Soldering Guide Help

[Ferrum Master]

Would like to try at some point, but the old lead solder is universally found and I have heaps of it and solder paste cost a lot more anyway. How long does it last unopened/opened? I have looked at some and they generally say they don't last long. Is that why the fridge?

In general 6-12 months officially. On practice few years, depending on the packaging quality. Problem with those, many flux/compounds itself are not approved for anymore. It is internally proven to be aggressive, conductive, corrosive and not ESD safe. There is nothing much to do about it if your work under the manufacturers and he dictates the standards, as from the assembly line and further RMA experience they deduced it causes problems, the information often is closed under NDA. We only store few glues and rubber gap fillers in the fridge.

I adore these warnings. Those MAYs.

 

[Frick]

In general 6-12 months officially. On practice few years, depending on the packaging quality. Problem with those, many flux/compounds itself are not approved for anymore. It is internally proven to be aggressive, conductive, corrosive and not ESD safe. There is nothing much to do about it if your work under the manufacturers and he dictates the standards, as from the assembly line and further RMA experience they deduced it causes problems, the information often is closed under NDA. We only store few glues and rubber gap fillers in the fridge.

I adore these warnings. Those MAYs.

View attachment 144729

With solder paste you mean? I knew lead free solder is not as good (don't forget the whiskers!) but I know next to nothing about solder paste.

 

[Ferrum Master]

With solder paste you mean? I knew lead free solder is not as good (don't forget the whiskers!) but I know next to nothing about solder paste.

That paste also has flux mixture in it, there are 3 types of it, from that depends that the shelf life, prone to evaporation etc, new ones ain't anymore, no need for the fridge. I haven't met anyone really using it much. It is more easy to use hot plate and instantly solder everything on. Cleaning that paste often could end up as a pain in the arse, soaking up with shady solvents sensitive parts etc... it has drawbacks. Just as everything.

Lead free ain't that bad. It has higher melting point, it behaves bad with corrosive damage, it simply rots away versus the older lead based. But other than that... no real differences if you solder a fresh project... When doing repairs, that's a different story, actually the practice is adding lead solder to drop melting point and do less damage.

For special items... there are some super heat sensitive fragile parts, mostly RF transmitter department, for those we have low melting point solder, Bismuth/Indium.

 

[delshay]

In general 6-12 months officially. On practice few years, depending on the packaging quality. Problem with those, many flux/compounds itself are not approved for anymore. It is internally proven to be aggressive, conductive, corrosive and not ESD safe. There is nothing much to do about it if your work under the manufacturers and he dictates the standards, as from the assembly line and further RMA experience they deduced it causes problems, the information often is closed under NDA. We only store few glues and rubber gap fillers in the fridge.

I adore these warnings. Those MAYs.

View attachment 144729

If I was to replace my current solder paste I would buy something like this https://uk.farnell.com/multicore-loctite/2006905-m/solder-paste-62-36-2-179-deg-500g/dp/5091111?st=solder paste

I use lower melting point solder as I have infrared workstation. I don't want to disturb other components like PCI slots. That's the only reason why I choose lower melting point solder. All of the solder paste I buy has an expiry date on it. Zoom in on the photo of item in link, you can see the use by date (example).

 

[Ferrum Master]

I use lower melting point solder as I have infrared workstation

It depends on what you solder, for planar parts, no BGA involved. Also risk of cold joints as the melting point is way to low and the metal diffusion for some reasons doesn't happen good(nitrogen must be used), xray then needed also, etc etc. People often use some china powders, made from who knows, there we know about Chinese electronics quality problems, the root cause is actually there, the perception of things. You cannot gimp it here much anymore.

More modern is GC10, it does not need refrigeration.

It is another specific case for each of us, but it doesn't really concern starters. It is mass production mode already.

 

[delshay]

More modern is GC10, it does not need refrigeration.

It is another specific case for each of us, but it doesn't really concern starters. It is mass production mode already.

GC10? interesting never looked into that. It will be on my shopping list in next bulk buy.

EDIT: I do have very cheap solder paste from EBAY. This paste is used for experimental projects. It does not need to be perfect, it just needs to work. I only use my best paste when project is complete & transferred to main PCB.

 

[Vario]

Great video that's what I call proper soldering. Funny Alpha is the flux I use, very expensive, but i have others.

Yes they have a ton of these PACE training videos this was the first in the series. Some are antique but pretty helpful.

paceworldwide

For over forty years, PACE, Inc. has provided state-of-the-art, hands-on solder training to the electronics industry around the world. Courses and support ma...

www.youtube.com

Basic Soldering Lessons 1 - 9

These 9 videos will educate you on the basic soldering knowledge and practices used today.

www.youtube.com

 

[eidairaman1]

Yet another

 

[delshay]

Yet another

I still have my Amiga 1200 motherboard, but I modded it many years ago & should still be working. I removed all the IC & fitted sockets.
So my A1200 motherboard is unique & different to any other A1200 motherboard. It can be repaired in 60 seconds or less if any of the IC goes faulty.

If i get request, i will dig it out & post photo.

 

[lexluthermiester]

If i get request, i will dig it out & post photo.

If it's not to much trouble..

 

[delshay]

If it's not to much trouble..

Sorry have to scrap that, too much stuff in the way, also I just remembered the CPU & memory are not socketed, everything else should be socketed thou.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Sorry have to scrap that, too much stuff in the way, also I just remembered the CPU & memory are not socketed, everything else should be socketed thou.

Fair enough. That is a very involved process and requires either a ton of time or skillful soldering work.

 

[Frick]

I just orderes a hot air station, the ubiquitous 858D, brand name of Kaisi, for aboot €35. @silentbogo, any tips for it? Or you other people who knows everything.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Well, I certainly would not pretend to know everything. In fact, after 45+ years as an electronics tech, the one constant I have learned is that the more I learn, the more I realize there is yet to learn! But I do have a what I consider to be a very good pro tip.

We must remember that soldering, whether using a gun, pencil iron, air soldering station, or butane torch (or a desoldering iron too), these tasks are all skills. And like virtually all skills, they require lots of practice and honing to become proficient at them. So my advice is to find yourself an old motherboard, graphics card, sound card, modem, router - something with a decent size populated PCB that you are willing to sacrifice, and practice, practice, practice before trying your hand on any board you have or are going to put into service.

 

[silentbogo]

Oh... that's a bit of a mixed bag of beans... Pretty much the same thing as my very first Baku 858D, and while it lasted, it was still kinda crappy.
There are few things you need to remember:
1) If you have an opportunity - callibrate it as soon as you can. If you have a multimeter with thermocouple - use it. Preferably use K-type with a naked junction, not enclosed in metal pipe. Without calibration it may act funky, like burning PCBs to crisp, or not handling even basic lead-free SMD rework. Stick a TK into a nozzle, and use a tiny screwdriver in a CAL hole on the front panel to adjust temperature sensing.
2) Don't ever leave it running for a long time. Hot air wand tends to overheat, which kills the heating element faster and may occasionally melt wires and casing. 20-minute sessions at 300-350C is probably the safest limit, which is still more than enough for most work.
3) Do not use it for BGA rework!!!! Energy output of this thing is a lot lower than claimed 700W, so the most you could do with it, is solder some relatively tiny 10x10mm ICs on phones. QFN and QFP is usually fine. I've only had small issues with large SuperI/O controllers, like Nuvoton NCT6791D etc.
4) Temperature control on this thing is awful, so before using it as a daily driver, you should practice on some donor boards just to get the ballpark of which temperatures to use on which boards and chips. GPUs are the worst enemy of 858D, so I would strongly suggest not to use it. Especially on hi-end GPUs with ridiculous heat capacity. Even a simple FET replacement can turn into a nightmare.
5) If you are working with tiny SMD components, then only use the lowest airflow setting. Your caps and resistors will fly all over the desk even on medium. That's why I switched to compressor in the first place.

On the good side - replacement parts are cheap and they don't suffer from defective triacs and other issues, like most cheap compressor-based rework stations (e.g. constant hum, or airflow won't turn off etc). Schematics for this thing are available online, so if something goes wrong or breaks - it's quite easy to fix (even easier than spending another $35 on a new one).

Saike 858D Rework Station - Original Schematic - eNBeWe.de

blog.enbewe.de