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Using flux when soldering 1
I posted this as a comment in Askelectronics and thought I’d bring it here for everyone to contribute to a general discussion.
Bring some popcorn, if you wish.
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To all those advocating the habitual use of extra flux, please read this Digikey article because those of us formally trained in soldering are once again shaking our heads.
From my perspective:
* Extra flux for beginners – OK until you get the hang of things.
* Extra flux as a way of life – not so much.
From my 40-ish years of career and hobby soldering, the main reasons for needing extra flux all the time are:
* Still learning the art of soldering.
* Using crappy, cheap solder.
* Diving straight into using lead-free solder.
* Other people normalising the behavior and passing it on as the one true way.
Ultimately, do whatever floats your boat – or flows your joint – but ‘mandatory extra flux’ just adds cost to your work or hobby and you likely don’t need it.
Anyway..have a looksee…
https://www.digikey.co.uk/en/maker/blogs/2023/what-is-solder-flux-and-why-you-should-use-it
“Most people will seldom need to add additional flux when soldering, as they’ll most likely use a solder that embeds flux in the core of the wire.”
Finally someone that agrees with me. The last time that I used flux was on a job that took too long because I could not properly heat the entire board. The time before that… I can’t even remember when that was.
I learned to solder back in 90’s when I was 10 year old. 60/40 was the only thing that existed as far as I knew, and I didn’t even know separate flux existed until a decade later. Never really needed it. Never had problems when switching to lead-free solder.
Advice for beginners: try removing components from old boards and putting them back on. Costs nothing, and you’ll gain experience as you go along. But please, just buy decent equipment, even as a starter. Don’t buy a $5 Chinese ‘heated screwdriver’, that worked when I was a kid, but it doesn’t work anymore on sub-mm pitch.