Solder paste recommendations

[mkr5000]

Just ordered my first stencil after a hundred years with my electronics hobby and would like to find that best bang for the buck solder paste I can use.
No special requirements are needed -- this is just hobby stuff.

I do have a couple that are syringe based and probably want to stick with that as a large quantity would go to waste -- unless small jars are available.

Just a great all around paste for the money. Ordering from China is fine with me as well. -- And they say a credit card works nicely but what else?

Like who has spare charge cards?

 

[Phil Hobbs]

On 2020-03-04 13:11, mkr5000 wrote:

Just ordered my first stencil after a hundred years with my electronics hobby and would like to find that best bang for the buck solder paste I can use.
No special requirements are needed -- this is just hobby stuff.

I do have a couple that are syringe based and probably want to stick with that as a large quantity would go to waste -- unless small jars are available.

Just a great all around paste for the money. Ordering from China is fine with me as well. -- And they say a credit card works nicely but what else?

Like who has spare charge cards?

Chip Quik has some 63SnPb paste with a super long shelf life. That's
the main thing for hobby use.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net

 

mkr5000 <mikerbgr@gmail.com> wrote in
news:7e21f0c5-1b13-4418-a001-fae0566ea730@googlegroups.com:

Just ordered my first stencil after a hundred years with my
electronics hobby and would like to find that best bang for the
buck solder paste I can use. No special requirements are needed --
this is just hobby stuff.

I do have a couple that are syringe based and probably want to
stick with that as a large quantity would go to waste -- unless
small jars are available.

Just a great all around paste for the money. Ordering from China
is fine with me as well. -- And they say a credit card works
nicely but what else?

Like who has spare charge cards?

Depends on the sq inch area of the board/stencil. You need a
fridge for it regardless. Even you syringe version should be kept
cool. Sure they expire, but you only buy one jar. You also need a
mechanical stir machine or to stir it yourself before use to re-
homogenize any settling that occurs in jars that do not get stirred.
That will extend the product life as well as keep the contents most
closely matched to the performance spec when sold. Otherwise you can
get small pockets of bad paste and get failure modes in production.

As far as charging goes see if they take paypal and use that or get
an account with a similar online pay broker they accept. I would not
transact card details on online purchases if possible. I use Paypal
or other means (buy a walmart visa card and fill it and use that).

 

[Don Kuenz]

mkr5000 <mikerbgr@gmail.com> wrote:

Just ordered my first stencil after a hundred years with my electronics hobby
and would like to find that best bang for the buck solder paste I can use.
No special requirements are needed -- this is just hobby stuff.

I do have a couple that are syringe based and probably want to stick with that
as a large quantity would go to waste -- unless small jars are available.

Just a great all around paste for the money. Ordering from China is fine with
me as well. -- And they say a credit card works nicely but what else?

Like who has spare charge cards?

A plastic putty knife works well as a spreader, for instance

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Homax-2-Putty-Knife/23332883

if that's what you were asking.

Thank you,

--
Don Kuenz KB7RPU
There was a young lady named Bright Whose speed was far faster than light;
She set out one day In a relative way And returned on the previous night.

 

[Joe Chisolm]

On Wed, 04 Mar 2020 14:38:29 -0500, Phil Hobbs wrote:

On 2020-03-04 13:11, mkr5000 wrote:
Just ordered my first stencil after a hundred years with my electronics
hobby and would like to find that best bang for the buck solder paste I
can use.
No special requirements are needed -- this is just hobby stuff.

I do have a couple that are syringe based and probably want to stick
with that as a large quantity would go to waste -- unless small jars
are available.

Just a great all around paste for the money. Ordering from China is
fine with me as well. -- And they say a credit card works nicely but
what else?

Like who has spare charge cards?


Chip Quik has some 63SnPb paste with a super long shelf life. That's
the main thing for hobby use.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

+1 on Chip Quik. Their tacky flux is also nice to have around.
For LF I've used a lot of amtech lf4300. You can get that from
Chip Quik (I think they call it SMD4300 something) or directly
from Amtech
https://amtechdirect.com/product/amtech-solder-flux-lf-4300-tf

Syringe with a stencil will be difficult. I think you will waste
a lot of paste unless you can collect it and get it back in the
syringe. Small jars are best and you can get 9mo to a year out
of them if you keep them cool.

Metal putty knife for small boards or larger drywall knife for larger
boards work fine on the stencil. I've tried the plastic bondo
spreaders used for body work but they seem to be too thick
on the business end. Flexible drywall knifes seem to be the best for me.

--
Chisolm
Texas-American

 

[John Miles, KE5FX]

On Wednesday, March 4, 2020 at 10:11:13 AM UTC-8, mkr5000 wrote:

Just ordered my first stencil after a hundred years with my electronics
hobby and would like to find that best bang for the buck solder paste I can use.

If you order from http://www.oshstencils.com, they'll give you the option
to include some Kester EP256 paste with the stencil.

I've always had good results with both their stencils and paste. Much
cheaper than checking the "Include stencils" box on your PCB order!

-- john, KE5FX

 

[mkr5000]

On Wednesday, March 4, 2020 at 1:11:13 PM UTC-5, mkr5000 wrote:

Just ordered my first stencil after a hundred years with my electronics hobby and would like to find that best bang for the buck solder paste I can use.
No special requirements are needed -- this is just hobby stuff.

I do have a couple that are syringe based and probably want to stick with that as a large quantity would go to waste -- unless small jars are available.

Just a great all around paste for the money. Ordering from China is fine with me as well. -- And they say a credit card works nicely but what else?

Like who has spare charge cards?

I don't see anything on Amazon etc relating to date of manufacture for paste. Who knows how long it's been on their shelf? (at room temp) or is that an issue if it hasn't been opened?

 

[Chris Jones]

On 05/03/2020 06:38, Phil Hobbs wrote:

On 2020-03-04 13:11, mkr5000 wrote:
Just ordered my first stencil after a hundred years with my
electronics hobby and would like to find that best bang for the buck
solder paste I can use.
No special requirements are needed -- this is just hobby stuff.

I do have a couple that are syringe based and probably want to stick
with that as a large quantity would go to waste -- unless small jars
are available.

Just a great all around paste for the money. Ordering from China is
fine with me as well. -- And they say a credit card works nicely but
what else?

Like who has spare charge cards?


Chip Quik has some 63SnPb paste with a super long shelf life.  That's
the main thing for hobby use.

I used Chip Quik SMD291SNL10 lead free and it worked well, in a vapour
phase reflow machine using Galden LS230 fluid.

I get solder paste all over the place and it is hard to clean up
thoroughly, so I think leaded paste would be an ingestion hazard if done
at home, rather more so than with wire solder. IIRC roughly each 50
parts per billion blood lead concentration correlates with 5 points
lower IQ in children. You can calculate what that would look like but
IIRC very very roughly it would fit into a sphere about 0.5mm diameter.
Whether that bothers you probably depends on your home circumstances.

 

[Phil Hobbs]

On 2020-03-05 21:31, Chris Jones wrote:

On 05/03/2020 06:38, Phil Hobbs wrote:
On 2020-03-04 13:11, mkr5000 wrote:
Just ordered my first stencil after a hundred years with my
electronics hobby and would like to find that best bang for the
buck solder paste I can use. No special requirements are needed
-- this is just hobby stuff.

I do have a couple that are syringe based and probably want to
stick with that as a large quantity would go to waste -- unless
small jars are available.

Just a great all around paste for the money. Ordering from China
is fine with me as well. -- And they say a credit card works
nicely but what else?

Like who has spare charge cards?


Chip Quik has some 63SnPb paste with a super long shelf life.
That's the main thing for hobby use.

I used Chip Quik SMD291SNL10 lead free and it worked well, in a
vapour phase reflow machine using Galden LS230 fluid.

I get solder paste all over the place and it is hard to clean up
thoroughly, so I think leaded paste would be an ingestion hazard if
done at home, rather more so than with wire solder.

Well, if you're that sloppy, I recommend not using table salt either.

We have no problems with paste residue.

IIRC roughly each 50 parts per billion blood lead concentration
correlates with 5 points lower IQ in children.

So don't feed it to your kids. Eating lead isn't good for you, but I
very much doubt that you could substantiate any such claim. Citations?

< You can calculate what that would look like

How much is 50 ppb of a child, and how would you transform that into lead?

but IIRC very very roughly it would fit into a sphere about 0.5mm
diameter. Whether that bothers you probably depends on your home
circumstances.

And other things, such as sanity, balance, a sense of history, etc.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs


--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

http://electrooptical.net
http://hobbs-eo.com

 

[Chris Jones]

On 06/03/2020 15:14, Phil Hobbs wrote:

On 2020-03-05 21:31, Chris Jones wrote:
On 05/03/2020 06:38, Phil Hobbs wrote:
On 2020-03-04 13:11, mkr5000 wrote:
Just ordered my first stencil after a hundred years with my
electronics hobby and would like to find that best bang for the buck
solder paste I can use. No special requirements are needed -- this
is just hobby stuff.

I do have a couple that are syringe based and probably want to stick
with that as a large quantity would go to waste -- unless small jars
are available.

Just a great all around paste for the money. Ordering from China
 is fine with me as well. -- And they say a credit card works nicely
but what else?

Like who has spare charge cards?


Chip Quik has some 63SnPb paste with a super long shelf life. That's
the main thing for hobby use.

I used Chip Quik SMD291SNL10 lead free and it worked well, in a vapour
phase reflow machine using Galden LS230 fluid.

I get solder paste all over the place and it is hard to clean up
thoroughly, so I think leaded paste would be an ingestion hazard if
done at home, rather more so than with wire solder.

Well, if you're that sloppy, I recommend not using table salt either.

Perhaps you have a good technique for avoiding getting paste on things.
Without taking special precautions I did get it everywhere and I did not
wish to invest time or equipment in that problem as the lead free paste
worked great.

For hand soldering, I would prefer to use leaded solder wire if it were
not toxic. As a child, I used to hold it in my mouth when I had
insufficient hands for all the wires and iron and solder, and some would
attribute aspects of my personality to that habit, but I don't do it any
more. For surface mount reflow, if the lead-free works well, and in my
experience it does, then there is no apparent downside apart from cost,
which I can easily afford. The reflow machine did not complain about
having to use it, and the results were excellent.

We have no problems with paste residue.
Great. I did and I found the cleanup to be boring hard work.

IIRC roughly each 50 parts per billion blood lead concentration
correlates with 5 points lower IQ in children.

So don't feed it to your kids.

Performing an order-of-magnitude calculation is helpful in knowing to
what lengths one must go, in order to receive the full benefits (if they
exist) of not feeding it to one's kids.

Eating lead isn't good for you, but I
very much doubt that you could substantiate any such claim.  Citations?

As this is usenet, it is not for you to give me homework. The number is
approximate and I was careful to use the word correlation rather than
claiming causation. Here is an interesting alternative explanation,
which also probably gives you references for the correlation:

https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/ACCLPP/March2007/Presentations/Presentation_7_Rhoads_A_Steepening_Blood_Lead.pdf

You can calculate what that would look like

How much is 50 ppb of a child, and how would you transform that into lead?

You need a weighing scale and a child to answer that. The medical
literature uses micrograms per decilitre for blood lead level, and I
converted to parts-per-billion by mass of blood, as that seems a more
intuitive unit. There will be an error due to assuming that lead is
homogeneously distributed in humans, but I would rather at least try to
make some estimate than none at all.

but IIRC very very roughly it would fit into a sphere about 0.5mm
diameter. Whether that bothers you probably depends on your home
circumstances.

And other things, such as sanity, balance, a sense of history, etc.

Yes, probably. Sometimes I try to work out whether something is a
credible threat to health by a rough calculation, before deciding
whether to ignore it completely. I decided not to completely ignore the
potential toxicity of lead contamination due to my use of solder at
home, because I couldn't be confident that it would not cause health
problems. You might decide that you must use lead because you cannot
prove that it definitely will cause health problems. That's your choice.

I still do use leaded solder when it seems worthwhile, like when my
Metcal struggles to solder through-hole parts to a huge 6 layer board
with too many groundplanes and not enough preheating, but that is seldom
and I then clean up carefully.

 

[Jon Elson]

On Wed, 04 Mar 2020 10:11:05 -0800, mkr5000 wrote:

Just ordered my first stencil after a hundred years with my electronics
hobby and would like to find that best bang for the buck solder paste I
can use.
No special requirements are needed -- this is just hobby stuff.

I had pretty good results with "Shen-Mao solder cream" for 63/37.
Lately, I have pretty much gone over to lead-free, and found Loctite GC-10
(made by Henkel) is amazing stuff. It works as well as good 63/37
paste, although you do have to heat to a higher temperature. And, it
lasts for an amazing time without refrigeration or other special handling.

Jon