Solder wick questions

[J M Fahey]

Whenever I make a board, I tin the entire board immediately. Brushing the traces and pads with liquid flux makes tinning quick and efficient.

I completely tin the boards for the precise reasons you note: they can tarnish easily and quickly. Reflowing solder on a trace is a whole lot easier than trying to remove tarnish. I also tin the entire board because I'm the sort of person who will likely find a reason to drill a few small holes and modify the circuit, years later. Having a completely tinned board makes it possible to easily solder in additional components. But that's just me.

There is a product normally found in jeweler supply shops but now also in the mighty online suppliers which is used to restore and re-silver plate jewels, pots, eating utensils, etc. , _chemically_ , no need for soldering temperatures.

Not exact same as hot tinning but it "works", at least to void copper tarnishing.

It leaves an atoms thick silver layer, which in due time can also be tarnished itself, but can be easily restored just by wiping again with a cloth wet in same liquid.



FWIW even real tin tarnishes, only it takes much longer.
I have components, specially old ICs stashed along years which are now all but impossible to solder.

[nevetslab]

I’ve also been using TechSpray 0.98”width and usually buy 100ft rollls. And yes it is bloody expensive! Where I can I use my Pace Desoldering iron. Now have acquired an older vacuum pump system from Pace that uses the SX20 handle iron and different tips than my SX70 desoldering iron. I have adapted the older pump to the Pace MBT200 station with much better than the now-tired vacuum system Pace went to years ago.

One more maintenance item on my list to try and restore should live so long.

[Mick Bailey]

I also tin the boards after etching using a film of liquid flux. I would rather have used the tinning salts especially made to do this, but they're very expensive compared to running over the traces with an iron. I even switched from regular untinned stripboard to gold plated epoxy-glass boards because of the long-term prospect of corrosion with bare copper.

[Mark Hammer]

After1 or 2 years, unused PCBs (I always make a couple extra of anything) become harder to solder, because protection is not perfect so copper still oxidizes "a little".
If it becomes annoying (say over 2 years old), I wipe rosin away with a cloth/napkin wet in any solvent (alcohol/acetone/toluene/paint thinner), slightly polish copper (which became duller darker) to shiny reddish copper and cover again with fresh rosin varnish.

Whenever I make a board, I tin the entire board immediately. Brushing the traces and pads with liquid flux makes tinning quick and efficient.

I completely tin the boards for the precise reasons you note: they can tarnish easily and quickly. Reflowing solder on a trace is a whole lot easier than trying to remove tarnish. I also tin the entire board because I'm the sort of person who will likely find a reason to drill a few small holes and modify the circuit, years later. Having a completely tinned board makes it possible to easily solder in additional components. But that's just me.

[Delta362]

I typically use a solder sucker, but on certain boards I'll use the solder braid. For that, I've been using the MG Chemicals 453 (Desoldering Braid / Solder Removal SUPRWIK .075in WIDTH GREEN 50FT LENGTH). I also have the 0.050in version as well.

[Chuck H]

IJuan I'm amused and amazed by your tale of home made solder braid. If there's a way to do something, you'll find it. Given today's prices for store-bought I can see the attraction to rolling your own.

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail...EZTtED0A%3D%3D

I think the thing to know about Juan is that many of the services and products we take for granted in the US are simply not economical or even always available to him. He's a master at undertanding mechanics and even electronics at such a fundamental level that he can get on the other side of resourse availability even to the point of making his own often and as needed. it's truely impressive. Many of us have a similar understanding of the chemistry, electronics and just general mechanical skills to do the same. But not being in Juan's position we have never been put to it. Necessity is the mother of invention and Juan has repeatedly demonstrated the knowledge and skill to fabricate almost anything related to our genre. I'm always happy for his participation and continued involvement in the forum.

[Leo_Gnardo]

I've used Chemwix and it's perfectly good. My brand for 20ish years or so is Techspray. Working on tube gear, I get the wide stuff .098 inch width, in 100 foot rolls. Deadly expensive now, Mouser's price is $82.58 for one of those. Luckily now it takes a couple years to use one up, and I haven't had any problem with it getting "stale" and refusing to soak up solder. Smaller rolls are available, I think 5 ft and 25.

I have run across some solder braids that don't work worth a damn, even if flux is added. Usually found at bargain prices. Maybe stale, or just poorly made. So I pay the rate and stick with what I know works.

Of course the new no lead solders don't play nice. I find it best to mix some leaded solder into whatever I'm trying to melt to get it to behave better whether it's up the solder sucker or into the braid.

Juan I'm amused and amazed by your tale of home made solder braid. If there's a way to do something, you'll find it. Given today's prices for store-bought I can see the attraction to rolling your own.

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail...EZTtED0A%3D%3D

[tedmich]

good old D'Addario has several grades of stringed instrument rosins, here is their nicest one in light or dark
https://www.daddario.com/products/or...premium-rosin/
their cheap stuff is $3/oz on Amazon

hot rosin can be used to remove epoxy too, as shown in this old German hackers presentation
https://youtu.be/pIpxawdUb4I?si=vnP_1WMeRed_FZUa

[Chuck H]

Need two likes Juan

[J M Fahey]

EDIT: Do you start with rock rosin or powdered rosin to make your concoction? Should I heat it when mixing? I remember a little heat helped when I made my make shift flux.

I buy it by the pound at a general purpose chemicals shop, where I also buy acids, acetone, xylene, etc. needed for various tasks but old style Mom and Pop hardware shops also carry it.

I buy amber colour "rock" but the bag always has some powder at the bottom, because it is brittle, so I start with dust and "sand" sized grains to use it within the hour, then add a couple stones and let it slowly dissolve for later use.

In a week or two everything is homogeneous.

I bought 1 kilogram about 20 years ago and still have over a half of it, and that considering I brush a rosin varnish coat on DIY PCBs to protect copper.

After1 or 2 years, unused PCBs (I always make a couple extra of anything) become harder to solder, because protection is not perfect so copper still oxidizes "a little".
If it becomes annoying (say over 2 years old), I wipe rosin away with a cloth/napkin wet in any solvent (alcohol/acetone/toluene/paint thinner), slightly polish copper (which became duller darker) to shiny reddish copper and cover again with fresh rosin varnish.

[Mark Hammer]

Like others here, I will praise the virtues of flux-enhanced solder wick. It is worth taking note that atmospheric/environmental conditions vary widely around the world, across individual neighbourhoods, and in individual homes. Some folks may find that component leads tend to tarnish quickly where they live. The same can be true of solder wick. I keep a small bottle of liquid rosin flux handy. A $10 bottle will last the rest of any hobbyist's' life. I keep a small drawer of cotton-tipped applicators in the parts bin handy as well. The wick doesn't have to be soaked in the stuff. Dip an applicator into the bottle, and brush some flux on a length of the roll of wick and it supercharges the stuff.

Of course, I find the complement to that having a small bottle of methyl hydrate handy, because flux buildup on the board not only looks ugly, but can make it hard to spot unwanted solder bridges. So I grab another cotton-tipped applicator from the drawer, dip it in the methyl hydrate and wipe off any excess flux from the board.

[Mick Bailey]

Years of bench soldering and breathing resin flux fumes full-time gave me a type of respiratory disorder where even the slightest amount now causes a lot of congestion and discomfort and I can be coughing and clearing my throat for days. I now have to use a mask and extractor for soldering. I tried rosin-free cored solder and fluxes (rosin is a known irritant) but they're very poor by comparison.

One of my favourite smells is the flux used on vintage equipment. I had some old rolls of Ersin Multicore form the 60s that smelt like that and had plenty of flux in the cores, unlike most of today's solder. Peavey flux smells nice and they sure used a lot in their power amps.

[Chuck H]

BTW, nice aromatic vapor smell doesn't mean it's healthy.

True! But if you have to be a little unhealthy it could at least smell good I remember one "flux core" solder I had that stunk so bad I still have most of it. I should just toss it but that seems wasteful and environmentally irresponsible. It smells like gym socks boiling in Elmer's glue.

[Helmholtz]

I just bought the cheapest colophony they had in the violin shop (still was kind of expensive).
Looked brown.
BTW, nice aromatic vapor smell doesn't mean it's healthy.

[Chuck H]

I've been using rosin (as used for violin bows) diluted in denatured alcohol since the late 60s.
That's what my books recommended.
Doesn't need to be powdered, but smaller pieces or powder dilute quicker.
No heat required (don't forget: high percentage alcohol is flammable). Shaking helps.
I've actually posted that solder wick trick here a few years ago.

Yes. I did some perusing on the subject after posting.

For bow rosin there are both dark and light (er) products available. I'll guess you use the lighter stuff?

In less develpoped countries some guys actually gather their own rosin right from the trees. They make a thinner solution from it so that it can be run through a filter after dissolving.

And adding 1%-2% glycol (available at many drug stores) will improve performance and reduce smoke

I'm totally going to do this. I may even harvest my own resin since I'm surrounded by fir, hemlock and pine woods here on Whidbey and I'm out mushroom hunting anyway.

EDIT: And I also learned that most people posting on line (including myself before now) don't know the difference between sap, resin and rosin. So... Sap is literally the watery liquid that is in any living tree and not the amber sticky stuff that oozes. That sticky ooz IS the resin. And resin IS rosin. I've been incorrectly calling that stuff sap all my life. So if you have a piece of wood around your building or a tree in your yard with that thick amber colored ooz coming out you could actually use that to make flux.