This one will probably be something I revisit over time. The issue? Temperature in the electronics bay.

See, the problem with reflow ovens is that they tend to get hot.. after all, that's what a reflow oven is meant to do. And electronics don't like being too hot. Now most people solve this by moving their electronics outside of the oven to cooler climes. Sure, that does work but it's at odds with one of my goals with this project which was to present a much more 'finished' look to the project.

My first thought was simple - just use a cooling fan. Problem solved, right? Wrong. The flow of cool air into the bay doesn't actually cool as much as I'd like, and the temperature sensors picked up on it - between radiant/convective heat from the oven and the heat produced by the SSRs, the electronics bay can get up to 50°C right now. I can also get easily above that, but I chose 50° as my safe cut-off temperature.

So in terms of ways to fix this.. I think I can probably improve the insulation around the oven a bit more - once I get some cash for more reflect-a-gold. Another thing that did help noticeably was to drill a series of vent holes directly above the air gap between the oven wall and the shield protecting the mounting plate from the oven, giving the hot air a direct escape path. Expanding the vent might help further and is definitely worth doing.