Earl Moon,
Draining molten solder thru a draing hole (or plug) is a very
foolish and cumbersome way. I know all wavesolder mfg's
instructions point to draining solder that way. Speaking from
years of experience of removing and refilling solder pots, there is
only one practical, easy, hassle-free and safe way to do this. I'm
just kidding. There are many ways but my way is superior and
very professional. Here's my way of getting the job done:
1. You pretend to be a professional baker and run down
to a home depot, bakery shop, or safeway. Don't forget you wear
a heavy duty and heat-resistant apron. A bakery apron is no
good.
2. Buy a number of muffin bakery pans, flat & shallow retangular
bakery steel pans, a large soup spoon with a long handle.
Spec:
- muffin pans= non-sticky, hold 12 to 15 muffin holes per pan
- retangular pans= large enough to place a muffin pan inside
with 1/2 to 1" wall
- soup spoon= 3 to 4" dia flat & open top, half-moon shape,
non-sticky is better
3. Now run back to the solder pot and cool the pot temp to 200'c
4. Place retangular pans on the floor and fill them with cold water
about half-way
5. Place empty muffin pans in retangular pans
6. Using the soup spoon, fetch molten solder in the spoon
7. Pour molten solder into muffin holes up to the top, just like the
way you bake muffins. The water in the retangular pan will sizzle
and evaporate. Add water if water evaporate a lot. It usually take
10 to 15 min to cool enough to handle.
8. Fill each muffin pan with molten solder
9. Once cooled, flip each muffin pan and drop it on the floor
from 6" to 12" height. That will release baked solder muffins .
10. Bake solder muffins again as per the above instruction
11. Store solder muffins in a gallon-size bucket containers for
dinner tables
Baked solder muffins are much easier to put them back into any
solder pot than a gallon-size solder chunk. Solder muffins do
no harm to solder pot heater elements when filling an empty
solder pot.
If draining solder thru a drain hole, better you get a propane torch
in case solder freezes or the plugging screw and hole gets
clogged. I know you gonna have a fun torching frozen damn
thing to flow like a water fall, but biting a solder muffin with your
teeth at a dinner table is more delicious and untried heck of
experience. I am not thinking right, am I? It's Friday anyway.
What the heck?? lets be gone from work.
regards
Matthew Park
NII-Norsat International Inc.
>>> "Stephen R. Gregory" <[log in to unmask]> September
18, 1998 11:34 am >>>
In a message dated 9/18/98 10:32:57 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
<< Earl,
Been there, done that.....we 'drained' the molten solder into
containers
that would form the solder into sizeable chunks that could be
'dropped' into
the new pot. It is the long way around, but it worked for us at the
time.
I am assuming the 'old' pot is heatable....if not......'never mind'!
Richard Hamilton
Clemar Mfg. / Rain Bird
[log in to unmask]
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Earl Moon [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Friday, September 18, 1998 9:06 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [TN] Seho Wave Soldering Process Procedures
(Snip)
> Also would like to know, as our solder pots were damaged
during shipping
> (750 and 950 kg - wonder why the damage)
>
> Any information greatfully received,
>
> Earl Moon >>
Hi ya Earl!
Yep, Richard tells ya' right...I've had to drain a pot once or
twice, and
you just gotta heat the pot and drain it into some
containers...pain in the
keester for sure, but the only way I know to do it. You might give
your dross
recycler a call and see if they can provide you with some
containers.
That's what I did out here the last time I had to drain one, and
they
were glad to bring me over some. What they might bring over
looks like round,
gallon-sized, paper containers that kinda look like what ice
cream would come
in. I was a little leery of draining molten solder into paper
containers, but
if you lower your pot temps to just a little above liquidous, and
don't fill
them too full, paper containers do just fine. If you fill them too full,
it'll
retain the heat longer and the outside of the container will start
turning a
"golden brown"...kinda' got my adrenelin going a bit the first time
I saw
it...was worried that I was about to have a nice solder coating all
over the
floor!
As to why your pot got damaged, shipping the machine with a
full pot of
solder is done all the time, but really it's not a normal way of
shipping. If
the machine wasn't prepared correctly for shipping with a full pot
or the van
line did a little "four wheeling" so to speak, a machine can get
damaged
pretty easily with a full pot. Wave machines aren't made to move
around with a
full pot.
One place I worked at we had bought an Electrovert UltraPak
with a full
pot, and when we were spotting it into where it was going to be
installed, the
guy on the forklift sat the machine down a little quick...it didn't
appear
that it was too quick that it would cause damage, but with the full
pot the
frame of the machine wound-up being tweeked, and we had to
ship the machine
back to the factory to get fixed, they couldn't do it in the field.
So, you might make sure nothing else got damaged besides the
pots. On the
machine of ours the pot was fine, the frame was the only thing
that got hurt.
Sounds like you got your hands full pardner!
-Steve Gregory-
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