Hi - I have a $50 "delonghi" toaster oven from ebay (4 heating elements=20 and internal fan - I consider the fan essential for even heating) and a=20 $30 mastech MSD838 DMM from jameco.com that has a thermocouple. The=20 setup works well. I only do lead solder. Basic "profile" is to power=20 up and go to 120deg C, wait a minute, then go up to 205-ish deg C for=20 5-10 seconds, then off and open the door an inch, and wait for cooldown.=20 You can watch the solder melt thru the glass door and have some=20 confidence everything has reflowed. And yes, I have plans for doing a=20 reflow controller to make it so the profile is repeatable and closer to=20 ideal and so I don't have to watch it, but ... low priority. For stencil prints, I have this: which was not much more than $200 when I got it 2 years ago. (is $375 now!= ) and use stencils unlimited for the stencils as well, but I've only had a=20 couple made. All this is fun stuff, but until one has a pick and place machine, it is=20 of fairly limited usefulness. It is definitely faster to do SMT reflow=20 (even w/o a stencil, and just use a syringe to deposit the paste on pcb=20 pads) than to hand-solder each part, but the bigger picture is that if=20 you're doing this for more than just a few pcbs now and then, you should=20 figure out how to do the business/cash-flow of having it done by a=20 contract manufacturer, unless your time isn't tight/valuable; depends if=20 your undertaking all this as a career or high-end hobby. And if you're=20 only doing a few pcbs now and then, the time savings vs. just=20 hand-soldering 150 parts on 3 pcbs isn't that much; a few hours, maybe. At least that's what I've come around to thinking over the last few=20 years. And after several false starts, I still don't have a p&p, and=20 likely never will. Anyway, my 2c on the whole thing. For around $100-$120 you can get=20 solder paste in a syringe, toaster oven, themocouple DMM, and have fun.=20 I strongly recommend curved tweezers for doing pick&place of passives=20 and most ICs; little hand-held suction thingies for ICs are mostly not=20 useful in my experience. Don't be tempted to use the toaster oven's=20 built-in temperature readings, at least on mine it is horribly=20 inaccurate. Get a DMM and place the thermocouple at a good=20 representative place and you can have a good idea of what's happening. Cheers, J Josh Koffman wrote: > Hi all. I'm considering dabbling in some homebrew reflow soldering > techniques. It's something that's intrigued me for awhile and I'd like > to see if I can speed my assembly time versus hand soldering. > > The two main methods seem to be toaster oven and electric skillet. I'm > having trouble deciding which way to go. At the moment I'm leaning > towards toaster over as according to some folks you can even do double > sided (http://store.curiousinventor.com/guides/Surface_Mount_Soldering/So= lder_Paste_and_Toaster_Oven > just past 3/4 of the way down the page). The Sparkfun guys use an > electric skillet. Their method seems a bit easier, but double sided > would be out. > > So I was wondering...has anyone here tried either technique? Any > advice or comments? > > Thanks! > > Josh --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .