going to try. Melt the solder dross it  insert the=
 parts,
spray on the flux, zip it through the solder trim and clean. Have no idea if
that is any better order than your order of ops though.

>Sounds difficult to just get the bottom of the PCB wet with solder --=
 doesn't
>that pose a problem if solder gets on the top?  And I'm sure all components
>can't be dunked in, so some must be done later, but wouldn't the solder=
 bath
>plug up the holes?

On my board I can do everything in one shot as its all through hole. The=20
biggest
problem is going to be running the board through fast enough so the=20
component with the
lowest temp tolerance doesn't smoke.

>Now if you can do this in a frying pan, what sort of temps do you use?

The pan I've got will go up to about 475=B0F which is higher than the solder=
=20
which
offhand was 375-425. The only problem is that it has a huge surface area and
not really all that much heat.

>BTW, 5 seconds sounds like a long time.  I would imagine 2-3 seconds being
>quite enough.

Yup 1-2 secs is probably best.

>If you need a wave, perhaps you could modify one of these...
>       http://www.lavalites.com/wave.html
>:-)

I'll put that right next to my lava lamp and zen sand garden.....;-]


>Alternately, perhaps all you need is some sort of very simple lever device,
>which crosses over the pot and has clips to hold the board about midway. =
 The
>long end of the lever would give you more precise control over how much the
>board is lowered.

My original idea was to duplicate a wave machine and slide it through but I=
=20
don't
think its going to work that well so the alternative way is to make a metal=
=20
holder
out of 6061 angle with a means of adjusting the height from the bottom. So=
 you
put the board in push it in count 1 and yank it out. In theory the=20
standoffs hit the
bottom of the pan and doesn't submerge the board just the bottom gets "wet".

Like I said I'm just playing as I couldn't find diddly squat for diy info=20
on doing this.

Dave

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