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By FESCSteve
#11854
The problem with a typical toaster oven is that you are resting the PCB on a rack and expecting convection to transfer the heat to the board. With a hotplate you are conducting the heat directly to the board so the heating process is much easier to do.

Problem is that it's much easier to really cook the board. Look for a true convection oven to reflow with. These use fans to move the air around inside which will greatly help the process and reduce the risks that a hotplate poses. They can cook a turkey in short time and also reflow a board fairly easily.

They are more expensive though and if you are careful, a hotplate will work very well. Personally I prefer a 14 zone full convection, nitrogen inertable conveyor oven, but it won't fit in the spare room ;)

I have a 6 zone (actually 3 verticle zone) conveyorized IR/Convection oven in my home workshop that works great though. Perhaps a bit more than the typical hobbiest uses, but it was really cheap on Ebay.

Steve

FWIW - lead free does not necessiraly need to be much hotter than typical 63/37 if you select the proper alloy. Many early alloys required a lot more heat that put the temperatres close to the component limits. More modern bismuth and indium alloys allow the processing temperatures to be much more close to that of 63/37