DIY solder flux?!?!

[edvard]

So something in the back of my mind tickled the other day and I remembered that Rosin such as used in rosin-core solders is actually derived from Pine pitch.
A slowly blinking light in the nether reaches of my brain flickered into life a message that said something like...

Pine pitch + heat + filtering + = FREE SOLDER FLUX!!

I immediately went outside to find a pine branch with pitch oozing out of the broken part (plenty of 'em after the wind last week) and see what would happen if I melted it on an old nasty solder joint from a busted radio or something.
With a small flat-blade screwdriver, I dug off a sticky little nugget about the size of a pin head and put it on a big globby looking solder joint from an old circuit board I had taken all the parts off of.
I touched my soldering iron to the nugget of pitch and was promptly greeted with a fresh-scented puff of smoke that smelled exactly like soldering... I new I was getting close.
The second time, I put some more pitch on and hit the solder first.
The oily, oxidized solder balled up like I figured it would, but once the pitch melted on it a half second later, it flowed like butter on a hot corn cob.
I put some more pitch on the copper field below the solder hole where the old nasty joint was and attempted to re-flow the solder and make a tinned surface.
Aside from the blackened bits of wood and dirt that precipitated out of the pitch, it worked well.
I was satisfied.

Then I thought I just couldn't be the only one who had thought of this, and quick search on the internet gave me the confirmation I was looking for:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-your-own-Eco-friendly-soldering-flux/

Apparently denatured alcohol was the ingredient missing from the first equation that floated across my gray matter, and heat was not necessary at all, so that plus a few coffee filters cribbed from work and I'm in business!
Win!!

[jcgss77]

Now if there was only a lead substitute solder which grew on trees too...

[defaced]

This is beyond awesome.  Explains why the stuff I bought at RatShack is so effing sticky. 

[Processaurus]

That's a good one to remember for after the apocalypse, for soldering with metal stakes stuck in the campfire!

[BadIdeas]

Wind storm? What part of Washington?

[edvard]

Watch out! I'm going to tout this as the next "mojo".
"Organic pine rosin flux to prevent noise-inducing capacitative coupling between solder joints".
Or something like that...

Wind storm? What part of Washington?

Bremerton.
Happened around the same time as the snow.

[BadIdeas]

"Organic pine rosin flux to prevent noise-inducing capacitative coupling between solder joints"

I would think that pesticides would be the thing to kill off parasitic capacitance, but perhaps a diet of organic flux gives the pedal a naturally stronger immune system, as well as produces a more "organic" sound.

We should make a documentary about what's really in our solder called "Flux Inc" and put a pine tree with a bar code on the cover. We'll show  the shocking, horrible footage of trees growing indoors, fed and bred to grow 7x as fast with 300% more pitch, which is washed with ammonia by workers hired under the table, thereby having no rights or protection by the government.

Bremerton.
Happened around the same time as the snow.

Ah. Concrete had a power outtaging windstorm about a week earlier.

[alparent]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-your-own-Eco-friendly-soldering-flux/

Apparently denatured alcohol was the ingredient missing from the first equation that floated across my gray matter, and heat was not necessary at all, so that plus a few coffee filters cribbed from work and I'm in business!
Win!!

So I guess denatured alcohol would be a good flux remover then? Will try tonight.

Now if there was only a lead substitute solder which grew on trees too...

Not on trees.......but you could talk to you dentist and recycle old fillings. 

[edvard]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-your-own-Eco-friendly-soldering-flux/

Apparently denatured alcohol was the ingredient missing from the first equation that floated across my gray matter, and heat was not necessary at all, so that plus a few coffee filters cribbed from work and I'm in business!
Win!!

So I guess denatured alcohol would be a good flux remover then? Will try tonight.

Yep. Never knew til I came to this board. 

Now if there was only a lead substitute solder which grew on trees too...

Not on trees.......but you could talk to you dentist and recycle old fillings. 

Or you could do like this guy -> http://www.instructables.com/id/Don-t-throw-solder-away/
If I did that, I suspect I'd have enough ingots to ballast a Trident.
I'm notoriously bad  for de-soldering old radios and what-not to get at the parts, then spending precious little time cobbling them into something useful   

[phector2004]

is the type of alcohol used important?

Not much of a chemist, but wouldn't 100% (ok, 99.9%) isopropanol work too? Or is the ethanol better at dissolving resin? It's quite a bitch to scrub resin off your hands and feet, even with rubbing alcohol 

[emstin1]

is the type of alcohol used important?

Not much of a chemist, but wouldn't 100% (ok, 99.9%) isopropanol work too? Or is the ethanol better at dissolving resin? It's quite a bitch to scrub resin off your hands and feet, even with rubbing alcohol 

Denatured alcohol just has some (poisonous) chemicals added so that it can't be consumed.  That way, it can't be taxed as a consumable spirit and the price is low.  I'm not sure you can buy pure alcohol without working in a laboratory, but I've never tried. 

[phector2004]

Yup

Also keeps grad students from getting drunk in the lab 

99.9% isopropyl alcohol can be found at just about any pharmacy. I've got a few bottles at home. The "lower grade" (90%, 70%, etc) ones have nasty oils and fragrances in them as they're used on the skin. Denatured ethanol can be found in hardware stores, I think. Try one out if you're interested!

[Skruffyhound]

Concrete

There's a place called Concrete?
Refreshingly straight up.

[edvard]

Concrete

There's a place called Concrete?
Refreshingly straight up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete,_Washington 

Yup

Also keeps grad students from getting drunk in the lab 

99.9% isopropyl alcohol can be found at just about any pharmacy. I've got a few bottles at home. The "lower grade" (90%, 70%, etc) ones have nasty oils and fragrances in them as they're used on the skin. Denatured ethanol can be found in hardware stores, I think. Try one out if you're interested!

Denatured alcohol is just grain alcohol (ethanol) with enough wood alcohol (methanol) and/or other hideous adulterants added to make it poisonous.
The reason is that there are legitimate laboratory uses for pure grain alcohol, but the fed figured out long ago that any supply chain to that market could potentially be a vector for distributing cheap hooch.
So this is how they can produce ethanol without all the taxes and duties (mandatory for straight liquor) that would make it otherwise prohibitively expensive AND keep it out of the general public's hip flasks; by making it either poisonous or incredibly un-palatable.
As for the name, the nature (purpose) of ethanol is to be drank.
Make it un-drinkable, and you remove it's intended nature.
Thus, De-natured.
Get it?

More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol

I don't know if using either/or is better or more useful as a resin solvent.
I used standard off-the-shelf rubbing alcohol and it turned out just fine, although I'd like to try denatured sometime...

[Skruffyhound]

Thanks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete,_Washington

That was an interesting read.
Those two sisters had a hell of a life. 

[BadIdeas]

Wow, thanks for the link. I had no idea there was anything noteworthy around here. I loved the "War of the Worlds" segment. I will never look at my neighbors the same way again.