Convection toaster oven - best one?

[alex_dubinsky]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm under the impression that all I really need for a decent reflow oven is a toaster oven with a very nice convection fan. The reason for this is that I have a full-range convection oven at home with a 10" internal fan, and it does a very good job of even heating (whether it be PCBs or turkeys). Now, I don't want to use it for leaded reflow, and I don't want to buy a second gas oven either. Unfortunately, the "convection" toaster ovens I've looked at seem to have pretty pathetic fans. I bought one oven, and it does a horrible job at even heating. I haven't researched these in too much depth yet, but I suspect there must be some high-end models that do have powerful fans. Is anyone aware of one? If not, I suppose I'll be back in a while to report on my search.

P.S. I may add a temperature controller in the future (should not be too hard), but may I ask what is the real point of temperature profiles? Are they really more than "nice to have" features for large-scale soldering? Or rather, an optimization for doing soldering very quickly with a higher-than-necessary temp (again for production)? What will happen if I dial in the right not-too-high temp (assuming for the moment that the temp will be maintained) and just let the PCB cook a few minutes longer?

[adafruit]

we like hotplates more - they take longer to cool but the heating is even. see the QK870 - its $400 tho

[alex_dubinsky]

Actually there's few other things I want to evenly heat beside PCBs.

[adafruit_support_bill]

Search for "commercial convection oven". Some of the smaller commercial units might do the job - but they aren't cheap!

http://www.everythingkitchens.com/cadco-covection-oven.html

[alex_dubinsky]

Hey... that's an awesome suggestion. Ebay has tons of these. Check out the fan on this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-WARING-1-4-SIZE-COMMERCIAL-CONVECTION-OVEN-WCO250-/350246976504?cmd=ViewItem&pt=BI_Commercial_Ovens_Ranges&hash=item518c58bbf8#ht_2614wt_913 It's got 1700 watts of power (for fast warmup) and goes up to 500 F. The last question is how good the temperature regulation is.

[AdShea]

If you get something and the temperature regulation doesn't work as well as you'd like you can always hook up a process controller (Omega and others) or make a PID temperature controller yourself. I've gotten a 20USD toaster oven to hold within a +-5C band of a reflow profile using a off-the-shelf process controller and adding a small fan.

[mikeselectricstuff]

we like hotplates more - they take longer to cool but the heating is even. see the QK870 - its $400 tho

Anyone tried something like this burger-griddle - looks tempting as I need to toast some quite large PCBs soon...
I Emailed them and they claim it goes to 300 deg.C
Should be plenty of room inside to add temperature controls etc., maybe add a fan to cool more quickly
. or maybe put PCBs on aluminium foil to allow them to be lifted off for quicker cooling?

and maybe add a pyrex sheet over the top to keep some heat in..?

[adafruit]

what you'll want to check for is even heating - the 870 has 4 heaters about 3" apart which makes for very even temperatures!

[mikeselectricstuff]

How thick is the heating plate on the 870?
I'm guessing that griddle has an element like this.
I was also considering just getting one of those elements and fixing it to an aluminiium plate.