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Hit 10 years fixing boards and just found out I was using flux wrong the whole time
I was working on a old amplifier from the 80s last month, one of those silver-faced Pioneers a guy brought in. I always just globbed on flux paste from that little tin I got at a swap meet, figured more was better to get the solder flowing. This thing had cold joints everywhere after I worked on it, and I couldn't figure out why until a buddy stopped by my shop in Portland. He watched me for like 2 minutes and said "dude, you're using acid flux on circuit boards, that's for pipes." I felt like a total idiot. Been using rosin core solder forever but somehow never realized the paste I had was completely wrong. The worst part is I probably ruined a dozen other repairs over the years doing this. Anybody else ever get caught using the wrong flux for years without noticing?
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jordan_henderson133mo ago
Wait hold on, you've been using acid flux on circuit boards for a DECADE? That stuff eats copper traces like nothing. I'm honestly surprised you didn't have boards completely falling apart on you sooner.
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quinn1613mo ago
Two blown power supplies in ten years?
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ruby6593mo ago
The three revisions of my first PCB from 2014 all had copper traces that looked like a spiderweb by year two. I just kept slapping more solder over the mess and calling it a "reinforcement technique." Honestly I think the conductive dust from the corroded traces was what held everything together in the end. The board finally gave up when a trace for the power input literally turned into powder and I had to jump it with a piece of wire. Ten years of that nonsense and I'm shocked I only blew up two power supplies.
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