I think one of the benefits of an oven is that it lets you do double-sided boards. I'm not an expert at all though. as I said, I haven't soldered anything in it yet. this was more of case of having a $6 toaster and an idea to try out.
I'd be curious to see what the temperature range on an iron is. it might fluctuate too much. if it worked it would be a pretty cool find though. EVERYONE could do SMT at that point.