Gordy, you said:

>Also keep in mind that some of the gold is dragged out with the dross that is
>removed on a daily basis when using a "dry" wave solder pot.  I have experience
>with oil covered wave solder pots and they do indeed exhibit a build up of
>gold, primariy because you are not forming dross and hence not removing some
>contaminants.  We typically dumped an oil covered pot every 3 months either due
>to gold or copper contamination levels.  When we changed wave solder machines
>to a "dry" wave we found we could go years without dumping the solder pot even
>though what we soldered had not changed.
>
>Gordy Seppanen, Process Engineer
>Military Avionics
>Honeywell Inc.

Yes, I'm sure you are right. I used to have an old Dee Electric machine
with an oil blanket, and an old Hollis oil intermix (yeccch). Those pots
built up copper a lot faster. The dross formation definitely carries out
some metals in the form of oxides. Good point. Whether gold specifically
would stay in solution with the tin, I dunno.

However, these days I'm putting fewer bars in the Electrovert every month,
and I'm using more paste - how about you? Seems like all that experience of
wavesolder maintenance and operation is like knowing what to do with a
dwell tach and timing light...

cheers,

Jerry Cupples