SOLDERING SAFELY

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 144, 15 December 1927, Page 21

SOLDERING SAFELY

It is possible to use any sort of soldering flux about a wireless, set without subsequent trouble, but it is far from easy if a corrosive liquid like "killed:.spirits", is used. These fluxes often "sputter" into places where they are not wanted? and although under the Heat of the soldering the wires may be quite dry, the flux soon extracts water from the air and this may cause a troublesome electrical leak as well as start corrosion.

For general purposes, there is nothing, to beat resin, and it is absolutely safe. Now that resin-cored solder is available, it is really the most convenient soldering material. Resin is not as powerful, a cleaning agent as liquid fluxes,- and it is necessary to give it a fair chance-by cleaning the parts.to be soldered with a knife or sandpaper unless .the surface is already tinned. Some soldering "tags" are finished with nickel. It is very difficult to make solder stick to nickel and the best way to : _troat it is to file it off and then "tin" the brass with solder. There are two little tricks about soldering with resin as a flux. First, the iron must

be really hot—so hot that the solder when touched to it flows instantly. If a-gas burner is used, the iron may be heated until a green tinge appears in the flame. Second, the resin must be put on the joint without delay. It is no use to melt solder and resin on the iron and then fool round with the wires and expect to make a joint. Touch" the joint with the iron and the resin-cored solder at the same time, and it will go like magic. The virtue goes out of the resin after a few seconds of heating. If the joints are properly prepared and the iron is in good condition, soldering with resin is a quick, easy, and pleasant little job.