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Date: | Fri, 13 Dec 96 06:42:44 cst |
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Good Morning Jan!
Wow! Well I'm glad you tried it because I'm too chicken! The first
rule they taught us in metallurgy school is that molten metal and
water is a BAD combination. I would be a bit leery of the moisture in
a potato initiating an explosion. Dross is typically oxides and other
contaminates that are less dense than the solder alloy itself and so
dross floats on the surface of a solder pot. Because of this density
difference dross shouldn't be throughout your solder pot unless the
wave pumping action pulls some around. Dross is also very abrasive so
the wave solder equipment manufacturers don't want dross anywhere but
at the top of the solder pot. There are chemical additives that can be
used to "de-dross" a solder pot but I don't think they are potato
based. My guess is that all the dross that accumulated in the half
hour was generated because of the potatoes themselves. Sometimes dross
sinks just below the surface of a solder pot because it's not pure
dross - it contains small chunks of solder thus making it heavier.
Maybe the TechNet chemists can help out.
Dave Hillman
Rockwell Collins
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______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Assy: Cleaning solder pot
Author: [log in to unmask] at ccmgw1
Date: 12/13/96 2:16 AM
Hi all,
A colleague of mine had spoken with our soldering tin contractor about
cleaning the solder pot. We had a theory that dross is floating beneath
the surface but not at the bottom of the solder pot. The question was in
how get them out. The contractors chemist had a theory which he had not
tried himself but recommended it. He said: "Make somekind of skewer to
attach four potatos in a row. The moisture in the potato will evaporate
in the solder pot and make small bubbles which will push up the dross
from the pot". We tried it and god(!!) what a reaction. We let them stay
in the pot for about half an hour and sure got up some dross. WOW! The
whole solderpot surface was covered by it. So now i'm wondering, does
organic stuff like potato leave anything in the pot which will affect the
quality in any way?? Has anyone tried anything similar? (probably not!)
Dave, SIRguru any comments?
/Jan Merstrand
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