Vapor phase soldering setup
Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 8:21 amJudging by site stats, this one was one of the more popular stories on an older site I ran, so to get the ball rolling, here's a link.
Of course, this did eventually work, but for various reasons we don't use it much. The extra hassle of having to have a mask to apply solder through, and place all the parts first without bumping some other part off alignment meant we went to a Metcal soldering station for most short run SMD work.
Any real experimenter has these head slap moments -- letting the smoke out of parts because you forgot some peak condition that is obvious in hindsight and other things like that. In some ways, tales of things failing in ways you didn't expect -- along with the cure, are the most informative there are, they help others think about the possibilities before they make the smoke sometimes!
Of course, this did eventually work, but for various reasons we don't use it much. The extra hassle of having to have a mask to apply solder through, and place all the parts first without bumping some other part off alignment meant we went to a Metcal soldering station for most short run SMD work.
Any real experimenter has these head slap moments -- letting the smoke out of parts because you forgot some peak condition that is obvious in hindsight and other things like that. In some ways, tales of things failing in ways you didn't expect -- along with the cure, are the most informative there are, they help others think about the possibilities before they make the smoke sometimes!