KISS,
The idea of soaking my board in cooking oil does not thrill me. But I can see how it would do a great job of conducting the heat. I am surprised it doesn't contaminate the surface to the point where solder does not bond to the copper.
Given a single sided board, I don't see how a hot plate could work. By the time the traces were hot enough to melt solder, wouldn't the opposite side be black? Now, a toaster oven might work but how do you get in there to distribute the solder? Or are you assuming that solder paste has been put down first. I looked up the cost of this mix of flux and particles of solder - $$$.
As for speed, I only tried it on a 1" x 1" piece of scrap so didn't think about speed. On a large board, I can see that getting rather old.
I'm not ready to abandon the basic idea of "painting" the board with solder from a hot brush. My soldering tip gives me a brush about 1/16" wide. But if the brush was 1/2" or even 1" wide, this could go very fast.
Rick
-----Original Message-----
From:
Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com [mailto:
Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of KeepIt SimpleStupid
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2013 9:04 PM
To:
Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.comSubject: RE: [Homebrew_PCBs] No HASL
It definitely was pretty quick. I basically used the same sort of technique for tinning copper pipe except for the heating method. With pipe, you clean, flux, add solder and wipe with a wet rag. If it doesn't take, you sand and do it again.
I havn't tried the SMT assembly technique that basically uses a flat block of say aluminum in a pan. I would imagine that that would work too especially if you used a decent thermometer.
I was also using a gas stove as well.
It's entirely possible that a toaster oven and an aluminum plate would work too.
The soldering iron apply technique is too slow.
--- On Fri, 1/11/13, Rick Sparber <rgsparber@...> wrote:
From: Rick Sparber <rgsparber@...>
Subject: RE: [Homebrew_PCBs] No HASL
To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, January 11, 2013, 3:48 PM
Does sound rather messy but maybe fast. I know you can get a fine mix of
flux and solder that is used for surface mount. I wonder if you could spread
some of this paste on the board and then cooked it in the pan. Is there an
easy way to form tiny particles of solder? I know the first lead shot was
formed by pouring it from a great height and letting it land in a big pail
of water.
Rick
-----Original Message-----
From: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of KeepIt SimpleStupid
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2013 1:40 PM
To: homebrew_pcbs@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] No HASL
I did it this way: I used a frying pan, peanut oil and something to keep
the board off the bottom of the pan.
Solder dip and wet rag.
The oil residue was tough to remove. I would not use this method on
critical circuits though.
------------------------------
On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 1:34 PM EST Rick Sparber wrote:
>I was playing around with some scrap pieces of circuit board I etched
>and drilled in order to find a way to simulate the HASL (Hot Air Solder
>Leveling) process. This process puts down a very thin coat of solder
>over the copper. The solder protects the copper plus makes soldering in
>components easier.
>
>
>
>I found that I could brush the board with flux. Then I built up a small
>bump of solder on the ground plane. Using my soldering iron as a paint
>brush, I dipped into the bump and then painted the copper. When done, I
>scrubbed the board with alcohol. Worked great. I had no shorted paths.
>
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