[sdiy] O sweet, magical flux

[Jon Darby]

I had my first experiments with flux last night after 2 years of flux-less
soldering and can't believe the difference. In fact, I feel compelled to put
my astonishment  into haiku:

mysterious flux,
you guide my solder so nice.
sticky brown wonder.
splash

Now if I can find a practial way to apply it to the places I need it and not
all over my hands and pants everything will be wonderful. What is it about
flux that makes it tame solder so well? Does it do something to the metals
chemically to make solder adhere and flow  better? It also seemed to help
the parts heat quicker. Dammit, I wish I had more electronics friends to
show me this stuff.

Viva la flux,
Jon Darby