I was not considering the cool down speed. I guess carefully removing it from the griddle would be better if you can do it with out disturbing the chips. Or, hand solder them as you recommned. I guess the point is that SMD is NOT beyond the capbility of a DIY and there are many ways to "skin the cat". I sure like to watch everything flow all at once- it is a very cool experience.
Capt,
I used both a griddle and a rework machine. I can fit 4 pcb's at a single time. I heat up the griddle to 350 F and then run the rework (hot air) 340 C across everything and within a couple minutes it’s done. I power off everything and I let the griddle temp cool off. I do pull the PCBs off the griddle before it's completely cold. I place them on a piece of wood to finish the cool down. While I get the other boards ready.
Dan
will get rest updated in the am. just wanted to post some updates.
the tube for the gb will fit the fast tubes and controller really nice. i should be able to fit 60 tubes in large flat rate box to aussies for about 65 bucks for the shipping. so the tubes are really cheap and look nice.