The answer is yes, yes you can. As long as you have one made after about 2011, at least. In the video after the break, [Blitz City DIY] takes us briefly through the history of the venerable Easy-Bake Oven and into the future by reflow soldering a handful of small blinky boards with it.
You’re right, these things once used special light bulbs to cook pint-sized foods, but now they are legit ovens with heating elements that reach 350°F and a little above. The only trouble is that there’s no temperature controller, so you have to use low-temperature solder paste and an oven thermometer to know when to pull the little tray out. Other than that, it looked like smooth sailing.
If you’re only doing a board every once in a while, $40 for a reflow oven isn’t too shabby. And yeah, as with all ovens, once you’ve reflowed a board in it, don’t use it for food.
If you’d rather build an oven, high-powered light bulbs will still do the trick.
Thanks for the tip, [foamyguy].
tl;dw skip to 9:15 for actual hardware.
Can’t what?
Ok so the question is: How do I get one of these to germany?
I’d still prever one with a front glas. So i can see what’s going on in there. Manufacturer does not matter at all.
Add a solenoid and a reflow controller from tindie and voila – it works!
Nearest thing I’ve seen for sale in Europe (that isn’t officially a reflow oven at least) is a microwave that happens to have oven elements inside… Got one in the kitchen now, its a great little device being able to grill, oven or microwave – so for one person cooking quantities way quicker and cheaper to run than a larger oven. But looking at the price of a new one they are not that cheap, so I think your better off building our own reflow oven if price is the goal, or just buying a ‘proper’ one for not much more – with the proper ramp up and down cycle controller it will do the job better…
I’ve often wondered why we don’t have these things in Europe at all as far as I can see, I assume its some electrical safety type law making them not legal to sell here for some reason…
Just get a toaster oven at lidl
Will check that out, thanks!
So you want to try cooking food in that thing?
Well I’d use it but I’d NEVER tell anyone I did!
Right after seeing this and a few days after talking to the SO about reflow ovens as a joke re Christmas gift, went to a thrift store that had like 6 new model ez bake ovens for 1 dollar each. Serendipity?
The thrift store is mining your data. Make sure not to give their app microphone access. :)
Dammit Kristina, you broke the rule of yes/no questions in article titles. The answer is ALWAYS no!