A home-brew SMT Reflow Oven

This project was started and finished a few years ago. One can find some projects on the Internet that are similar but I decided that I would post this project for those that are in the process of determining if they wish to create their own and what would be needed to do so.

My need arose when I embarked on a project that is essentially the “big brother” to the ATtiny12L Frequency Generator project that I had worked on many years ago. In this particular project, the goal was to produce a frequency generator that was small and portable, meaning efficiently battery powered and easy to use. During my component selection, I was faced with the fact that in order to meet the “small and portable” criteria, I had to use SMT devices. Many of those devices simply were not available in a through-hole package. Some of the devices were 3×3 mm DFN and QFN packages. My expected quantities did not justify the expense of a contract manufacturing facility, so I would need to populate and produce these devices on my own. The ONLY solution was to be my own “pick and place” machine and to acquire a reflow-oven. Anyone who has looked into a reflow-oven can attest to the fact that even the least expensive version can be in the 1000’s of dollars (US). Thus, I set out to researching just what were my options in building one on my own.