Water soluble fluxes are acid. They have come about due to the industry
wanting to clean circuit boards with water and not organic solvents.
Disposing of large quantities of organic solvents is a real problem. Along
with that is the fact that once you start using water you want send it down
the drain. Now, it is not good to flush acid and lead oxides down the drain
so they have to use lead-free solders and balance the pH of the water. For
non-production work it is much easier to use a rosin flux which mostly
vaporizes during the soldering process and can easily be cleaned using a
household solvent if needed. Leaving even a small amount of acid flux on an
connection can come back and haunt you later.
73
Bill wa4lav
At 09:53 AM 7/11/2007 -0400, STEVEN & NANCY FRAASCH wrote:
>Perhaps I became too boisterous about water-wash flux, but let's face it,
>not too many of us are passionate about good soldering. I do a lot of
>it, and I have found the water-wash flux to give the best results. I use
>it on everything (see warning below). I am obviosly passionate about it
>! It has a HUGE advantage in allowing the user to apply minimum
>temperature and dwell, because it does a beautiful job removing dirt and
>oxide. For example, if you solder outside in the winter like I do, you
>will do beautifully well with a 45 watt pencil in 0 deg F weather, whereas
>you might be inclined to take a propane torch. The water wash flux will
>make that much difference. You do need to wash, or wipe with a wet cloth;
>otherwise, corrosion will start (like on car battery terminals). As long
>as you wash, there is no issue. I wash whole boards at home under
>running water. I did this with W9RE's, W0NCL's and my IC-781
>boards. Just blow dry them off. Water-wash flux is aggressive, hence the
>need to wash. I would advise against water-wash flux on objects that
>could trap flux. For example, I would not water-wash flux RG8 braid
>going into a PL259 (I never solder braid on PL259s; never had a
>problem). I do however, water-wash flux the center terminal. I guarantee
>that using the water-wash flux will make a tremendous difference in your
>soldering results. 73, Steve, K0SF
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