Hello all,
I am experimenting a bit with reflowing larger components - ideally I'd like to reflow a PS4 APU or a GPU for example.
I know it's impossible to reflow such large components with just hot air so I bought a pre-heating plate, T-8280 classic Chinese machine, which seems to be working fine besides it's a little slow, which shouldn't be a big deal.
Now, my hot air station is a Aoyue 852A++ and I feel it's a bit weak when used with larger nozzle. I tried reflowing a laptop chipset using one of those large, rectangular, nozzles and I failed miserably, burning the whole thing.
I'm aware my SMD station is awful at blowing an even stream of air out of those large nozzles so I made a little "propeller" modification to the wand (which I think it's now standard with the newer version) but still it did not work.
You can see from the pic below a test I did when brand new before installing my mod, you can clearly see the unevenness of the temperature on the internal grille
I tried with my largest round nozzle and it worked like a charm, but when I attempted to reflow the CPU, which is a bit larger than the chipset, I couldn't really reflow it properly.
I have two thermocouples which are monitored by a laptop and also an IR thermometer to monitor temperature. I wait till the board/chip is 180 degrees, then I apply hot air (set to 310 degrees) to reflow. I see many people online using much higher temps on their hot air machine but that's without a pre-heating plate and I'd like to keep the temps as low as possible to avoid damaging components.
Now, I appreciate the proper way to reflow a large chip is NOT by using a hot air station. However, I don't want to invest in a proper reflow machine simply because I won't be using it a lot.
The question for the community is: is it worth investing in a better hot air machine, one which delivers a more even flow of hot air and also maybe one which has a higher flow available for using with those larger nozzles?
Thanks for your input!
I am experimenting a bit with reflowing larger components - ideally I'd like to reflow a PS4 APU or a GPU for example.
I know it's impossible to reflow such large components with just hot air so I bought a pre-heating plate, T-8280 classic Chinese machine, which seems to be working fine besides it's a little slow, which shouldn't be a big deal.
Now, my hot air station is a Aoyue 852A++ and I feel it's a bit weak when used with larger nozzle. I tried reflowing a laptop chipset using one of those large, rectangular, nozzles and I failed miserably, burning the whole thing.
I'm aware my SMD station is awful at blowing an even stream of air out of those large nozzles so I made a little "propeller" modification to the wand (which I think it's now standard with the newer version) but still it did not work.
You can see from the pic below a test I did when brand new before installing my mod, you can clearly see the unevenness of the temperature on the internal grille
I tried with my largest round nozzle and it worked like a charm, but when I attempted to reflow the CPU, which is a bit larger than the chipset, I couldn't really reflow it properly.
I have two thermocouples which are monitored by a laptop and also an IR thermometer to monitor temperature. I wait till the board/chip is 180 degrees, then I apply hot air (set to 310 degrees) to reflow. I see many people online using much higher temps on their hot air machine but that's without a pre-heating plate and I'd like to keep the temps as low as possible to avoid damaging components.
Now, I appreciate the proper way to reflow a large chip is NOT by using a hot air station. However, I don't want to invest in a proper reflow machine simply because I won't be using it a lot.
The question for the community is: is it worth investing in a better hot air machine, one which delivers a more even flow of hot air and also maybe one which has a higher flow available for using with those larger nozzles?
Thanks for your input!
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