u6 Reusable Heat Shields for Oven Reflows

I do not take responsibility if you do something that hurts your xbox or oven, or anyone else' xbox or oven :P

Needed materials:
-HVAC Foil tape (read down)
-About $17 ($20 just to be safe)
-Regular aluminum or tin foil
-2 hours and some patience *sorry impatient people :(
-360 motherboard

Well to start, this is not an oven reflow tutorial, this only makes them easier. What I have here will work with Wilhelm's Tutorial (I strongly recommend you follow his reflow tutorial. Thank you Wilhelm!). The only addition really is that I created an oven reflow "kit" as you might call it, that can be used over and over again.

For those of you who are new to oven reflowing please, PLEASE go back and read Wilhelm's tutorial before coming here.

Many of the oven reflows I have seen involve applying large amounts of tape and/or cloth to insulate the board from the large amount of heat. I followed Wilhelm's tutorial to the letter on my first reflow, but afterwards I had to rip apart all the tape I used and threw it away. Since I actually went to Lowe's and paid $17 for HVAC Foil Tape, I felt like I was throwing away money.

When I went to reflow another board, I stopped and thought "why can't I create a permanent reflow kit?" So I created these:

These reusable heat shields will take some time to create (took me two hours to make them all), however once they are made they will save you so much time for oven reflows that they will be worth it in the end.

The first thing you need to do is go to Home Depot or Lowe's (I'm not sure if Home Depot has it or not) and go to the insulation area of the store (just ask some store employee). You should find a large roll of foil tape, called HVAC Foil Tape (Unfortunately, they don't list it online, you can only find it in-store).
It should say that it insulates up to 250 degrees Fahrenheit (or something close to that) and yes, it will cost about $17

HVAC TAPE ROLL

After you get it, you will also need some regular tin or aluminum foil.

REGULAR FOIL

Now you need to take the 360 you are going to fix and strip it down until all you have is the motherboard WITHOUT the DVD drive cables plugged in and both heat sinks REMOVED.

Every motherboard is different, but they all should generally have the same parts in the same places. You should create 8 individual heat shields covering the entire board. Here is a small mapping of where each piece should go:

MAPPING OF SHIELD AREAS

You can start creating them in any order, but this tutorial will go numerically.

Number 1 Covers the Video output (and HDMI on HDMI boards), ethernet cable, rear USB, and power plug for the fan

AREA #1 ON MOTHERBOARD

Take some REGULAR foil and make a flat surface with it, not much larger than the area you are covering. Now wrap it a few times in the HVAC foil, until you can no longer see the REGULAR foil. We do this because the HVAC foil tends to be quite stiff, and the base of the shield needs to be flexible. After completely wrapping the REGULAR foil about 3 times with the HVAC foil, start bending it, trying to cover the area. You will probably notice that a lot of it isn't covering the area, so add more HVAC tape as needed, (and especially continue lining the inside of the shield as you bend it) exposing as little of the area on the sides as possible. Now, mind that it doesn't have to be air tight, just mostly covered. If you make it too tight however, you won't be able to easily remove it and use it again. It really should just sit on top of the area, draping over the edges of the area (my area #1 and #8 actually hook around the board, using the edge to keep it in place).

When you're done here is what Heat Shield #1 will look like:

COMPLETED SHIELD #1

and here is how it should look on the board:

PLACED SHIELD #1

See how mine hooks around the edge?

AREA #2 ON MOTHERBOARD

Shield 2 is elongated, and covers a large area. It starts at the uppermost DVD plug, and stretches all the way to the bottom edge of the board. It covers both DVD plugs, the Hard Drive port, the front eject button (that tiny black or bright blue plastic button), and all of the TINY CAPACITORS in between. I say the TINY CAPACITORS because there are a few LARGE CAPACITORS next to them (mine are purple) that we will cover using a DIFFERENT Heat Shield. Use the same method as last time, making a larger area of foil and bending it to create the Shield.
After you have finished making it, it should look somewhat like this:

COMPLETED SHIELD #2

and here it is on the board:

PLACED SHIELD #2

AREA #3 ON MOTHERBOARD

Shield 3 is placed directly to the right of Shield 2. It covers the two memory card ports (and the one tiny capacitor directly to the left of the first port), the controller sync button (the other tiny black or bright blue plastic button), and the LARGE CAPACITORS that we avoided in Shield 2.
Create the shield using the same method. When you're done it should look like this:

COMPLETED SHIELD #3

and here it is on the board:

PLACED SHIELD #3

AREA #4 ON MOTHERBOARD

Shield 4 is at the top center of the board, close to Shield 1. All it covers are the bunch of capacitors up there (BOTH the TINY CAPACITORS and THE LARGE CAPACITORS). You don't need to cover that black peg with the copper spiral around it.
After you're done it will look like this:

COMPLETED SHIELD #4

on the board:

PLACED SHIELD #4

AREA #5 ON MOTHERBOARD

Shield 5 sits directly to the right of shield 3. It covers the front LED daughterboard port, and the few capacitors in that general area. I shaped mine into a weird, messed up circle-like structure.

COMPLETED SHIELD #5

on the board:

PLACED SHIELD #5

AREA #6 ON MOTHERBOARD

Shield 6 will cover the tower-like front USB ports and the TINY CAPACITORS next to them. For this I created a tower shaped foil shield that just slides on top of the ports and covers them. I have seen some boards that have TINY CAPACITORS that are outside of the 'tower area'. For that one capacitor just outside of the area you can either make the foil tower physically wider or just cover the individual capacitor with a very small piece of foil.

COMPLETED SHIELD #6

on the board:

PLACED SHIELD #6 with outside capacitor

AREA #7 ON MOTHERBOARD

Shield 7 will go above (north) of shield 6. 7 covers the large row of capacitors, as well as the 2 capacitors to right of the row. Here is what the shield looks like:

COMPLETED SHIELD #7

on the board:

PLACED SHIELD #7

AREA #8 ON MOTHERBOARD

Shield 8 is placed at the top right corner of the board. It covers the power plug and the two or three capacitors behind (south) of it. I made this one similar to Shield 1 in that I made it hook around the edge of the board. Here it is:

COMPLETED SHIELD #8

and on the board:

PLACED SHIELD #8

Now that we have made all the shields, you can also choose to complete my 360 oven stand.

The design isn't really that important. As long as it is made of foil, allows the board to sit flat, and isn't too tall it will be fine. This just allows the 360 to sit in the oven without directly touching the oven rack. Here is the one I made:

COMPLETED OVEN STAND

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!

You are now finished with my tutorial. If you did it correctly, you should have a good set of reusable Heat Shields that are easily removable, but cover enough to protect the board. Trust me, it may take a few hours, but it will save you many more hours in the future if you plan to this again. I recommend that you number each shield with sharpie, it makes it much easier.

Note: I cannot account for every type of 360 motherboard out there. If there are capacitors in other places, or out of the way, just create your own shields for them. Make sure that all capacitors are covered, as well as any plastic pieces and metal ports on the board. For a complete reflow guide I again recommend Wilhelm's tutorial on this site, but hey, use my shields instead of taping it like he said. ;)

The 2 Tutorials Everyone Needs (Besides this one):

Wilhelm's Oven Reflow

Team HYBRID's Ultimate X-Clamp Fix

Created by Eric Maloney