[sdiy] wick it, wick it good

[Travis Shire]

> No, don't fluff it up -- leave it as it comes from the roll.  BTW,
> make sure your wick is fresh, and not old stock.  The freshness of
> the product effects the chemicals that are impregnated into the
> wick.  These chemicals encourage the wicking action and the flow of
> solder.  Fresh wick works great, old stale wick hardly does anything,
> and will possibly make you damage parts and circuit traces by causing
> you to use too much heat, often to no avail.
>
> Now get straight, go forward, move ahead, try to detect it, it's not
> too late!

Unless the "old stock" wick is sealed in plastic. I inherited a large qty
(several sleeves) of chem-wick (Chemtronics) and "dri-wick" (made by
American Beauty in wonderful Detriot Mi). It was probably a little old by
the time I got it (overstock from the electronics distributor I worked for)
and I've had it for several years and its as good as new. The *type* of wick
makes a diffrence tho. I never liked the Tech Spray wick....seemed stale out
of the box from the mfgr. The "dri-wick" stuff is surprisingly good and on
the wide side so it takes less to do the job. I've probably got enough
solder wick to last me 2 more lifetimes. Normally I only use it to clean up
the pcb after desoldering.