Inorganic acid flux works better with stronger metals such as copper, brass, and stainless steel. It's a blend of stronger acids like hydrochloric acid, zinc chloride, and ammonium chloride. Inorganic acid flux requires complete cleaning after use to remove the corrosive residues from the surfaces, which weaken or destroy the solder joint if left in place. Inorganic acid flux should not be used for electronic assembly work or electrical work. The smoke and fumes released while soldering include several chemical compounds from the acids and their reaction with the oxide layers.
Other compounds such as formaldehyde, toluene, alcohols, and acidic fumes are often present in the solder fumes. These fumes can lead to asthma and increased sensitivity to solder fumes. Ensure adequate ventilation and, as necessary, use a respirator.
Cancer and lead risks from solder fumes are low since the boiling point for solder is several times hotter than the boiling temperature of the flux and melting temperature of the solder. The greatest lead risk is the handling of the solder. Care should be taken when using solder, with a focus on washing hands and avoiding eating, drinking, and smoking in areas with solder to prevent solder particulate from entering the body.
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Use sandpaper, steel wool, or anything else abrasive to clean away any grime or dirt from any areas of your pipes and fittings that need to be soldered. This will let your solder hold more tightly to the pipe and result in a more sturdy connection. If you're using a larger pipe fitting, you may need to clean more to ensure the point of overlap between the pipe and the fitting is prepared for soldering. Use grit sandpaper or grade 1 steel wool for cleaning your pipe fittings. This should be enough to strip away dirt and grime without damaging the pipes themselves.
This will let you more easily scrub away any impurities on the inside and outside of your pipes. Ask at your local hardware store or look online to find one that suits your needs. Apply flux to the outside to your pipes. Use a small paintbrush to cover the ends of your pipes and the insides of your pipe fittings with a thin layer of flux.
Look around the edges of the pipe for any large lumps of flux and brush them away. Acid flux will be more corrosive, but may damage pipes that are too fragile. Tinning flux will help hold your pipes together more strongly, but may be more difficult to find or more expensive.
If you're unsure, ask at your local hardware store for advice on the best type of flux to use for the job you're working on. Connect the pipes and fittings together. Hold the two sections you need to connect together in each hand, keeping them off of your work surface to prevent any flux from rubbing off. Push the two ends together securely until they are fully connected. Wipe away any flux that comes off with a clean paintbrush.
Working one at a time may be very slow, and trying to deal with a long section all at once may be very difficult! Work with a few pieces at a time. Heat the fitting or female connector up with a soldering iron or blowtorch. Heat will make the metal expand, so you should always heat the larger sections of your pipes up before the smaller sections.
Hold a soldering iron to the pipe, or use a blowtorch to heat the metal up until the soldering flux melts into the joint and begins to bubble slightly. Press the solder to the opposite side of the pipe. When the flux is just starting to bubble and the pipe is hot, press the tip of the solder to the opposite side as you are holding the blowtorch. The solder should melt immediately and work into the joint to hold it together.
Pull the torch away and quickly run the solder around the circumference of the joint to completely seal it. If the solder doesn't run into the joint and forms small beads that roll away from it instead, you might have burnt the flux or may not have cleaned the pipe properly. The pipe may have also been heated too much or too little, which will also cause the solder to bead off. Wait until the pipes are cooled, disconnect them and start again. It's easier to reach around the back side of the pipe if you bend a small hook in the solder wire before you begin soldering.
Grip the solder far enough away from the tip that you won't risk melted solder getting on your hands. For extra safety, wear fire-resistant gloves as you work.
Examine the joints to make sure they are completely soldered. Once the pipes have cooled a little, look around the edges of the joints to make sure they are evenly coated with solder. If you notice any sections without solder, apply a small amount of flux on the area and let it melt with the residual heat of the pipes. Use the blowtorch to heat the pipe up again and apply a small amount of solder to the bare area.
As a general rule of thumb, as long as there is a thin, silvery trim around the edges of your fittings, the pipe should be fully soldered. Not Helpful 0 Helpful 3. Use your soldering iron to melt the solid flux, then dip the tip of your solder into it.
The melted flux should stick to the solder. Not Helpful 0 Helpful 5. If you use an excessive amount of flux, it will leave residue behind on your project. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. When you saturate the sponge, wring it out so that it is not dripping wet. Too much water can increase the thermal stress of the tip, and slow down tip recovery. When the soldering tip has turned black from baked on fluxes and no longer wets properly, it is time for the cleaning tools of last resort.
Tip tinner Plato TT is a combination of lead-free solder and cleaner. While the soldering iron is at full temperature, roll it in the tip tinner. As you roll it, it should change from black to shiny silver as the baked flux is cleaned off. Then wipe off the excess tip tinner from the soldering tip, and re-tin using wire solder.
Polishing bars are also available and are used to scrub the tip clean of flux residues. This should only be used as a last resort because you will be removing iron along with the burnt flux.
Once a tip shows pitting - actual holes in the iron - it is time to be replaced. Remember to use a jabbing motion using a brass tip cleaner. Wiping across the surface increases the likelihood of flinging molten solder.
Since the move from lead to lead-free solders, a common complaint has been short tip life. The higher heat needed for lead-free solders and flux combined with greater activity leads to faster tip burn-out. Often the tips turn black, the solder beads and just drips off the end of the tip.
Soldering tips have a copper core that transfers heat from the heating element to the working end tip of the tip. Because copper is very soft and easily corroded and worn away, other metals are used to plate over the copper, including an outer layer of iron.
Although iron is very hard, it will still corrode eventually. In addition, it can be coated with flux and other soils, which can cause dewetting. Corrosion and dewetting will slow down soldering and eventually necessitate scrapping the tip. Although all tips will have their day in the trash bin, there are several steps an operator can take to increase tip life:.
When leaving the solder station for anything over 5 minutes, turn it off. When you leave the station turned on, the tip remains at soldering temperature, further reducing tip life. Modern soldering equipment heats up to a soldering temperature in seconds, so the time savings is not worth the reduction in tip life. Once there is pitting and visible corrosion, it is time for a new tip. The outside of a soldering tip is plated with iron over the thermally conductive copper center.
This protects the soft, corrosion-prone copper from the harsh fluxes. Once flux gets through the iron plating through pits, the tip will be eaten away quickly. After all, the components have been replaced and excess solder removed….
This is an optional step for no-clean flux, but still a good idea for densely populated or high voltage boards. It is absolutely required, regardless of the flux type, if you plan to follow your repair with conformal coating.
That concludes our Ultimate Guide to Electronic Soldering. Still have questions about which soldering products are best for your applications? Contact us at , or send us a message here. Americas English Spanish. My account Login View Cart 0. What do I need to solder electronics? Wire solder, with or without a flux core.
Flux, if the wire solder does not include a flux core or if additional flux is needed. What is a soldering iron? What is the difference between a soldering iron and a soldering station? What type of solder should I use?
Lead or lead-free — Solder is generally a combination of metals, which are chosen for the best reliability and conductivity. Lead, often combined with tin, has been the mainstay of electronic soldering since its inception.
Lead has a relatively low melting point and readily wets and flows, which makes the process faster, easier, and more fool-proof. Because of environmental and health concerns around, there has been pressure to move to lead-free solder, which is often a combination of tin and silver. Lead-free solders have a higher melting point and generally require more active or more concentrated fluxes higher solids content to achieve the same soldering performance as leaded solders.
For typical manual soldering, if done properly, reliability between lead and lead-free solders should be about the same. For high-end electronics used in extreme environments e. Wire for plumbing will be much thicker, 2mm in diameter or higher. Electronics solder wire will be thinner, from 1. All relevant welds must be of a low melting point. If you plan to solder with a common medical Vaseline, you may not achieve the wanted result. Nevertheless, it can still serve as a protective non-corrosive material.
The protective fluxes protect the previously cleaned metal surface from oxidation and have no chemical effect on the metal. That is what Vaseline can be used for in the soldering process. Soldering without flux seems quite strange to some people but there is an option that allows you not to worry about using flux. The Pallarium solder rods are hollow inside and filled with flux in the cavity.
As soon as the solder rod is heated, the flux in the rod liquefies and flows perfectly together with the solder.
Another advantage of the soldering bars is that they can be processed at an extremely low working temperature. Therefore, the materials are subject to a significantly lower thermal load than before. Filigree and heat-sensitive glasses frames can therefore be processed more easily. The Pallarium soldering rods are ideal for soldering silver, chrome-nickel-steel connections, brass, and the common metals used in eyewear production. When connecting cables or soldering components, there does not seem to be any real alternative.
Nevertheless, there are possibilities, which are at least theoretically available. A conductive adhesive that is often used in industry is also available in small quantities. The problem here, however, is the price. It is not that cheap and the widespread use of such an adhesive as a substitute for soldering is not particularly economical.
In addition, the adhesive cannot be used particularly well for electronic components and very small soldering tasks. Classic soldering joints are certainly the method of choice here. Soldering cables together is one of the basic tasks for the DIY enthusiast when it comes to repairing toys or household appliances. As a rule, so-called crimp connectors also work adequately when connecting cables. If you want even more security, you can use crimp connectors, which are also shrunk using hot air.
So-called butt connectors and shrink butt connectors are easy to find and they are not that expensive. In practice, the durability of such connections can be compared to a soldered joint, so cables do not necessarily have to be soldered together. In the field of automotive electronics, such shrink-compression connectors are very often prescribed and preferably used. Liquid flux is not the most practical, because its consumption is the largest because it spreads on the board.
Gel-like flex is the most convenient and practical type because it is easy to apply and it does not spread over the board. Also, the majority of these fluxes is suitable for soldering BGA chips.
Flux pastes are the thickest type, applied with a blade, low consumption, at the high boiling point. Various flux products may be very helpful throughout the soldering process when you do electronics projects. All the items tested will definitely allow soldering jobs to be done — just select the suitable flux paste with metals from your computer. When you decide which flux paste to buy and which one is capable of doing the job, consider all pros and cons.
Depending on how much you solder the electric devices, purchasing two or three of those things for various jobs may be worthwhile. My audience keeps asking what types of fluxes to use for soldering, I will try to help you with this choice. You will choose among 3 major types with peculiar features. I will disclose their peculiar features and tell what types of fluxes will do for the performance of different soldering tasks. Also, I will recommend my top 5 best fluxes for soldering, according to many years of personal experience.
I hope you will find this review useful!
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