Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Homebrew PCBs

----- Original Message -----
From: "mumin55555" <MUMIN55555@...>
To: <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2003 2:12 PM
Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] but is "soldering paste" ok to use?


> hallo again!
> i read your answers, thanks a lot. but here, in israel there are
> almost no electronics stors, and the ones existing, do not have a
> lot of stuff. so what is flux? is "electronics
> solder" is the same as "solder paste" that i can get here?

Electronic solder is like wire (made from a tin/lead alloy- usually 60% tin
and 40% lead) with a flux (typically resin) core. The flux core melts with
the solder when the soldering iron is applied and cleans the metal of oxides
etc. helping the solder to flow properly and wet the parts to be joined.
Resin flux leaves a residue which can look a bit messy. It may be removed by
scrubbing with a brush and solvent, like iso-propyl alcohol. You can also
get 'low-residue' solder which uses a different flux, which mostly
evaporates when soldering, and doesn't need cleaning. It doesn't work as
well as resin, in my experience.

Solder paste consists of solder powder mixed with flux and is applied to
PCBs when assembling surface mount components.

Leon
--
Leon Heller, G1HSM
leon_heller@...
http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller