I have an Aouye 968a soldering station? The recent batch of SinkPad I got have brass on the lead and im having trouble getting solder to flow on them. It goes up to 480 C but even all the way turned up, it barley flows solder on them. Is there something wrong with my soldering station or is it just hard to get these to flow?
What tip are you using? If it’s a fine pointed one it might not be losing it’s heat too fast.
I am using a fine tip. Never thought of it cooling down to fast. Good point
LOL I see you were able to decode my clumsily worded post. Thats what I get for changing thoughts in the middle of writing. :8)
You mean that the pads are gold plated? That’s ENIG. The old boards you got were HASL. [If you need help with those terms Google them.]
I doubt that the flow of heat is the issue now since you were able to solder to the ENIG pads without issue. It’s “wetting” that you are having trouble with. In order to promote wetting, use flux. Rosin flux is available at your local Radio Shack, Fry’s Electronics, etc. I personally use Kester liquid flux, but gel flux seems like a good alternative.
Once solder wets to the ENIG pad it has been ‘tinned’ and you will be able to solder to it easily.
If you refuse to go purchase flux, try unraveling some of your “rosin core” solder from your spool. Place the end of your solder directly on the pad, then press the iron down through it towards the pad. The rosin that’s in the solder should help get the pad tinned.
Ya I use flux, but when I would solder to the “gold” pad, it would freeze immediately. As Martini pointed out, I tried using a bigger tip and it definitely helped.
That’s strange to me. There’s no reason to think that SinkPAD is using a different dielectric for the ENIG models than the HASL models…. so the thermal resistance from your tip to the copper base should be about the same.
Did you switch from aluminum SinkPADs to copper ones in the latest batch? That would explain it.
What are you working on? Soldering on a metal surface can suck the heat right out, even ceramic can cause that (such as a tile work surface)…
If you’re not yet, use a helping hands style work holder to keep that from happening.
The ones I used before were copper on the + and - pads, where the new ones are gold plated. When I would lay solder down, it instantly froze and the tip became stuck. Switching to a bigger tip helped but still doesn’t seem perfect. My old Weller gun will solder anything no matter what material.