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How bad can Chinese trash get- defective solder wick

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9100

Diamond
Joined
Nov 1, 2004
Location
Webster Groves, MO
Working in electronics a common problem is a terminal with blobs of solder from a previous connection hanging on it. An old timer's technique is to use the braid from shielded wire or coax cable to soak it up. Someone commercialized the idea, selling rosin impregnated braid to improve its performance under the name "Solder Wick". Today I had to reterminate a D connector, naturally needing to remove the old solder. I tried some of the customer's wick and noticed that the tip was oxidized, presumably from the last use. Real Solder Wick doesn't do that because it is protected by the rosin. This stuff was almost unuseable. It just didn't soak up solder. Then I looked at the package, "Made in China". Another quality product from the People's Republic.

Bill
 
I have braids in copper and tin. If it's not tin then whatever. The copper braid has always worked better. But it costs more to use.
 
IT does age out.

We have a tub of kester flux that usually fixes it.

Some of the fresh stuff does not seem to work as well.

We prefered chemwick (spelling not right) back in the day for cut board repairs.

Pace is first tool though.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 
For doing vintage radio repairs, I typically juice up the real-deal soder wick with a dollop of
rosin flux, dissolved in ethanol.

Also be aware that some of this wick material comes deliberately with NO flux on it. RTFM....
 
Are you sure that's not actually Dri-Wick? One of our purchasers bought that because it was cheaper and we had to wet it with flux pens in order for it to work. The only real advantage of dry wick is that you can use the same flux as the assembly process but since you can buy wick with any type of flux any money saved is a false economy.

I still prefer to use RMA for everything and wash it of with iso alcohol or Flux Off. Sometimes I'm forced to use the other types because project managers insist but proper cleaning solves any contamination issues. I'll admit I'm no fan of either water clean or no clean but especially with lead free solder flux is critical and RMA works best.

PS: I use vacuum desoldering. Pace or Metcal at work and a Hakko pistol at home. And when I use wick I ALWAYS snip off the end before the next use.

Don't get me started on China. I've had more defective crap from there in the last year, the latest being a toner cartridge from a major brand that was seized solid and almost stripped the gears in my older copier of the same make.
 
OK, I think the ppoint is made here, and there seems to be no solution other than what has been mentioned (and, yes, I have seen very similar issues). So it is probably time to close it.
 
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