Recommend Solder paste?

Posted on
  • I built a hobbyist re-flow oven using the ControlLeo2(whizoo.com) and the toaster oven that they recommended to use. What solder paste do you guys recommend to use?

    Also, does anyone have a good technique on how to re-flow a two sided PCB?

  • I have one of those ovens too. I use the cheap mechanic 63/37 leaded paste.

    I have not had results as good with unleaded.

    You can see a few examples of boards I've reflowed that way in my tindie store as examples: http://tindie.com/stores/drazzy

    1634 pic was taken of board with solder applied with syringe, ch340gs and the row of 4 841s was done with stencil

  • @DrAzzy thanks for the recommendation I'm going to order a unleaded version also.

    This oven is taking me forever to build :/ God only knows how long the RepRap Prusa i3 3D printer will take for me to put together once It actually arrives. I'm really not that mechanically inclined LOL.

  • The oven build was surprisingly timeconsuming, yeah.

    Re: reflowing both sides... There is special glue you can get to hold parts down. If you manage to make all the parts on the second side the same thickness, of course (like put all your resistors on the back) you can do the bottom first, then flip it over and put paste and parts on the other side, and you don't need glue because the parts have nowhere to go. When possible, avoid having to have parts on both sides (you'll notice that in commercial products, they will put all the parts on one side where possible)

  • ... other thing to add is you'll notice on some boards they have components on both sides, but all the components on one side are through-hole parts that needed hand soldering anyway.

  • I'm using Chipquik flux and solder and I'm very happy with it. Truth be told though I've not tried anything other than this. Someone told me when I started with electronics to buy good quality solder so I've always spent money on something above the 'bottom line' in terms of price.

    EDIT: Come to think of it I'm pretty sure I heard it in one of the early EEVBlog videos ^^

  • Post a reply
    • Bold
    • Italics
    • Link
    • Image
    • List
    • Quote
    • code
    • Preview
About

Recommend Solder paste?

Posted by Avatar for d0773d @d0773d

Actions