My driver failed and Simon sent me a new one. I replaced it the other day and it was not as easy as a normal replacement. Typical heavy Convoy mcpcb in a light with good heat transfer, so used a good iron, got it hot and the darn old solder would not flow! I normally get the old solder fluid and add a bit of new solder to wet the joint, pull the wire and suck off the excess. I could not get all of the old stuff off to save my soul! It was also tough to get the new solder on, same 63/37 I have used for years…
Was this some kind of lead free solder and what do I need to do differently to deal with it? It seamed to take more heat to accomplish anything useful with the old solder as well. I was using my normal 80 watt iron and normal fat tip for mcpcb work, have done this process at least 150 times, this is the first time I have had such a fight.
Maybe break out a mini file and rough up a spot and add flux to keep that bare spot wet under flux before soldering. Tin then flux again >. Just spitballing
May have to try that next time… This was a first time for this problem… the darn stuff did not want to melt and did not want to stay melted. Was running the iron at 825F!
I have not tried solders other than tin/lead, I am in my late 50’s and have used the alloy for so many years that it is second nature and provides great joints. When I do a swap, I always go for the shortest wires I can get, many times up gauging in the process… did that here as well. If I have to open this one up again… I may just make the wires a little longer and to just that as I am not very happy with the solder joints. They are not pretty, but they do seem strong.