Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

[Retro-Hipster]

Re: Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

go watch his video with the electric water heater and pack of salt!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB62AfXLEHY

youtube is fucking with this video!

Oh yes, i have watched that one more time than I can say. Lol I wish more people knew of the video because "I can't believe I do this!" desparately needs to be a meme. Haha

[megaraider]

Re: Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

go watch his video with the electric water heater and pack of salt!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB62AfXLEHY
youtube is fucking with this video!

Hilarious... if it was just on youtube...

The very same principle is applied (without salt) on these electric hot water bags and sold in every chinese local shop!!!!
The only difference (???) being it's water tight in a rubber enclosure.
They even stick the "CE" approval label

[eccerr0r]

Re: Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

go watch his video with the electric water heater and pack of salt!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB62AfXLEHY

youtube is fucking with this video!

OMG it's age restricted now ... BS.

[stj]

Re: Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

Which one do you find better?

the clear one that looks like beer is the best.

[stj]

Re: Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

go watch his video with the electric water heater and pack of salt!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB62AfXLEHY

youtube is fucking with this video!

[Retro-Hipster]

Re: Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

"diode gone wild" uses the solid rosin by dipping the iron in it and splashing it onto the joint!!!!

Ahaha! Him doing surface mount stuff with the rusty nail and the rosin was so entertaining. :'D

"And Rosiiin.. there is never enough of rosiiiin..."

[eccerr0r]

Re: Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

I think the translucent (and yellowish/orange) ones should be mostly rosin, the opaque ones have at least some triglycerides in it. If it's both, maybe it's both...

[Agent24]

Re: Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

but how would you clean it off??

that's important to keep in mind.
there is some relativly good flux from poland (thermopasty), but it ignores IPA!!
luckily i discovered it disolves in white spirit - which is handy ecause that stuff is cheaper than beer - about €2 for 3Liters

I think a detergent is used as part of the flux-cleaning process, in industry, too.
The hobbyist can just leave the board outside an ant's nest for a week.

But yeah, some flux is a bit of a swine to clean off.

[megaraider]

Re: Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

And yes, isopropil alcohol is used in liquid fluxes. You can pound those rosin chunks into tiny granules and mix them with isopropyl alcohol (i forget the ratio now, the video below says between 20% and 80% something of weight is rosin, rest is alcohol) and leave the bottle closed for a day or so to have the contents mix well.Optionally shake from time to time.
Also optionally you can add a tiny amount of glycerin, less than 1% by weight, basically a drop or so in a 100ml bottle.
See https://youtu.be/iv_2ULCmA28

I've used this since i can remember, way before flux birth (or globalization anyway).
[rosin + isopropyl alcohol, aka isopropanol + glycerine]
Usually around 60% in concentration but it depends on rosin pureness.

For very high temperatures long exposures, e.g.: hot air soldering, adding glycerine is a must.

Also it's easily cleaned with white spirit, which is also cheap.

[stj]

Re: Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

but how would you clean it off??

that's important to keep in mind.
there is some relativly good flux from poland (thermopasty), but it ignores IPA!!
luckily i discovered it disolves in white spirit - which is handy ecause that stuff is cheaper than beer - about €2 for 3Liters

[Agent24]

Re: Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

Yeah, it'll smell alright... when the fat starts rotting
Beeswax might be better, actually!

[stj]

Re: Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

you could desolve rosin with some ipa or just heat it in a spoon, then mix it into some grease or fat.
be interesting to see how well it works.
specially if you can make the work area smell like bacon - to hell with fume extractors!

[eccerr0r]

Re: Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

Maybe once my pork lard runs out I'll give it a go.

How well does lard work?

I collected a bunch of tallow that I rendered before tossing a piece of food waste that I should try...but I suspect it has little cleaning activity... incidentally, I wonder if this foggy "flux" is animal fat plus a little rosin...

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

that's strange, not only is it not translucent from what i can see, the inside of the tin is painted too.
my original stuff the inside of the tin is not painted.

also, your tin has 2 sizes printed on it????????

The second one on the left, looks like the inside of a bee hive, LOL!

(A.K.A. the "bee hive flux")

[Agent24]

Re: Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

You'd need a motor controller wouldn't you? The inductive load of the transformer would be bad for a simple Triac dimmer?

[stj]

Re: Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

it wouldnt be too hard to hook one of those guns to a reostat or lamp dimmer, motor speed controller etc.

[mariushm]

Re: Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

It's a bad technique but my father did it the same way... that's how he soldered stuff in the 1990's when I was a kid. Romania being an ex communist country, there was no access to more clever soldering stations, you had no choice but to use those 100w soldering irons.

Problem is he can't help it as long as he uses that soldering iron... it's a 100w iron which uses a shitty "transformer" that's not designed to run for more than 15-30s at a time and the copper wire at the tip heats fast.

So he gets a chunk of rosin on the tip and basically just hopes the copper wire cools enough before it gets burned by the iron tip (if the finger keeps pressing on the trigger)

[stj]

Re: Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

"diode gone wild" uses the solid rosin by dipping the iron in it and splashing it onto the joint!!!!

[mariushm]

Re: Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

Dannyx ... i buy my liquid flux from TME.eu, they distribute flux from a Polish company, AG Thermopasty

Flux TK-83Liquid, medium-active flux, type 1.1.2 / 3 A acc. to ISO 9454-1, which is an alcoholic solution of rosin with the addition of organic activators, max. soldering temperature 280ºC. Solids content 24%. Ideally suited for manual tinning to restore solderability.

2$ 50ml : https://www.tme.eu/en/details/flux-t...mopasty/tk-83/
3.75$ 100ml: https://www.tme.eu/en/details/flux-t...mopasty/tk-83/
15$ 500ml : https://www.tme.eu/en/details/flux-t...mopasty/tk-83/
27$ 1000ml : https://www.tme.eu/en/details/flux-t...mopasty/tk-83/

Shipping is around 5-6$... or it used to be... i remember it was around 17 RON when I last ordered from them.


18$ 1 liter https://www.tme.eu/en/details/rf800_...ag-termopasty/
(but this one it's recommended to clean boards after use)

they also sell rosin granules for example, 5$ for 500g bag, 100% rosin... https://www.tme.eu/en/katalog/fluxes_100484/

And yes, isopropil alcohol is used in liquid fluxes. You can pound those rosin chunks into tiny granules and mix them with isopropyl alcohol (i forget the ratio now, the video below says between 20% and 80% something of weight is rosin, rest is alcohol) and leave the bottle closed for a day or so to have the contents mix well.Optionally shake from time to time.
Also optionally you can add a tiny amount of glycerin, less than 1% by weight, basically a drop or so in a 100ml bottle.

See https://youtu.be/iv_2ULCmA28


tip you can also check the MSDS notes for fluxes.
For example here's the MSDS for that TK 83 flux above:

<85% isopropyl alcohol
20-25% rosin
<5% benzoic acid
<5% adipic acid

[Dannyx]

Re: Does flux expire ?? Flux discussion.

Isopropanol ? Doesn't evaporate almost instantly and much more so when exposed to heat ? I wouldn't think of it as being the base ingredient for homemade flux