Melting Circuit Boards

Squashua

I'd like to melt some circuit boards down, kind of like Salvadore Dali "melts watches" in his paintings.

What's the simplest way to melt these big flat green things, or is it just not possible to do? I figure it's probably near-impossible, given the amount of heat these things have to have sitting on them at any given time.

Please work with me from a mundane standpoint, in that I don't have access to any heavy industrial equipment. Plus, fumes. I plan on working in a well-ventilated garage or on a driveway.

Advice appreciated.

racyrefinedraj

propane/butane torch should do the trick, methinks.

EDIT: Probably a good idea to remove any capacitors before applying heat to a PCB. Heat + Capacitor = go boom.

Lodbrok

Be sure to try the torch trick on something small and expendable first. I doubt that you will be able to make the board melt like that easily, in order to get it hot enough I suspect that it will turn brown and crispy long before it bends. But this is just my guess, it might work... possibly.

Oh, and do it outdoors! And avoid the fumes. Solder contains led, which is toxic, and I think that burning cirvuit board can't be healthy either.

stigweard

I would think that the temps needed to make a pcb melt are going to be higher than the point where it starts giving off noxious fumes.

DaySleeper

I'd suggest trying to bake it before using open flame. If you have an old stove or something you might be able to heat it enough in there without having to worry about a point source of heat/open flame troubles.

Squashua

DaySleeper wrote: »

I'd suggest trying to bake it before using open flame. If you have an old stove or something you might be able to heat it enough in there without having to worry about a point source of heat/open flame troubles.

Yeah, but I'm looking to shape it.

Doc

I would think that PCBs are built to have a very high melting point.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-circuit-board.htm

In modern circuit board production, this process is usually performed by placing the cool solder mixture, and baking the entire board to melt the components in place.

So the melting point of the board is going to be significantly higher than the melting point of all the solder on the board.

redimpulse

Considering the lowest average melting point for electronic solder is around 375F, it would be pretty tough for you to melt the PCB enough to bend without damaging a lot of things in the process.

Squashua

redimpulse wrote: »

Considering the lowest average melting point for electronic solder is around 375F, it would be pretty tough for you to melt the PCB enough to bend without damaging a lot of things in the process.

Maybe I should "out" this:

This is an artistic endeavour, not for usability. I will not be re-using these boards after they are bent/shaped, except to maybe blink an LED or two, and not using the actual circuitry of the board to do it (easily faked).

redimpulse

I figured that's what you were doing, but if you melt the board to the point of being able to bend it, the solder is going to melt off as well - leaving an empty green (but probably after that much heat brown) piece of material. PCBs are incredibly solid and designed for incredibly high tolerance.

Doc

If you have to try it, I would suggest getting an iron bar or rod, heating it up a lot with a blowtorch or something, then bending the board over it. If you set the blowtorch to it directly, I'd be worried about it actually catching on fire. And use a fume hood or something, lots of nasty chems could be released.

Squashua

It's all more trouble than it's worth.

Probably going to go melt all the soldered parts off a bunch of circuitboards and fake a board as the target and solder all the items ot the fake board. Seems like the easiest workaround.

Foomy

I work in a custom electronics deisgn and building company, so maybe I can help ya a bit. But I really don't think it's possible to bend a circuit board, there basically just fiberglass with a layer of copper in them, I've seem some come back from getting fire and they don't really bend or anything. And more so when they get hot enough the layers of fiberglass just tend to seperate from each other and than burn. Putting them in any oven won't really work either at least not that I've seen when working with high temp solder on surface mount parts we've heated up boards in a toaster oven to around 500f and the boards are just as brittle at that temp as when cold.

Squashua

Foomy wrote: »

NO

:^: