> I'm no soldering expert, but I Know a little bit. The general problem
> with mutiple thermal cycles is this: The tin forms a Tin/Copper >
intermetallic with the Copper upon reflow.

Les,
"The board laminate is special nylon material and has gold over the bare
copper pads." I'm neither a soldering expert but something got me
thinking, Stella had gold over bare copper.
Cu and Sn/Pb intermetallics are no good, the intermetallic is bronze (i
think) and it's "almost" no-way you can solder on that. But that wasn't
the issue here. As i wrote earlier, i'm no expert but anyway, does
anyone know what kind of intermetallics you get from multiple thermal
cycles with gold on bare copper??!

Thank you,
Jan Merstrand