Toaster oven reflow projects are such a done deal that there should be nothing new in one here in 2025. Take a toaster oven, an Arduino, and a thermocouple, and bake those boards! But [Paul J R] has found a new take on an old project, and better still, he’s found the most diminutive of toaster ovens from the Australian version of Kmart. We love the project for the tiny oven alone.
The brains of the operation is an ESP32, in the form of either a TTGO TTDisplay board or an S3-Zero board on a custom carrier PCB, with a thermistor rather than a thermocouple for the temperature sensing, and a solid state relay to control mains power for the heater. All the resources are in a GitHub repository, but you may have to make do with a more conventionally-sized table top toaster oven if you’re not an Aussie.
If you’re interested, but want a better controller board, we’ve got you covered.
My reflow oven is my hand on the temp knob and my eyes on the thermal probe readout. on….off….on….off…
Your gonna have to explain to the kiddos here what a “KMART” was. :)
Cheap department store. Much like Target in the US, but doesn’t sell food.
we have been referring to “kmart” as “anko”, it’s the only brand they sell these days…
Because it’s their home brand.
It also sounds very similar to a japanese word for shit. :D
Now go ask a German what a Mooshimeter is. :)
Or ‘Furse’ apparently :D
Popular department store like Walmart without grocery, they failed to keep up with the time and died to online competition
A small department store with the amazing ability to never have the one freaking thing you went in there for
This little oven seems like it gets hot enough to be the perfect temperature for tempering hardened steel after quenching, so seems good for a hobby knife maker or for heat-treating small tools.
Already doing that 😉
Ovens can be used for all kinds of “technical” purposes.
PVC gets rubbery around 130c and can then easily be stretched over some form (Use insulated gloves). Powder coating is another common usage, and so is drying filament, or electronic parts or even bare PCB’s. I’ve got a bunch of matrix PCB’s, and during soldering I once had one of them outgassing so much that it splattered the applied solder away. That’s no fun during soldering.
The oven I have is 170150270 mm (Inside dimension). A bit bigger then this one, but still quite small. I found it during dumpster diving. I bought some extra IR quarts tubes on Aliexpress to increase it’s power, and when I saw the new tubes were of much higher quality then the original, (for example the ceramic end caps are cemented on), and I decided to replace the original tubes too, so I bought some more tubes (and some spares). All those tubes (around EUR 10 each) cost more then the price of a new oven, but I only have to modify the oven once to make it all fit.
I’m also planning on adding a ceramic blanket for some extra insulation, and a small fan. Not to create wind inside, but just to create enough air movement to minimize temperature differences.
Oven brand? Part number?
You can find it at https://www.kmart.com.au/product/2l-mini-oven-white-43518463/
Found it as “Dash mini toaster oven” on ebay. Not ordering it though as shipping cost was way more than the oven itselft cost.
Amazon $22
It’s only rated 550W which I find is not enough for decent reflow. The ramp up is too slow. It depends on your tray and convection currents but would not expect great results.