2 ms·

I don't know if this has been said or not already - but I wouldn't use that oven again for cooking food, especially since something somewhere off-gassed. I don

by cr0sh 8y ago

I don't know if this has been said or not already - but I wouldn't use that oven again for cooking food, especially since something somewhere off-gassed. I don't know how dangerous it would be to eat food from an oven that was previously used for reflow soldering; if I had to guess, the danger would be minimal - maybe an increased risk of cancer or something like that. Likely, the fumes or whatnot was simply rosin flux vaporizing. Rosin flux is usually something like refined pine resin with a solvent; it won't kill you to eat it (or breath in the smoke while soldering - though that can be a major irritant), but I am almost certain it might cause a flavoring issue for future baked foods. Then again - maybe it would lend those holiday dinners a festive flavor?

fouc 8y ago
You're over-estimating the amount of heating/cooking involved. Ignore the article where he's doing everything all wrong, the plastics etc shouldn't be burning, only the solder is warming up and reflowing when done right. Fumes, if any would clear out anyways.
- cr0sh 8y ago
  I agree that when done right (ie, following a proper SMD reflow temperature "curve"), all that should happen is the solder should flow and not much else. Even so, just as I wouldn't reuse a pan or pot I had created sugar candy rocket fuel in to cook dinner (no matter how clean I tried to make it afterward), I also wouldn't reuse an oven for cooking purposes, that had been used for reflowing a PCB previously. It just seems like a "best practice" to me to not reuse equipment in that manner for food cooking and consumption. That's just me; I don't find the potential harm, no matter how objectively slight it might be, to be worth it in the long run.