Hot take: I quit fluxing every joint after a guy at a swap meet in Reno showed me his bench | Electronics Repairers - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
Hot take: I quit fluxing every joint after a guy at a swap meet in Reno showed me his bench
I used to flux every single solder joint out of habit, like it was a rule I couldn't break. Then last month I drove out to the ham swap in Reno, mostly looking for old test gear, and got talking to a retired tech who let me look at his bench setup. He had this beat up board he'd been reworking for 30 years with no flux pot in sight, and he said most of my mess was my own doing, that flux just turns into junk if you don't clean it right and heat is what actually makes a joint flow. I argued with him for a bit, then went home and tried it on a junk router board, just clean tips and good heat, and the joints came out fine. The real eye opener was how much less gunk I had to scrub off after. I've done maybe 20 boards since then with a lot less flux and I'm not going back to soaking everything. Curious if anyone here went the other direction, or if I'm missing some case where the extra flux really saves you.