Journey Of A Novice DIYer

Verifying components and particularly, resistor values with a DMM before soldering them in place is good practice that apparently not everyone follows. Desoldering/rework is not my greatest strength so I follow that rule religiously. Also, matching values across channels makes me feel good whether it makes any difference or not.
The lead bender tip reminds me that I had a 3 or 4 piece set disappear into the ether. Gear dedicated to electronics hobby work is well segregated from work gear and nothing ever goes missing... certainly not a set of somethings. I guess I finally have a project for my 3d printing buddy who always ask if I need anything made 👍

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The idea of Cu or Ag solder is very appealing, but is that because you can or have you experimented? I know of a vendor that claims they listen to different solder in different joints, I remain skeptical. Maybe I'm just happy living in ignorant bliss. That being said if I felt there was an improvement in sonics, but then we start :headbash: confirmation bias......
 
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Flux residue is supposed to be "Acceptable - Class 1,2,3" per IPC-A-610. I personally don't send out gunked up boards myself on anything I service at work (Railroad Industry, stringent Class 3 PCB assemblies). We had one technician that never cleaned anything and I dreaded getting his units back in for repair. They were always a corroded mess on any area he did work on. Usually the damage (oxidation, corrosion, electromigration, etc) was hidden beneath a connector or a chip. Maybe he replaced the flux in his flux bottle with battery acid... I don't know.. Fortunately audio is dumb and forgiving for the most part and still usually works in the muck and gunk as long as you have the right part in the right place and haven't inadvertently created a short somewhere, or zapped something sensitive with ESD.
 
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Alpha Metals Fluitin Sn60Pb38Cu2 (1532 family of products) is good enough for my work

as I wrote before, thinking of cleaning obly if working on something as FM tuner FE ........ but stopped doing that sort of work years ago

use good drek, no worries

Fluitin 1532 leaves post-soldering residues that
are hard and which can be safely left without the
need to remove them. If the removal of residues
is required, then semi-aqueous or aqueous
systems can be used effectively.
 
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^ Not disagreeing, but I've found that even the seemingly only a tad higher concentrations of 99%+ to be anecdotally much more effective for the types of fluxes / solder + resin/flux I typically use. Absolutely use 90% if that's what you have around, and don't necessarily buy a new bottle just for cleaning boards, but if I were buying a new bottle, and if it were easily available to me... I'd use something closer to 99%.

Note - It's hyg(d)roscopic, so leave the cap on... or it will lower in concentration easily... and note that it's flammable.

It can be picked up locally at various hardware / drug stores / discount stores or online retailers.
Any alcohol above 90 percent wont be for long once opened. You can get 99% anhydrous lab grade alcohol, but once opened it begins leeching water right out of the air and will stabilize around 95%.

Russellc
 
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Verifying components and particularly, resistor values with a DMM before soldering them in place is good practice that apparently not everyone follows. Desoldering/rework is not my greatest strength so I follow that rule religiously. Also, matching values across channels makes me feel good whether it makes any difference or not.
The lead bender tip reminds me that I had a 3 or 4 piece set disappear into the ether. Gear dedicated to electronics hobby work is well segregated from work gear and nothing ever goes missing... certainly not a set of somethings. I guess I finally have a project for my 3d printing buddy who always ask if I need anything made 👍

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Always measure. Too ez to confuse 100 R with 100k, and so forth. That, and even if you sort them correctly, they sometimes come ",pre mixed up" from the place you bought them.
 
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Any alcohol above 90 percent wont be for long once opened. You can get 99% anhydrous lab grade alcohol, but once opened it begins leeching water right out of the air and will stabilize around 95%.
Well... if we're getting geeky... there are lots of alcohols. Most Isopropyl above 90% :) I've found it to be closer to 65% equilibrium back in the day FWIW... of course that depends how and where it's stored.

Anyway... I use a lot of this stuff. Works well. I like the helpful tip above of providing links, and I never put in a suggestion. Lots of alternatives.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07J62C1K5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I also buy this for when I'm doing bigger stuff.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08G57WSV2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Mentioned in the original post in looser terms...
Note - It's hyg(d)roscopic, so leave the cap on... or it will lower in concentration easily... and note that it's flammable.
 
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I've had fantastic results cleaning using 99% Isop. and a cheap ultrasonic toothbrush. I use a lot of Isopropyl to "wash" away the redisue after scubbing with the toothbrush. I put the alcohol I'm going to use for that cleaning session (usually quite a bit, say 4-5 oz) in a safety bottle so I can get some spray action going. Works really well. I use Kimwipes if needed, but usually a scrub and spray a few times over makes it all shinny and new looking.

[Edited: be sure you have good ventilation as that Isop is strong]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07D6KZZQL?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title
Screenshot_20240320_062923_Chrome.jpg

I don't double fist though, maybe I should 😀


Screenshot_20240320_062421_Chrome.jpg

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B097RFPPYT?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title
 
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I decided, from now on, to prevent all of my OCD moments and urges, simply resorting to best solution - I'm not going to build anything, and will entitle Pa to do that for me

While (hopefully short) waiting for each one Toy he's building for me, I'm going to play changing colors of my Beach stretchers ........ Man got to have some Hobby

:clown:
 
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Well... if we're getting geeky... there are lots of alcohols. Most Isopropyl above 90% :) I've found it to be closer to 65% equilibrium back in the day FWIW... of course that depends how and where it's stored.

Anyway... I use a lot of this stuff. Works well. I like the helpful tip above of providing links, and I never put in a suggestion. Lots of alternatives.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07J62C1K5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I also buy this for when I'm doing bigger stuff.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08G57WSV2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Mentioned in the original post in looser terms...
Even with cap on...nature hates a vacuum. I have made it, and I measure it. Will not stay at 99.
 
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Thought I would share a couple of things for other beginners;
1. A very inexpensive and useful tool is a lead bender. These can save a lot of time and enhance the look of your build.
2. My first few builds were done w/out flux :nownow: On my current build I began w/out and then started using it, far superior results w/.
I said a couple, but the use of flux does require flux cleaner, I'm looking at options but @poseidonsvoice has suggested Chemtronics as well as his OCD ;) method in this post

Lastly double and triple check as you go, fixing mistakes is at best time consuming and at worst can ruin a part.
Lead forming tools