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It Might Be Your Tool

daguin

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I was taught that "It is a poor mechanic that blames his tools."

For about a month I have been dissatisfied with my solder joints. They weren't as clean as they had been. They weren't as shiny as they had been. They were sometimes "lumpy." I made sure that they were always solid, but they just looked bad. :yabbem:

Since I was taught to always take responsibility for the outcome of my job, i was going crazy trying to figure it out what I was doing differently. I even pulled out an old circuit board to practice on. Nothing seemed to help.:tsk:

I finally ran out of things to try. While I was in the electronic store picking up something unrelated to lasers, I noticed a bright shiny new container of flux. I thought, "Maybe my flux has gone bad." I've never heard of that, but as I said, I was running out of things to work on. :thinking:

I thought that since I was buying something in the area, I might as well pick up some more solder too. I have been using the same brand and type of solder for years. When I got home, I decided to work on a build I'm doing for one of the members here. I pulled out my new flux and "Damn!" my solder joint still looked like crap!:mad:

I decided "What the hey! I'll try the new solder." Well let me tell you what - - - -

The heavens opened and the angels sang :angel:

Smooth shiny solder joints that would have made my high school shop teacher proud.

I have no idea what was wrong with the solder, but whatever it was that happened to it, it WAS the solder that was bad.

The moral of the story is in the subject. Sometimes it IS the tool's "fault" when things don't work the way you think that they should.

Imma hafta stop listenin to my dead daddy

Peace,
dave
 





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Dave what are you doing up so late:tired:
and its nice to see people on here who actually give a flux :wave:
 

HIMNL9

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If you are speaking about the soldering paste, yes, is sensitive to heat ..... some peoples "melt" it for keep it looking good in the can, but in this way, the paste lost all the acid content, becoming unhelpful ..... and also "pouching" too much times the soldering iron inside it, can have the same result, with time, cause the desoxidant/acid part is heat-activated, but also consumed from heat.

If instead you mean the soldering flux that is usually inside the tin wire, i really don't know ..... i have lot of it, also very old (ten years or more), and it still work.
 

Jaseth

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That is a really odd story.. I know flux can age and solidify, but even that can still be used after many years.
I have looked all over different forums for your question and you get 10-15 people who have had a roll of solder for 30-40 years with no degradation, as well as about 100 people who have had theirs for up to 15 years with it working fine.

How did you store the solder? :confused:

:sold:ER :anyone:

Seb
 
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Good tip, DAVE. I wonder how many DIYers are checking their solder now, LOL...rob
 
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Hey Dave...
that's the first time I hear of this issue with solder. But then
again I go through a couple of rolls a year.. it doesn't have time
to get old..

What are the specs of the old solder and the new solder ??
Dia - Lead/Tin mix - Flux Core Y/N - Age of solder..
Surface texture Shinny/not??

Jerry
 
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When I didn't have a good day at archery... I blamed the bow too :p!

But yeah, the iron does need some cleaning over time, sand paper fixes it quickly ;)

Could it be that the resistor inside got "old"?
 
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I have OLD rosin core solder which works fine with the proper application of heat. Rosin contains something called as I recall Abetic acid -- a low corrosive component. The stuff in the blue can which many of us have is zinc chloride in petroleum jelly. That is corrosive and YES, it makes things solder real good. BUT it is corrosive if the jelly is removed.
Soldering and flux is a science in itself.

HMike
 
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Dave, were you using RadioShack solder by any chance?

The weird thing is that in a similair twist, I had some of their solder go "bad", it was about 5 years old, from the days I was living in the US.

I generally pride myself in being making decent soldering joints but with this solder it did not matter how much I heated the contact point and no matter how careful I was they weren't the nice chrome like joints I was used to (I ran out of my regular stuff and found the "ancient" radioshack solder it in the drawer).

Like yourself I didn't even think it could be the solder but sure enough after refreshing my solder supply with my usual stuff my joints are back to being presentable.
 
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as much as i pay for solder, if it went back someone would be getting an earful.....silver bearing solder from radioshack is expensive!
 
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Dave I have some flux that will make that old solder work like the new stuff, I'll send you a tube to try out.

Peace Bro...
 
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Dave, I'm an idiot. But one thing I'm sure of is this... always examine all possibilities. Look at both the Tool and the Professional. Imperfect are we and everything we make.

Edit: wow... I inspired myself to cry HA!
 
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