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Coworker in Omaha told me I was using way too much flux on boards | Electronics Repairers - Chatter Central

Coworker in Omaha told me I was using way too much flux on boards

I used to glob flux on every joint like it was free. This older tech named Rick watched me rework a power supply last month and said I was creating more problems than fixing. He showed me how just a tiny dab on the tip does the job without leaving corrosive mess everywhere. I tried his method on a dead motherboard with 20 bad caps and it actually cleaned up easier and passed test on the first try. Now I barely touch the flux bottle. Has anyone else gotten better results from cutting way back on flux usage?

3 comments

3 Comments

dakota_patel983mo ago

Whoa, I actually just read something about this exact thing on a repair forum last week. Some guy was saying too much flux can actually cause bridging and cold joints because the heat gets trapped in all that extra goo. Makes sense when you think about it, the flux is just there to clean the surface and let the solder flow, not to be a cushion. I used to think more was better too until I saw a video where a guy dipped just the tip and it worked perfectly. So yeah, you're definitely onto something, and Rick sounds like he knows his stuff.

seth_harris363mo ago

Cracked myself up the other day watching a video where I used so much flux it looked like I was trying to solder a swamp... the iron just slid around in that goo like a hockey puck on a wet rink. Ended up with a joint that looked more like a spiderweb than a connection. Had to scrape it all off and start over, and yeah, just a tiny dab on the tip did the trick. So I feel your pain, buddy... we're all just learning the hard way not to drown our poor circuit boards in that stuff.

the_nathan3mo ago

Cringed reading this cause I've definitely made a few swampy solder joints myself, learnin the hard way just like everyone else.