Had a cap blow on a receiver board yesterday - changed my flux game.

I was fixing a 70s Pioneer receiver at my bench in Portland. Pulled the board and saw a swollen cap near the power section. Desoldered it clean but the pad lifted - cheap flux let the joint get too hot. Switched to a liquid flux pen I got from a guy at the repair meetup. Now I never touch a board without it. Anyone else ditch paste flux after a bad lift?

3 comments

3 Comments

joseph45521d ago

i seen this exact thing happen to a guy at my local hackspace last month. he was using some old rosin paste from the 90s and lifted three traces on a Marantz board. i still use paste myself though. its all about how much heat youre throwing at it and if your iron tip is clean.

skyler_fox7221d ago

Did you read that article someone posted about how modern lead-free solder is actually way more aggressive with pads and traces than the old stuff? Makes me wonder if the paste was really the problem or if it was just the board being fussy.

grant.jade21d ago

60 years of soldering here, clean tip and 650F max is the sweet spot. Old paste will reflow fine if you're not cranking the heat like an animal.