Come on guys, it really isn't that bad. The stuff he
is talking about is a petroleum jelly based zinc chloride
compound. Zinc Chloride is a killed acid. That means that
they dissolve enough zinc into HCL that it can take no more,
and is neutral pH.
It is non-corrosive, and says so in bold red letters right
on the can.
It was purposefully made for electronics back in the day
when everything was point-to-point wiring with components
mounted to pins on turrets, or tube sockets. It was also
very good for soldering grounds, any old place, on plated
steel chasses.
I have a bunch of this stuff from when the US government
labs banned it... not for corrosion, but rather because they
found it was unsuited for high impedance PCB use...no amount
of washing with TCE (also banned) would restore the PCB to
its like new insulation resistance. I haven't found that to
be true... but that is what we were told...
It comes in little tin "snuff" cans, and the tin plating
inside of the cans stays bright and shiny. I have never seen
it do anything to copper other than to remove the copper's
patina and brighten it up a bit.
All fluxes have to be mildly reactive to copper, or they
wouldn't be fluxes. This includes rosin flux.
All that said, you shouldn't need zinc chloride solder paste
on circuit boards. And you definitely shouldn't use it on
high impedance circuits.
-Chuck Harris
On Thu, 17 Oct 2024 06:51:09 -0400 "Robert Richards"
<carboyhat@...> wrote:
Brad,
I worked at an old time radiator shop repairing old copper/brass
radiators for cars, trucks,
forklifts, 18 wheelers. etc. We used a zinc chloride based flux to
clean up the dirty, brass
and copper parts for soldering with a solid core 1/8 inch dia. 60/40
solder. For that purpose,
that flux was necessary. For electronics, even with flushing the area
with lots of water, corrosion
is at risk of occuring.
Bob
On Thu, 17 Oct 2024 19:56:54 +1100 "Brad Latta"
<bradley.latta@...> writes:
I have some old solder Flux here that I use for cleaning up oxidized &
dirty connections when I replaced components in vintage HP equipment,
this Flux has 27% Zinc Chloride, which really helps to wet the
connection for soldering. I am wondering how bad is the Zinc
Chloride, and what precautions should I take when using it?, maybe
someone here has used a similar Flux before,
Brad
