MOTM

Hi All !

That no-clean solder "wet's" a bit harder, i think it has to do with 
the flux used, but i've experienced no "tooth-paste" effects . This 
with an unregulated iron .  Since a good week i'm using a kit-built 
electronic soldering station, and get similar results to the organic 
and rosin solder, with the temperature 20C higher .  At this temp the 
organic and rosin solders splatter more .  That no clean solder still 
leaves a deposit, but i gather that this is inoffensive .

Not all rosin solders are the same .  I still got some that resulted 
in a brown molasses-like crust .  Here in europe it is almost 
impossible to find anything else than rosin based solder in shops .
(But my stock of no-clean is growing ;-) )

Another thing is that double sided boards "take" more solder than 
single sided .  Hence more flux remains .

Vinegar is acetic acid, afaik always liquid .  Probably still got 
lung damage from the years passed poring over the infamous "stop-
bath" used in B-W chemical photography .  I believe nowadays citric 
acid or potassium-bromide is used here .  Citric acid is available in 
cristallline form, so could be used in solder .  But there are many 
more compounds around .  It's anybody's guess what they are actually 
using .  The smoke it gives off is no less irritating than the rosin 
fumes, imo, but the smell is different :)

Freons are good products with the unfortunate property of destroying 
the ozone layer .  They are rightly banned from most applications, 
and production has stopped afaik .  The airliner industry still uses 
halon fire extinguishing systems, as they are still the best way to 
put out a fire .  And they are not poisonous when inhaled .  
Releasing massive amounts of co2, as normal for electrical fires, in 
the confines of that pressurised cigar-tube is just not on :) . The 
freons used here are religiously recuperated and recycled, at great 
cost .  In the "cold" industry replacements are used that are similar 
but less reactive .

I assemble my boards in 3 layers, depending on the height of the 
components .  Recently i got an assembling frame that can hold the 
board at 3 different depths (4 euro cards/MOTM boards at once, if 
needed) . One closes a foam lined lid over the parts, flips over the 
frame and the soldering fest can begin :)  No splaying of leads to 
hold the components .  Still, i only solder one lead per component at 
first, then inspect and adjust, then the rest of the pins .  Before 
the frame i used a diy version of this procedure .

Haa, nothing like a vacation to write long emails :)  Off to the next 
module .

Bye for now .


Keep 'em oscillating :)


Hugo
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