Hi Greg!
I would NEVER drain a solder pot! Too dangerous!!
Ed Popielarski, a very knowledgable person who has done
our last two wave solder machine installations, has told me that
whenever he sees a solder pot in a wave solder machine with
a drain on it, he'll weld the damn thing shut if he has a chance.
Ed has taught me a lot about empying a solder pot, and I'll
share it with you. I just changed out my Electrovert Electra
solder pot ( all 1,800 lbs of it, by myself) about 2-years ago.
Took me about 6-7 hours to empty it.
First, go to the grocery store and get you some "Bakers Secret"
loaf pans...don't laugh, I'm serious. They are very durable and
have bullet-proof teflon lining in them. I bought 12 of them when
I emptied my Electrovert pot.
Next you'll need a stainless scooping ladle, and also two pair
of vice grips to grip the loaf pans on the ends. When you get
your loaf pans, bend the tabs on each end of the pan upwards.
It'll make gripping the pans easier with the vise grips.
Get a sturdy table or cart that is big enough to hold all 12 pans,
and is just about the same height, or a little lower than your wave
solder pot. The point here is to cut down on the distance that you
have to go when ladling the molten solder into the loaf pans. This
saves time, and is safer. I also took a wire shelf section from a
Metro rack (we had some laying around), and put it on top of the table
that the loaf pans were on. This provides some air circulation beneath
the pans to help solidify the solder quicker. I also use a couple of floor
fans directed at the loaf pans to speed up solidification.
Call me a chicken, but I wouldn't use water to cool the loaf pans off.
Me and Ed both have seen what happens when molten solder and
water mix, and it is pretty impressive to say the least.
Next thing after you get your table set near the pot, loaf pans all ready,
and leather apron on, is to think about the pot heaters. Some heaters like
in
the Treiber machine I used to have, Treiber called "Fire Rods" were
immersed
in the solder. There were upper and lower heaters in the pot, and once
these heaters become exposed after removing solder from the pot, they
will start to glow red, which is what you don't want, because then you are
burning them up. You'll need to disconnect the heaters as they become
exposed if you have immersion heaters, or cycle the heater power off
and on to keep them from glowing too long, but at the same time keeping
the solder liquid so you can ladle it out. You definitely don't want to
kill
your pot heaters (if they are immersion heaters) before you get your pot
emptied. With some machine like the old Hollis Future 1 SMT machine I
had, all three pot heaters died and we had to torch the pot out with an
acetylene
torch with a rosebud tip. NO FUN!
Then just start ladling the solder into the loaf pans. Fill them no more
than
3/4 full. Fuller than that will take them longer to cool and solidify. With
the
fans blowing on them, give them anywhere from 15-30 minutes to cool and
solidify. To make sure they're sufficiently solid, tap on the surface of
the solder
in the pan. If it's a high pitch sound, it's solid. If there's a sort of
dull hollow thud,
then the insides are still liquid...I would leave that to cool a bit more.
Then I use
the vice grips to grab each end of the loaf pan (because they're pretty
darn hot),
and then flip the whole thing upside down in one motion and give a little
jerk.
The ingot will literally fall out of the pan. Watch that it doesn't fall
on your foot,
each ingot will be about 20-25 lbs.. I took a few layers of cardboard to
place
over the floor wher I was dumping the ingots out of the pans, so I wouldn't
get
yelled at for putting dents in the floor.
I used to have some pictures of the last time I emptied my pot and
re-filled it,
but I think they're history...I can't find them. It would have been nice to
put back
up on my web page.
It's really not as much work as you might think. But do it safely!! Take
your time
and don't get rushed...I mean we're talking about 500-degree solder!
Have fun!
Kind regards,
-Steve Gregory-
Senior Process Engineer
LaBarge Incorporated
Tulsa, Oklahoma
(918) 459-2285
(918) 459-2350 FAX
|---------+---------------------------->
| | "Anderson, Greg |
| | (GE |
| | Infrastructure)" |
| | <Greg.Anderson@GE|
| | FANUC.COM> |
| | Sent by: TechNet |
| | <[log in to unmask]>|
| | |
| | |
| | 04/13/2005 02:26 |
| | PM |
| | Please respond to|
| | TechNet E-Mail |
| | Forum; Please |
| | respond to |
| | "Anderson, Greg |
| | (GE |
| | Infrastructure)" |
| | |
|---------+---------------------------->
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| |
| To: [log in to unmask] |
| cc: |
| Subject: [TN] Wave Solder Pot Draining Best Practices |
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
TechNet:
We are going to drain and clean a wave solder pot in preparation for
conversion to lead-free solder.
We have not completely purged a wave solder pot in some time, and the
people in the know have moved on.
Does anyone have "best practices" recommendations for draining and handling
the solder (other than BE VERY CAREFUL ! ) ?
Greg Anderson
GE Fanuc Automation
Charlottesville, VA
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