ICMYI, Carl Bugeja created a PCB that reflow solders itself and then self-propagates, RepRap Style!

bald.ee/6fth5a

@baldengineer That's a super cool idea. I assume you put solder paste in approximately the right places and then just feed power to the heating element?

It would be *really* wild if the heating element could also be snapped off after it does the reflow. Something like this: electronics.stackexchange.com/

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@north If you watch Bugeja's video, one layer is a serpentine trace. That trace heats the entire board.

The circuit itself is a controller to get a proper reflow profile.

So you manually manage the power on the first one. After that, you have a controller for the following boards.

He's using SnBiAg solder paste, which melts at 138C.

@baldengineer I saw a similar sort of serpentine trace layer on a different board, but that was for use as a hotplate and had no components on it.

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