There are lots of claim to be workable solutions out there to reflowing boards at home – mostly involving kitchen appliances like toaster ovens and various sorts of hot plates and skillets.
An interesting approach by David Sanz Kirbis uses a halogen shop or flood light as heat source and enclosure.
More info:
2 Comments
Teodor V. says:
An approach I will take once I get to the level of designing a home reflow oven is to take an off-the-shelf counter-top convection oven and mod it for reflow use. That’s one thing I’ve seen lacking with many of the DIY reflow solutions, getting even heating. The fan in an convection oven takes care of that, and the only thing you have to watch out for is that the max temp of the oven (it needs to be able to melt the solder you are using) and keeping in mind you never exceed the max time marked on the oven. And then ventilation in the room you are operating it on of course.
So, appropriate microcontroller platform, appropriate SSR or triac, appropriate convection oven. The latter are on the market in the 80-150€ ballpark for the desktop models.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reflowduino – Bluetooth Reflow Oven Controller
https://hackaday.io/project/27900-reflowduino-bluetooth-reflow-oven-controller
Reflowduino is a completely open-source Arduino-compatible reflow oven controller with tons of features!
Reflowduino is a fully open-source, Arduino-compatible board based on the ATmega32u4 and packed with features, including Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), LiPo battery charging and thermocouple interface to name a few. The Reflowduino Pro version comes with an opto-isolated solid-state relay already mounted on-board.
The Reflowduino is an all-in-one Arduino-compatible controller board that can easily transform a toaster oven into a reflow oven for much less the price! It sports a versatile ATmega32u4 microprocessor with micro USB programming interface, an integrated MAX31855 K-type thermocouple interface with noise filtering, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE 4.0) for easy pairing with a mobile device, LiPo battery charging and status indication, an optional solid-state relay, and buzzer to tell you when dinner’s ready!