Hi, I checked many local stores and did not find hot air gun for my hobby work. As an alternative I am thinking to buy a cheap hair dryer and with few housing modification I am hoping to get good hot gun to work with tiny SMD parts.

I have never touched hair dryer too. So I don't know its working, temperature or limitations. Do you think I am in not bad way?

 

I have found that most hair dyers are lower temp than the typical heat gun.
I use the two heat setting Bostik paint stripper model.
Max.

 

Melting most types of solder takes a much hotter temperature than you would get from any safe hair dryer. So while the function is similar the temperatures are not. In addition, probably the hair dryer has an over-temperature cutout to avoid causing burns. This means that if you did get it hot enough to melt solder it would probably stop working.
To verify this, look up the melting temperature of the solder that you want to use, which I am guessing is a bit above 225 degrees C, and then use a cooking thermometer to measure the temperature from your hair dryer. Probably less than 200 degrees F. Please let us know the numbers that you find in your particular case.

 

*If* you could get the temperature high enough, you also need to worry about air speed.

To be useful, you'd also need to be able to attach appropriate nozzles to direct the hot air.

 

I tried it once, but the hot air wasn't hot enough to shrink shrink tubing.

 

Lke I stated before, it is not reasonable to expect to be able to melt solder with a hair dryer.

 

Since the dryer I am hoping to buy just costs $4 so I think it does not have digital control circuit. Which means I would be able to cut its heater coil little to increase the temperature.
I wish its housing can handle the increased temperature.

If I blocked the air input window then I can limit speed of air flow. And last thing is to make appropriate nozzle (small).

 

Having over temperature protection does not require any kind of digital circuitry. The problem is that you cannot get the temperature you require without compromising your safety. Just don't do it.

 

I tried it once, but the hot air wasn't hot enough to shrink shrink tubing.

If I blocked the air input window then I can limit speed of air flow. And last thing is to make appropriate nozzle (small).

I used to use a cheap hair dryer to shrink heat shrink tubing. I had to put my hand over part of the air inlet to get the temperature high enough. If I blocked too much air flow then the thermal cutout would trip.

I was lucky that it had a thermal switch. If it had had a thermal fuse then the hair dryer would have needed a replacement thermal fuse each time I got it too hot.

 

Having over temperature protection does not require any kind of digital circuitry. The problem is that you cannot get the temperature you require without compromising your safety. Just don't do it.

But I have no alternative. So to get a hot air gun, I have to go through such experiment, if it works with little mess.

 

Hair drier air flow is too high and temperature is too low. Scrap the idea.
Try paint stripper hot air gun instead.

 

Hair drier air flow is too high and temperature is too low. Scrap the idea.
Try paint stripper hot air gun instead.

MrChips beat me to the draw!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=hot+air+gun&tag=mh0a9-

 

But I have no alternative. So to get a hot air gun, I have to go through such experiment, if it works with little mess.

For reference: The _highest_ shrinking temperature I found for heat shrink tubing is 175 degC. well below solder melting temperature. There is no way I could have used my hair dryer to melt solder since I could barely shrink tubing.

If you insist on using a hair dryer, the best you can do is use a "professional" one. It might be made of more metal parts to withstand the high temperatures. But... as stated earlier it would still be dangerous using a hair dryer to melt solder.

Have you considered using a hot plate or skillet instead of a hair dryer? That is commonly done.
https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/59

 

Hair drier air flow is too high and temperature is too low. Scrap the idea.
Try paint stripper hot air gun instead.

Similar to the Bostik in post#2!
Max.

 

Most SMD work can be done with a normal soldering iron. I have a hot air soldering station but rarely use it except for desoldering, and even that can be done with a regular iron. Look for Youtube videos to learn how.

The hot air station is great for heat shrinking, though.

Bob

 

I've used an Ungar/Weller 6966c heat gun like the one pictured for smd rework (most often desoldering) for about ten years now. Never had a problem.
.

 

Hi, I checked many local stores and did not find hot air gun for my hobby work. As an alternative I am thinking to buy a cheap hair dryer and with few housing modification I am hoping to get good hot gun to work with tiny SMD parts.

I have never touched hair dryer too. So I don't know its working, temperature or limitations. Do you think I am in not bad way?

I think you are in bad way. It is unlikely in the extreme that any cheap hair dryer would be able to be modified to safely produce a hot enough air stream to work with tiny SMD parts. They simply are not designed to operate at those temperatures and, in fact, are designed to prevent operation at anything remotely approaching those temperatures.

 

Have you considered using a hot plate or skillet instead of a hair dryer? That is commonly done.
https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/59

The plate method seems good to reflow whole parts... Is it like making hot the PCB in cooking pan? Maybe just useful for very limited condition.

Hair drier air flow is too high and temperature is too low. Scrap the idea.
Try paint stripper hot air gun instead.

Same as hot air gun, I don't think paint stripper is available around my country.

Most SMD work can be done with a normal soldering iron. I have a hot air soldering station but rarely use it except for desoldering, and even that can be done with a regular iron. Look for Youtube videos to learn how.

I tried iron and got very nice result while soldering SMD parts. But destroyed every IC when tried to desolder and destroyed the PCB too. It's hard to work with more pins IC.

I've used an Ungar/Weller 6966c heat gun like the one pictured for smd rework (most often desoldering) for about ten years now. Never had a problem.

Seems amazing! If I could get such small handy too then I would not go throuh the mess idea.

 

The hair dryer gives out very large air flowand relatively small temperature while soldering need a smaller than tiny air flow and hardly high temperature. If any will decrease the air flow via the dryer, the all plastic embodyements will melt and burn, therefore soldering tools are whole metallic.
For insight:
hair dryer of typical size, 300 liters per minute, 60-80 Centigrades
Building paint burning tool - 500 litres per minute 200-300 Centigrades
Air soldering tool - 10-50 liters per minute, 300-600 C.
Actually I never had understood why, but in order to work with 320C tin the gun must be adjusted the most minimum to 480C. Probably it is mis-reading of my gun sensor, but the identical `defect` stays on my second gun, on my neighbour gun, on my neigbour guns a staircase upper and lower, all them not make the melting until adjusted some 100-200 C higher than solder is liquifying.

 

Same as hot air gun, I don't think paint stripper is available around my country.

Order a proper hot air gun online and have it shipped..

There are companies that can help get products from companies like Amazon/Ebay,etc.. that do not normally ship to Nepal..
A quick google search turns up this place first..
https://www.iwishbag.com/