AVR-Chat

Could it be the temperature of your soldering iron, Larry?  My 
experience has been that the no-clean fluxes need a bit higher soldering 
temperature than we would use with a rosin based flux to work properly.  
The water solubles seem to work better when the soldering temperature is 
lower.

The no-cleans we've used here leave behind a clear residue rather than a 
powder.  This almost sounds like you're using a water washable flux.  
But we also still use lead here.

There's an outfit in Nashville, TN, that makes a water wash flux removal 
product that also seems to work pretty well.

                         http://www.kyzen.com/

Hope this helps.

REB

Larry Barello wrote:

>Well, I went out and got my kester no-clean .025 solder and a flux pen.
>After trying to solder down some 1206 and 603 parts I have one thing to say:
>
>What a waste of money.
>
>For small parts, hand assembly the old rosin RMA stuff (sticky goo) works
>much better - things stick, they wet and the solder sucks into every crack
>drawing the part and centering it over the pad.
>
>The no-clean, is truly no clean, no wet, no stick.  And, yes, I got the pen
>to flow.  I paint over the pads, it evaporates and leaves behind a faint
>cloud of powder...
>
>Come to think of it, I kind of like the smell of ethanol when cleaning my
>boards...
>
>
>
>----
>Larry Barello
>http://www.barello.net
>
>
>  
>