Advanced Soldering and Reflow: Guides and Debate

[mkawa]

Parak and I have been having a lively discussion about varieties of soldering processes beyond the simple hot tip and 63/37 RA DIP soldering. Follow up here for discussions and sharing of your favorite _advanced_ soldering processes!

ps, bpiph, that's your cue to post pictures of your toaster

[Parak]

I've been hunting around for a while now for a good quality 220-240V hot air station.
I've been given a quote for one of these Goot stations , direct from the manufacturer, about $850 AUD shipped (exact quote was 74800 yen + paypal fees) including the vacuum attachment and a few extra nozzles.
The price is a bit higher than I really wanted to pay, but I don't mind as much if it is well-manufactured (country of origin states Japan, but it's been suggested to me that pehaps the internals are actually all Chinese with just the assembly/testing conducted in Japan, hence my uncertainty as to whether it's worth the money).

I don't really want to get a cheap-nasty/clone unit, I've been spoilt with the hand iron I've used to date (goot PX-601), not to mention it wouldn't be the first time I've seen an Aoyue or similar station have the wiring in an unsafe manner.
There are only a handful of Australian sellers with good-quality equipment, and it all seems to be in the $800+ range without vacuum attachment or extra nozzles (the vast majority of Australian stock seems to be more like $1200+ which is insanely ridiculous for my present needs).

I was pointed towards JBC (european made, hence native 230V), and the Korean/Singaporean second-hand market, as a place to start looking.
Any other suggestions from GHers regarding alternatives? Any native speakers mind taking a look and letting me know if there's much on offer?

So, something to keep in mind is that a hot air station is primarily designed for rework, rather than reflow. For basic reflow, that is if you're populating a PCB using SMD components, stencil, paste, etc, you'll want a reflow oven instead.

That said, a proper quality hot air station is some serious $ - for example the JBC ones are closer to $1600 USD, but they are pretty awesome for a variety of reasons. Buuuut, when you're doing hot air rework, you also want a preheater so that you don't warp your board. This... adds to the cost again, and the larger the board the larger of a preheater you would ideally want. For the chinese IR rework route, your best option is to look at forums that deal in game console and video card repair, for BGAs and the like. They'll be able to advise you much better if any of those units are even worth looking at - I unfortunately have little experience in that area.

[mkawa]

do the big-bga-chip-reflow-as-a-hobby (aka video game console repair) guys have any measurable success in repairing things? all the serious bga prototyping/rework gear i've seen requires like a dedicated clean room and a full-time attendant that does nothing but launder bunny suits.. the video game repair stuff i've heard about is at the level of "hit it with a heat gun and hope it starts working"

[Parak]

do the big-bga-chip-reflow-as-a-hobby (aka video game console repair) guys have any measurable success in repairing things? all the serious bga prototyping/rework gear i've seen requires like a dedicated clean room and a full-time attendant that does nothing but launder bunny suits.. the video game repair stuff i've heard about is at the level of "hit it with a heat gun and hope it starts working"

Hah, I honestly have no idea. I guess they probably do have at least occasional success, since there are plenty of services about it on the various forums and ebay listing targeting them. Yeah, at the very least for proper BGA reflow inspection I'd like for the use of a prism microscope for ball inspection instead of hoping it just works, but slim chance of that on the hobbyist level since that costs multiple times more than a chinese BGA rework station

[twiddle]

Bah, forum ate my post, take 2..

Right, so I appreciate the feedback regarding hot air. I actually enjoy hand soldering though, so my inquiry into the hot air station was not with the idea of replacing my hand iron and using the station for reflowing entire boards.

I'm currently doing a fair bit of prototyping using Cortex microcontrollers, both for custom mech controllers, as well as other peripherals, so one of the main reasons I wanted the hot air station was to easily be able to remove MCUs or other components from my prototype boards as I iterate, rather than having to toss them if there's a fault on the prototype (I know, I know, should try to avoid having mistakes on the prototypes, but it happens). The MCUs can be expensive, let alone some of the other parts, so having the ability to easily remove them in order to tweak designs is something that is becoming increasingly important.

I do, however, want to use the hot air to reflow the occasional small QFN part - Freescale make a nice accelerometer, for example, but it's a 4mm QFN-14 and I consider my solder-fu good, but not good enough to do that with a hand iron

Edit: I have also considered the toaster oven, for reflow - but even a DIY reflow oven will still set me back $600 and use up an impractical amount of workspace in the area I have set aside for this stuff, not to mention not allowing me to easily remove parts. 

[Parak]

Honestly, for such use, I'd try the cheapo option first and see if it works. That is, a 220v version of a 858D+ - it's a fairly well reviewed unit with a bunch of nozzle options, heater coil replacements readily available, built in fan, etc.

There's even a mod thread for it over here that reportedly improves on its performance.

[mkawa]

hmm. interesting. this is why DIP packages were so great. solderless breadboards, c'mon!

realistically, i think you might want to add up the cost of lost parts and see if they start to reach the cost of a really serious multi-function station. if they do, well heck, you're going to spend the money regardless . if not, there may be a good middle ground for you.

[twiddle]

I was looking into the cheapo units, then heard that a number of them come shipped in the 'death trap' configuration - ie active wires connected to the unit's chassis and other issues. Sorta random if the unit you got had the problem or not, so you'd have to pull the unit apart on arrival to test it before use.
That was what made me consider something much more pricey.

[mkawa]

yah, don't touch those super chintzy stations.