My grandfather used raw, solid pine resin which was collected by my 8-ish year old father in a nearby forest. He melted it into a small metal container, and used the soldering iron to melt it while he dabbed the component lead into the molten resin. I think I still have it somewhere, some pine resin that was collected by my father from the forest almost 60 years ago, in a metal AGFA film can, and my grandfather used it for soldering, it still has the marks from the soldering tip and some solder balls melted into it... My grandfather's workshop smelled like Christmas Eve when he was soldering 🙂
About 50 years ago I used to buy a flux called Salmet. It was so amazing. It would solder pretty much any metal without regard for cleanliness. I wrote in my shop notebook that the ingredients were zinc fluoroborate, and both mono- and diethanolamine. Now that would be worth making if one could find the ingredients in reasonable quantities. I have spent hours looking for a substitute with similar action and I don't believe a commercial equivalent exists currently. If anybody knows of a flux with these ingredients I'm interested in hearing of it.
That is acid core flux, powerful but no good for electronic soldering. Remember, flux is basically chemically inert at room temperature, but becomes increasingly reactive with temperature, and attacks and breaks down oxidants in the joint materials at melted solder temperature. It does not clean, it deoxifies. The acid in acid type fluxes loves to eat copper for breakfast and its residue is the gift that keeps on taking.
@@richpayton7162 No, it's not. I detailed what was in it. Acid flux is zinc cloride, a zinc salt of HCl, otherwise known as hydrochloric acid. I used that Salmet flux for twenty years on pretty much everything and if it was corrosive at all, it was not enough that I ever had a problem with it. I have several different brands of acid flux and I know what damage it can do when misapplied.
@@EddieTheH I'll give you that. It's been over 50 years since I had any college chemistry, albeit I was a pretty good student. I've forgotten more knowledge than I ever learned, if that is possible
@@channelview8854 Strange. I'd made a follow up comment as I found the correct stuff, but I named a certain chinese site so it probably got removed for that. If you search said chinese site for "aluminium soldering flux" you get some of a similar recipe.
I have made my own flux for years not because it's cheaper but I can change the stickyness of the flux which is great for SMD parts as they stick to the pads. I use some rosin but have used pine resin which seems to be a little better but is difficult to get clean as it usually contains lots of organic material! Lol. I tried using different fluxes the most expensive one did do a superior job but the cost was just too high with the large amount of soldering I do . The big disadvantage is the residue which has to be cleaned off with ethanol it dose clean off but is not as easy as commercial fluxes. I do use the petroleum jelly flux for very difficult and hard to clean work. Sorry got carried away typing 😃
LOL. don't worry about being carried away with the comment! I welcome a good discussion about anything related to the video! Thanks for watching and your comment Barry!
Try lowering the amount of rosin you use. For a 10 ml bottle of alcohol you need as little as 0.15 gram of rosin. And yes, my decimals are placed correctly. Add a couple of drops of glycerin in it as well and you have no stickiness. Most of these diy videos use WAAAAAAY too much rosin and as a result you can glue yourself to the circuit board afterwards, or start cleaning. And cleaning.
I repair and restore CB radios daily and have been using my own flux for decades. Violin resin from China comes in a hard block i grind up then put in a jar and add Metholayted spirits (denatured alcohol) and let it sit for a few days. Cleans up with IPA. Very good for dirty joints that ive cleaned and need to tin etc. Its the only flux i use. All my solder types are multi core with resin.
Some brands of denatured alcohol smell like a dead rat, especially older batches. I would rather use IPA as solvent for the flux as well, not just for cleaning it. Some more recent denat. alcohols are less smelly, nowadays they tend to make it less smelly but give it a more horrible taste than ever. I experienced it when I touched some food too early after using my home made sanitizer (70%v/v alcohol denat. + 30%v/v deionised water) on my hands during one of the first peaks of the pandemic. I almost threw up it tasted so horrible. Bile almost tastes good compared to it.
@@daveytechca don't use denatured alcohol, use high purity Ethanol or IPA. Try 15ml IPA, 10ml Ethanol, 5ml kerosene, 10g rosin, 1g adipic acid, 6 drops glycerine, 3 drops dishwasher soap. This is high rosin content RMA flux. You can regulate the rosin from 1 to 10g depending on your needs. For flux pen use 1g, for general work use 3g or 5g. If you want the best and cleaning don't bother you, use 10g. Use toothpick for the drops, as kerosene you can use Zippo lighter fluid, you can replace adipic with citric acid. If you gather yourself natural pine rosin, melt it in a metal container, mechanicaly remove the inpurities, heat it up again, let it cool a bit, don't wait to harden and put with the liquids in a jar with lid. Leave it overnight, filter it using coffee filter.
I also make my own Flux with rosin. But also use other bought stuff in syringes. Depends on the kind of work i do. One positive thing about rosin based flux is, that you do not have to clean the joints afterwards. Rosin does not damage the joints (not corrosive). On the contrary, it protects the solder joints.
I had an experience with left over (commercial) flux on a small surgsce mount voltage converter circuit. I then tested that before installing other sensitive components. My mistake was the left over flux was slightly conductive and the feedback resistor divider went WAY out of tolerance. A bit of smoke, even a flash of flame from the burning flux, before I yanked the power leads. Lesson learned. I was lucky, after cleaning the flux the converter still worked. Only then did I finish the build.
I've learned that along with not being cheap with the solder you choose that the same holds with flux. To each their own though so please don't take this as a troll. We all know through experience what works well for us. I make a tip tinner with rosin and cheap Chinese solder in a can and I've had it for years and rarely refill it haha. It's good to see all points of view. Good video.
You can increase the amount of Kolophonium and Alokohol 1:1, so you get a bit more thiker flux to operate with. If you want to make it more like gel, you can mix some beeswax with the Kolophonium and then mix it with alkohol.
I do some soldering maybe once a week, wires, condenser replacement (non SMD stuff mostly) and I am using chinese fake AMTECH 4 years expired flux surringe 😂🤣.Never had a chance to use original thing but even that cheap fake flux helps with soldering. Saw on the UA-cam someone tested fake and original one and suposedly difference is but not big and fake one is more sticky than original one. BTW just few hours ago I watched a video, how to make flux at home (Electronics repair school) and this looks coool. I plan to make my own mix hehe, I have some hard rosin flux package so yeah just need to get the tubes 😁. Just a little bit of searching the UA-cam I found nice video (from SDG Electronics) that he tested manny different fluxes from gel to liquid, very interesting. I enjoy soldering, wiring and such, just to get my health bether, will be start doing SMD soldering practicing. The other day I replaced microUSB socket in my portable LG speaker hehe, it was challenge (used smartphone droid OBS app over the OBS Studio on Windows as microscope 😀). Thank you for the video dude 😁
The "make your own flux" video from Electronics Repair School is the one I watched that made me want to try it. After doing a little more research I think I was a little lenient on the amount of rosin I mixed in, perhaps that's why I wasn't getting the results I had anticipated on. However, that still doesn't solve the issue of it being a sticky mess sometimes! As previously said, for a little dab here, a little dab there I'll reach for this stuff... But for anything bigger, I'll be using the flux I've always been using. Clever improvising using your cell phone as a scope! SMD re-working is a fun and sometimes challenging field. Even though the majority of my work is with through-hole, I still like to keep my microsoldering in check because eventually through-hole will be no more (or at the least, very uncommon.) Thanks for watching and sub'ing!
Even the non-coughing fit smoke is already a good reason to make this DIY flux. I use a solid block of colophony when soldering that I dip my soldering iron's tip into right before soldering a joint. I gotta have a 12V PC fan near me to blow away the smoke if I do not want coughing fits and weird fried chicken/fish smells in my nose even after not inhaling the smoke.
As crazy as it sounds, I like the smell of fresh solder being melted onto a board... Even more crazily enough I like the smell of old vintage solder from the 70's / 80's being melted. I don't huff it obviously, but it has a pleasant nolstalgic odor to me... Kind of like a cigarette when it's first lit (and I don't smoke)... I'm a weirdo I guess... :P
@@daveytechca Nope, i love the smell of it, as well.....and i semi-huff it too. What it could give me isn't worse than what i already have. And i have a bunch i refined myself from pine rosin, also.
@@daveytechca Some vintage solder used barely activated pine resin as flux. And I like that smell, too. But not today's commercial fluxes. Some current rosin flux SnPb solders are still bearable, but only the least activated ones, which tend to not solder very well any slighly corroded surfaces.
@@Leo-gt1bxpure vaseline works well. That prevents rosin from crystalising. You don't need IPA in this case. You need to gently warm up the solution until rosin melts and let that chill. I haven't experimented with glycerine.
Mix the rosin 70/30 with 91+ proof alch Step 1 weigh Rosin chips 2 - smash then make powder Put a glass jar in water in a pot on a electric stove slowly warm with ancho stir with wooden stick put on small container will last long time can use pine rosin the alcho helps clean out rosin
I buy my Rosin off either Amazon, Ebay or Alibaba in 1 lb bags of pre-ground powder. Much quicker to mix. Don't ever spill this stuff on the floor or your bench!! What a sticky mess that can only be cleaned up with IPA, Water won't touch it!! This way I can mix it as strong as needed. Commercial fluxes have other additives like Ionizing agents to better clean the joint etc. Good video.
I discovered the tackiness of it the hard way! 😂 I didn't know you could buy the rosin already ground up, that definitely saves some work. Do you have a specified ratio for the general mix you use? Thanks for watching John!
The main idea is not just to dissolve the pine rosin in alcohol, after doing so you must let the alcohol evaporate until you get the right texture, the flux obtained from this method is ideal to use as neutral flux but if you need activated flux you may want to ad a bit of citric acid. If the rosin is dark will not make good flux (dirty finish) . if the texture is too liquid it will make more mess. I am a fossil from the transistor age and i know a couple of tricks about making my own chemicals like the cold liquid thin for plating PCBs and to make my own ferric chloride at home.
Great video, yes I've followed Sorin for a long long long time, he is a pioneer....absolute pro. Thank you for this video, Sorin is an amazing teacher! Liked and Subbed!
I used 1+1/2 parts rosin to 1 part IPA and it came out almost the same color as the original hard rosin rocks. It's pretty viscous but it works better than anything I've ever tried. I use the same type of bottles you do.
Biggest disadvantage of the homemamde rosin-based flux is, that it evaporates pretty quickly when in contact with holt tip of soldering iron. Good brands of commercial fluxes give you some time needed for proper heating and soldering before it evaporates... and that is critically important feature in some scenarios. I tried making my own rosin flux many years ago, but it's properties was not comparable with commercial fluxes. It's exactly like you are saying in your comments - it's cheap and it's good for some little dabs here and there, but I can't imagine doing some serious rework job on PS3 cpu or gpu with it (for example). Btw, I'm working with solid rosin for almost 30 years, but only when soldering with soldering gun (not iron). In this scenario the rosin is excellent, but it's only possible because the soldering tip is not heating all the time like on soldering iron, so you can use manually controlled cold and hot cycles of soldering gun for your advantage. What am I talking about... not many knows this technique, but you can pre-flux soldering joint with soldering GUN (again - not soldering IRON) and rosin, even if it's not dilluted in alcohol and it's still in its solid form. You put some solder on the tip, just exact amount you want to transfer into soldering joint. You heat the tip again and when hot, dab it into block of solid rosin so you'll get a little bit there, and let it cool down. So, now you have solder and rosin onto tip both in the same time and ready to use. Next step is to heat the tip a little bit (not too much, so rosin will not evaporate) and when the rosin gets into it's liquid form, smear it around the soldering joint (it's the equivalent of fluxing it with liquid flux from bottle). And after that, you can finally crank the heat to the max and solder that joint. I know it sounds kinda chaotic, but it's pretty simple and straightforward - watch this .... ua-cam.com/video/vkOlsHpP7PU/v-deo.html (it's only final stage of pre-fluxing and soldering, whole process of solder and rosin preparation onto tip can be seen here - ua-cam.com/video/98wcqTpQ1qE/v-deo.html ). Advantage of this process is that you are not working with anything sticky and spillable, so it's much more clean and so to say it, joyful :) But of course, it's only good for through-holes and some bigger joints, because of size and shape of the soldering gun tip, which is not very suitable for smaller jobs. Classic soldering station and quality brand of commercial flux is better for those delicate jobs (SMDs, SOICs etc.)
I'll have to try this.The only thing I have'nt got is the bottle. Just ordered a set of 4 with needels off ebay for £4. Yes please to the drum machine video. :)
I've been working with it today and I've discovered a problem with it... It's messy if mis-handled. Sticky-ness everywhere! The honeymoon phase is over.
@@frankowalker4662 Yes and no. Yes because if you're doing a quick solder joint and need a quick dab of flux, yes. If you have a lot of soldering to do (more than what would cause an actual puddle on the board rather than a drop), no. Maybe it wouldn't bother some people, but because I am a neat freak and don't like stickiness, I'll be using this for touch up jobs.
@@daveytechca I've just made some flux. It was'nt too bad, mess wise, and it works fine. I've got a flux pen that's running out, When it's empty, I'm going to refill it with this. :)
Nice video. I've got two questions, 1. Does it corrode the copper or pins or silk layer? 2. How to strore it properly to prevent it from spoiling or unusable?
So far I've never seen signs of corrosion with using hole brew flux. With it being isopropyl alcohol, it'll evaporate quickly and any residual rosin will just sit there. It's always good practice to clean up the area. For aesthetic purposes alone it's worth the effort. As for storage I've kept mine in a needle dropper bottle and it's always stayed good for me.
I read someplace that Flux is a sap from a tree or one of the main ingredients in it is. "The most basic soldering flux, one that has been used for over a thousand years, is the natural rosin derived from pine tar resin. Pine tar resin is dissolved in solvent and then distilled to yield the clear, water-white rosin used in soldering flux". ya this was what I read a while back. Now go make it from scratch. Find a pine tree and make some real flux like they did 1000's of years ago.
In the U.S., rosin is most commonly made from southern longleaf pine trees as a by-product of paper and wafer board manufacturing. When heated, it releases abietic acid.
There is so much more going on chemically in commercial soldering flux for electronics than these two ingredients. Still, it's an interesting exercise. 👍
I was out looking for pine resin today along a nature bike trail. I want to try to dissolve it in alcohol and filter it just to see what happens. If that doesn't work I can always buy a block of violin rosin. I do want to know where to get the bottles that you used.
Looks like a standard dropper bottle, with a blunt hypodermic needle screwed to the tip. The luer lock is about the right size to fit most dropper bottles, and the plastic is soft enough to fit firmly.
@@richardchambers256 Thanks. I think I saw a video that said pine resin doesn't smoke as much as commercial flux. If that's true then I will keep my soldering tips constantly coated so that they don't become oxidized.
Are you using rosin core solder in this experiment? I mixed up a batch and found no difference in the wetting and coverage with or without using the flux. Maybe enough flux in the solder core for good results. I would be interested seeing results with using non rosin core solder. Thanks for posting
I saw fumes coming out from your solder. Maybe you used solder that has rosin in it's core already. I'm saying this just to get more detail information.
If I did more soldering I'd be testing out some formulations myself. It would be interesting to see if boric acid would work well or if you could use some kind of plastic + acetone mix as a thickening agent.
I was once given some 'flux' to use on a small circuit build, not my own flux. Turned out to be acid based that was for a metal fab' shop. Bad idea. A few month later the circuit had grown fur, corrosion from either the tin (or at that time lead). It still worked but only because of the large size and spacing between leads. I didn't trust it for long. There's a reason for rosin.
I just remembered, ammonium chloride is also a commonly available, commonly used flux/flux component. I wonder if it would significantly enhance the homemade flux. 🤔
As a deeply lazy man, I lust chuck the chunks in IPA (or meths) in the bottle I'm going to use and leave it sit, no powdering to do. And for bottles, ask anyone who vapes, they have loads of empty dropper/squirty bottles.
@@daveytechca I watch the horrific results of people trying to solder... Using techniques that don't apply to the situation. Mostly because they have no idea how to solder with rosin core. That's when I see this kind of thing show up. I realize you were demonstrating this and that wasn't a "production board", but if you did something more real world, it would be more realistic to critique. IOW it's trivial to tin a pad using any method. Holes, spacing, and component legs change things up a bit.
Hi Mahmoud, personally I have not tested it for micro soldering. Electronics Repair School has, and he seemed satisfied with the results. Thanks for watching!
As long as it's capped when not in use I would imagine it would last for quite a long time. Personally I used Chipquik and I've never replaced a tip in five years and all my tips are still going strong.
Is it ok to use less alcohol and make it thicker? Can it be used to weet circuit legs so they melt when using heatgun? Also for soldering circuit legs using heat guns like you do with paste flux?
A friend of mine had a friend that was an electronics engineer from the 1950's until the early 2000's... When he passed I got to cherry pick his stash.
The only problem is that after 20 minutes of the rosin melted all the way in the alcohol, the rosin solidify itself in the alcohol. Its like a block of iceberg. And when i used the liquid which i thought would have rosin in it, solder didnt stick. In the video, it looks good but the guy didnt tell you the aftermath. By the way, i used the alcohol that you would use to clean your hand during covid. So now what i do is i melt the rosin with alcohol, once melted, i add vaseline to keep the melted rosin from solidifying itself in the melted vaseline. I find that using melted candle + the melted rosin does the same trick, it keeps the melted rosin from turning solid again.
@@joseramos3076 I found the solution: Make sure to use 97% or 95% isopropyl alcohol. How would you know you bought the right percentage alcohol? The Rosin will stay melted and the alcohol will be sticky and turn light to dark brown for good. No more turning to an iceberg or get solidified after 20 minutes or so. PS Good to know: the reason why it didn’t work on my 1st trial was that I used diluted (Mixed with water) alcohol to sanitize my hand from the Covid era so the percentage dropped , it wasn’t 97% to 95% anymore.
Sure does! And a realize that the flux core is doing the majority of the work in the video. The home made rosin is good for quick touch ups. However, after an experience earlier today my mind has been changed.
imagine how much profit those flıux companies make with just a bit of rosin, alcohol and some jelling agent maybe you could dissolve the rosin in ethanol gel Chafing Fuel to make something similar to Amtech flux, please try and make a video about
I used 1 parts of rosin 2 parts IPA 75% alcohol...not got 95% ipa ...can this be the problem... believe me tried thrice , and failed all Times. My bad luck
I will have to try to replicate your experiment with natural pine rosin. Some of the trees around my home weep rosin that would be easy to collect. Have you tried using 91% IPA? (It's more readily available.) I'm also wondering if a bit of light mineral oil might make the flux a bit more persistent. Good stuff, man. This is the first video of yours I've seen - I'll check out your channel for sure.
I feel like your demonstration has a fairly large issue in showing possible effectiveness. The solder you are adding has it's own flux core being added as you apply it.. what happens if you add solder to the tip and bake off that core, then touch the pad? Compare that to a bare pad untreated and also with only the commercial flux.
I fully saturated mine in 99% isopropyl, it is much darker than what I see in your bottle. It works good for clean metals, and I use it in wire connectors on my brother's airplane.
It's too thin. Add more rosin and some glycerin for a flux that stays long enough to make a solder joint. By the way, your vocabulary needs work; _dissolve_ is the correct word.
Thank you for your feedback! Especially the part about my vocabulary. It really gives me the perfect opportunity to tell you that if you can't handle someone making a mistake to the point where you feel the need to correct them, don't watch. Thanks again!
My grandfather used raw, solid pine resin which was collected by my 8-ish year old father in a nearby forest. He melted it into a small metal container, and used the soldering iron to melt it while he dabbed the component lead into the molten resin. I think I still have it somewhere, some pine resin that was collected by my father from the forest almost 60 years ago, in a metal AGFA film can, and my grandfather used it for soldering, it still has the marks from the soldering tip and some solder balls melted into it... My grandfather's workshop smelled like Christmas Eve when he was soldering 🙂
About 50 years ago I used to buy a flux called Salmet. It was so amazing. It would solder pretty much any metal without regard for cleanliness. I wrote in my shop notebook that the ingredients were zinc fluoroborate, and both mono- and diethanolamine. Now that would be worth making if one could find the ingredients in reasonable quantities. I have spent hours looking for a substitute with similar action and I don't believe a commercial equivalent exists currently. If anybody knows of a flux with these ingredients I'm interested in hearing of it.
That is acid core flux, powerful but no good for electronic soldering. Remember, flux is basically chemically inert at room temperature, but becomes increasingly reactive with temperature, and attacks and breaks down oxidants in the joint materials at melted solder temperature. It does not clean, it deoxifies.
The acid in acid type fluxes loves to eat copper for breakfast and its residue is the gift that keeps on taking.
@@richpayton7162 No, it's not. I detailed what was in it. Acid flux is zinc cloride, a zinc salt of HCl, otherwise known as hydrochloric acid. I used that Salmet flux for twenty years on pretty much everything and if it was corrosive at all, it was not enough that I ever had a problem with it. I have several different brands of acid flux and I know what damage it can do when misapplied.
@@channelview8854 I hate to be the pedant but it's actually the hydrochloride salt of zinc, not the zinc salt of HCl.
@@EddieTheH I'll give you that. It's been over 50 years since I had any college chemistry, albeit I was a pretty good student. I've forgotten more knowledge than I ever learned, if that is possible
@@channelview8854 Strange. I'd made a follow up comment as I found the correct stuff, but I named a certain chinese site so it probably got removed for that. If you search said chinese site for "aluminium soldering flux" you get some of a similar recipe.
I have made my own flux for years not because it's cheaper but I can change the stickyness of the flux which is great for SMD parts as they stick to the pads. I use some rosin but have used pine resin which seems to be a little better but is difficult to get clean as it usually contains lots of organic material! Lol. I tried using different fluxes the most expensive one did do a superior job but the cost was just too high with the large amount of soldering I do . The big disadvantage is the residue which has to be cleaned off with ethanol it dose clean off but is not as easy as commercial fluxes. I do use the petroleum jelly flux for very difficult and hard to clean work. Sorry got carried away typing 😃
LOL. don't worry about being carried away with the comment! I welcome a good discussion about anything related to the video! Thanks for watching and your comment Barry!
Just add solvent to it and run it through paint filters then boil off the solvent till you are at the desired thickness to bring it back to thickness.
Do you add glycerin?
Try lowering the amount of rosin you use. For a 10 ml bottle of alcohol you need as little as 0.15 gram of rosin. And yes, my decimals are placed correctly. Add a couple of drops of glycerin in it as well and you have no stickiness. Most of these diy videos use WAAAAAAY too much rosin and as a result you can glue yourself to the circuit board afterwards, or start cleaning. And cleaning.
@barrymayson2492 how do you make it less sticky?
I repair and restore CB radios daily and have been using my own flux for decades. Violin resin from China comes in a hard block i grind up then put in a jar and add Metholayted spirits (denatured alcohol) and let it sit for a few days.
Cleans up with IPA.
Very good for dirty joints that ive cleaned and need to tin etc.
Its the only flux i use.
All my solder types are multi core with resin.
Do you have a specific ratio of resin:spirits that you use and is most effective? I'd like to try it!
Some brands of denatured alcohol smell like a dead rat, especially older batches. I would rather use IPA as solvent for the flux as well, not just for cleaning it. Some more recent denat. alcohols are less smelly, nowadays they tend to make it less smelly but give it a more horrible taste than ever. I experienced it when I touched some food too early after using my home made sanitizer (70%v/v alcohol denat. + 30%v/v deionised water) on my hands during one of the first peaks of the pandemic. I almost threw up it tasted so horrible. Bile almost tastes good compared to it.
@@daveytechca don't use denatured alcohol, use high purity Ethanol or IPA.
Try 15ml IPA, 10ml Ethanol, 5ml kerosene, 10g rosin, 1g adipic acid, 6 drops glycerine, 3 drops dishwasher soap. This is high rosin content RMA flux. You can regulate the rosin from 1 to 10g depending on your needs. For flux pen use 1g, for general work use 3g or 5g. If you want the best and cleaning don't bother you, use 10g.
Use toothpick for the drops, as kerosene you can use Zippo lighter fluid, you can replace adipic with citric acid.
If you gather yourself natural pine rosin, melt it in a metal container, mechanicaly remove the inpurities, heat it up again, let it cool a bit, don't wait to harden and put with the liquids in a jar with lid. Leave it overnight, filter it using coffee filter.
I also make my own Flux with rosin. But also use other bought stuff in syringes. Depends on the kind of work i do. One positive thing about rosin based flux is, that you do not have to clean the joints afterwards. Rosin does not damage the joints (not corrosive). On the contrary, it protects the solder joints.
I had an experience with left over (commercial) flux on a small surgsce mount voltage converter circuit. I then tested that before installing other sensitive components.
My mistake was the left over flux was slightly conductive and the feedback resistor divider went WAY out of tolerance. A bit of smoke, even a flash of flame from the burning flux, before I yanked the power leads. Lesson learned.
I was lucky, after cleaning the flux the converter still worked. Only then did I finish the build.
The last time I was in a pinch and needed some soldering flux I ended up using pine tree sap. Works great. (And alcohol of course)
That works good even when solid. My grandfather used it, and it smells great, too.
I've learned that along with not being cheap with the solder you choose that the same holds with flux. To each their own though so please don't take this as a troll. We all know through experience what works well for us. I make a tip tinner with rosin and cheap Chinese solder in a can and I've had it for years and rarely refill it haha. It's good to see all points of view. Good video.
You can increase the amount of Kolophonium and Alokohol 1:1, so you get a bit more thiker flux to operate with. If you want to make it more like gel, you can mix some beeswax with the Kolophonium and then mix it with alkohol.
I do some soldering maybe once a week, wires, condenser replacement (non SMD stuff mostly) and I am using chinese fake AMTECH 4 years expired flux surringe 😂🤣.Never had a chance to use original thing but even that cheap fake flux helps with soldering. Saw on the UA-cam someone tested fake and original one and suposedly difference is but not big and fake one is more sticky than original one.
BTW just few hours ago I watched a video, how to make flux at home (Electronics repair school) and this looks coool. I plan to make my own mix hehe, I have some hard rosin flux package so yeah just need to get the tubes 😁. Just a little bit of searching the UA-cam I found nice video (from SDG Electronics) that he tested manny different fluxes from gel to liquid, very interesting.
I enjoy soldering, wiring and such, just to get my health bether, will be start doing SMD soldering practicing. The other day I replaced microUSB socket in my portable LG speaker hehe, it was challenge (used smartphone droid OBS app over the OBS Studio on Windows as microscope 😀).
Thank you for the video dude 😁
The "make your own flux" video from Electronics Repair School is the one I watched that made me want to try it. After doing a little more research I think I was a little lenient on the amount of rosin I mixed in, perhaps that's why I wasn't getting the results I had anticipated on. However, that still doesn't solve the issue of it being a sticky mess sometimes! As previously said, for a little dab here, a little dab there I'll reach for this stuff... But for anything bigger, I'll be using the flux I've always been using. Clever improvising using your cell phone as a scope! SMD re-working is a fun and sometimes challenging field. Even though the majority of my work is with through-hole, I still like to keep my microsoldering in check because eventually through-hole will be no more (or at the least, very uncommon.) Thanks for watching and sub'ing!
Even the non-coughing fit smoke is already a good reason to make this DIY flux. I use a solid block of colophony when soldering that I dip my soldering iron's tip into right before soldering a joint. I gotta have a 12V PC fan near me to blow away the smoke if I do not want coughing fits and weird fried chicken/fish smells in my nose even after not inhaling the smoke.
As crazy as it sounds, I like the smell of fresh solder being melted onto a board... Even more crazily enough I like the smell of old vintage solder from the 70's / 80's being melted. I don't huff it obviously, but it has a pleasant nolstalgic odor to me... Kind of like a cigarette when it's first lit (and I don't smoke)... I'm a weirdo I guess... :P
@@daveytechca Nope, i love the smell of it, as well.....and i semi-huff it too. What it could give me isn't worse than what i already have. And i have a bunch i refined myself from pine rosin, also.
I read in QST magazine that smoke from colophony is a major cause of asthma. You need to avoid it if you use it very often.
@@channelview8854 yup, that's why when I'm soldering I have a 12V PC fan near me blowing away the flux fumes towards my open window
@@daveytechca Some vintage solder used barely activated pine resin as flux. And I like that smell, too. But not today's commercial fluxes. Some current rosin flux SnPb solders are still bearable, but only the least activated ones, which tend to not solder very well any slighly corroded surfaces.
Technichaly you can make a paste as well. I experimented with that and you need just less IPA. Works excellent too.
That's exactly what I was thinking. Have you tried the glycerin addition? It's apparently meant to stabilize the mix.
@@Leo-gt1bxpure vaseline works well. That prevents rosin from crystalising. You don't need IPA in this case. You need to gently warm up the solution until rosin melts and let that chill. I haven't experimented with glycerine.
Mix the rosin 70/30 with 91+ proof alch
Step 1 weigh Rosin chips
2 - smash then make powder
Put a glass jar in water in a pot on a electric stove slowly warm with ancho stir with wooden stick put on small container will last long time can use pine rosin the alcho helps clean out rosin
I will try this thanks. Have you heard of the glycerin theory that is stabilizes the flux mix?
I buy my Rosin off either Amazon, Ebay or Alibaba in 1 lb bags of pre-ground powder. Much quicker to mix. Don't ever spill this stuff on the floor or your bench!! What a sticky mess that can only be cleaned up with IPA, Water won't touch it!! This way I can mix it as strong as needed. Commercial fluxes have other additives like Ionizing agents to better clean the joint etc. Good video.
I discovered the tackiness of it the hard way! 😂 I didn't know you could buy the rosin already ground up, that definitely saves some work. Do you have a specified ratio for the general mix you use? Thanks for watching John!
The main idea is not just to dissolve the pine rosin in alcohol, after doing so you must let the alcohol evaporate until you get the right texture, the flux obtained from this method is ideal to use as neutral flux but if you need activated flux you may want to ad a bit of citric acid. If the rosin is dark will not make good flux (dirty finish) . if the texture is too liquid it will make more mess. I am a fossil from the transistor age and i know a couple of tricks about making my own chemicals like the cold liquid thin for plating PCBs and to make my own ferric chloride at home.
Great video, yes I've followed Sorin for a long long long time, he is a pioneer....absolute pro. Thank you for this video, Sorin is an amazing teacher! Liked and Subbed!
I used 1+1/2 parts rosin to 1 part IPA and it came out almost the same color as the original hard rosin rocks. It's pretty viscous but it works better than anything I've ever tried. I use the same type of bottles you do.
Thanks Dev .this simple Flux will help learners like me ,once again a big thanks and love from India.
Ya is na jo spray kya is botal ma kya tha
Biggest disadvantage of the homemamde rosin-based flux is, that it evaporates pretty quickly when in contact with holt tip of soldering iron. Good brands of commercial fluxes give you some time needed for proper heating and soldering before it evaporates... and that is critically important feature in some scenarios. I tried making my own rosin flux many years ago, but it's properties was not comparable with commercial fluxes. It's exactly like you are saying in your comments - it's cheap and it's good for some little dabs here and there, but I can't imagine doing some serious rework job on PS3 cpu or gpu with it (for example).
Btw, I'm working with solid rosin for almost 30 years, but only when soldering with soldering gun (not iron). In this scenario the rosin is excellent, but it's only possible because the soldering tip is not heating all the time like on soldering iron, so you can use manually controlled cold and hot cycles of soldering gun for your advantage. What am I talking about... not many knows this technique, but you can pre-flux soldering joint with soldering GUN (again - not soldering IRON) and rosin, even if it's not dilluted in alcohol and it's still in its solid form. You put some solder on the tip, just exact amount you want to transfer into soldering joint. You heat the tip again and when hot, dab it into block of solid rosin so you'll get a little bit there, and let it cool down. So, now you have solder and rosin onto tip both in the same time and ready to use. Next step is to heat the tip a little bit (not too much, so rosin will not evaporate) and when the rosin gets into it's liquid form, smear it around the soldering joint (it's the equivalent of fluxing it with liquid flux from bottle). And after that, you can finally crank the heat to the max and solder that joint. I know it sounds kinda chaotic, but it's pretty simple and straightforward - watch this .... ua-cam.com/video/vkOlsHpP7PU/v-deo.html (it's only final stage of pre-fluxing and soldering, whole process of solder and rosin preparation onto tip can be seen here - ua-cam.com/video/98wcqTpQ1qE/v-deo.html ).
Advantage of this process is that you are not working with anything sticky and spillable, so it's much more clean and so to say it, joyful :) But of course, it's only good for through-holes and some bigger joints, because of size and shape of the soldering gun tip, which is not very suitable for smaller jobs. Classic soldering station and quality brand of commercial flux is better for those delicate jobs (SMDs, SOICs etc.)
Many, many valid points made! And for that reason, I pinned your comment. Thanks for your insight and thanks for watching!
use more rosin ??
nonsense, the solvent evaporates not the rosin
@@shaunmorrissey7313 I think he was trying to note that in a general sense that "it" evaporates quickly. Not necessarily the rosin. :)
@@daveytechca I think Shaun was referring to Efdawah Fan's comment.
I'll have to try this.The only thing I have'nt got is the bottle. Just ordered a set of 4 with needels off ebay for £4.
Yes please to the drum machine video. :)
I've been working with it today and I've discovered a problem with it... It's messy if mis-handled. Sticky-ness everywhere! The honeymoon phase is over.
@@daveytechca Is it worth it, then ?
@@frankowalker4662 Yes and no. Yes because if you're doing a quick solder joint and need a quick dab of flux, yes. If you have a lot of soldering to do (more than what would cause an actual puddle on the board rather than a drop), no. Maybe it wouldn't bother some people, but because I am a neat freak and don't like stickiness, I'll be using this for touch up jobs.
@@daveytechca Cheers.
@@daveytechca I've just made some flux. It was'nt too bad, mess wise, and it works fine. I've got a flux pen that's running out, When it's empty, I'm going to refill it with this. :)
Blessings From Penzance , Cornwall
New Subscriber.
I did some web-searching and found someone recommended petroleum jelly (Vaseline) as a good flux. Might be worth a try in another video?
I have read this before as well! I'll give it a try in a future video... Thanks!
Dear only petroleum jelly ? Or any other thing ?
@britishvlog9481 Is it hard to clean afterwards?
I use a mixture of bee wax, petroleum jelly and pine tree resin. Smells lovely and works very well.
I use the wax from those cheap tea-light candles. It suffices, is dirt cheap and works great on clean metal.
Nice video.
I've got two questions,
1. Does it corrode the copper or pins or silk layer?
2. How to strore it properly to prevent it from spoiling or unusable?
So far I've never seen signs of corrosion with using hole brew flux. With it being isopropyl alcohol, it'll evaporate quickly and any residual rosin will just sit there. It's always good practice to clean up the area. For aesthetic purposes alone it's worth the effort. As for storage I've kept mine in a needle dropper bottle and it's always stayed good for me.
@@daveytechca Thank you.
Sorin is a living legend
those pointless violin lessons for my daughter will FINALLY pay off!!!
Recycling! We all win! 😂
The most expensive DIY flux known to man... lol
Simple enough. Thanks.
Well, that's another experiment to add to my list.
Thanks
I await your cut of the experiment! 😉
I read someplace that Flux is a sap from a tree or one of the main ingredients in it is.
"The most basic soldering flux, one that has been used for over a thousand years, is the natural rosin derived from pine tar resin. Pine tar resin is dissolved in solvent and then distilled to yield the clear, water-white rosin used in soldering flux". ya this was what I read a while back. Now go make it from scratch. Find a pine tree and make some real flux like they did 1000's of years ago.
In the U.S., rosin is most commonly made from southern longleaf pine trees as a by-product of paper and wafer board manufacturing. When heated, it releases abietic acid.
Nice! That'll go perfectly with my rebuilt vintage PnP machine from the 1300's.
There is so much more going on chemically in commercial soldering flux for electronics than these two ingredients. Still, it's an interesting exercise. 👍
It's true, the homebrew flux has it's short-comings. After trying it for a while I eventually went back to my trusted commercial blend. :)
Checkout cerrobend for a low temperature solder. To complete the low-priced version of chip quick alloy
I was out looking for pine resin today along a nature bike trail. I want to try to dissolve it in alcohol and filter it just to see what happens. If that doesn't work I can always buy a block of violin rosin. I do want to know where to get the bottles that you used.
Looks like a standard dropper bottle, with a blunt hypodermic needle screwed to the tip. The luer lock is about the right size to fit most dropper bottles, and the plastic is soft enough to fit firmly.
I didn't use these ones exactly, but there are many types available on Amazon. a.co/d/3HHckdz
you will love home made pine resin flux
It works. I used it a few years ago.
@@richardchambers256 Thanks. I think I saw a video that said pine resin doesn't smoke as much as commercial flux. If that's true then I will keep my soldering tips constantly coated so that they don't become oxidized.
Are you using rosin core solder in this experiment? I mixed up a batch and found no difference in the wetting and coverage with or without using the flux. Maybe enough flux in the solder core for good results. I would be interested seeing results with using non rosin core solder. Thanks for posting
I find a bit of tealight wax does a perfectly reasonable job in a pinch.
I saw fumes coming out from your solder. Maybe you used solder that has rosin in it's core already. I'm saying this just to get more detail information.
Hello, this has been explained previously in previous comments. Thanks for watching.
@@daveytechca But here you are applying the solder rapidly without giving enough time for the flux to evaporate.
If you're here to critique every move I make this won't end well for you.
Hi! Nice video. The soldering wire is that flux free at 12:00? Thank you.
It was not flux free.
If I did more soldering I'd be testing out some formulations myself. It would be interesting to see if boric acid would work well or if you could use some kind of plastic + acetone mix as a thickening agent.
I was once given some 'flux' to use on a small circuit build, not my own flux. Turned out to be acid based that was for a metal fab' shop. Bad idea. A few month later the circuit had grown fur, corrosion from either the tin (or at that time lead). It still worked but only because of the large size and spacing between leads. I didn't trust it for long. There's a reason for rosin.
I just remembered, ammonium chloride is also a commonly available, commonly used flux/flux component. I wonder if it would significantly enhance the homemade flux. 🤔
As a deeply lazy man, I lust chuck the chunks in IPA (or meths) in the bottle I'm going to use and leave it sit, no powdering to do. And for bottles, ask anyone who vapes, they have loads of empty dropper/squirty bottles.
The flux in the core does the job nicely lol
Very observant! Too bad you weren't as observant reading the video description!
@@daveytechca I watch the horrific results of people trying to solder... Using techniques that don't apply to the situation.
Mostly because they have no idea how to solder with rosin core. That's when I see this kind of thing show up.
I realize you were demonstrating this and that wasn't a "production board", but if you did something more real world, it would be more realistic to critique.
IOW it's trivial to tin a pad using any method. Holes, spacing, and component legs change things up a bit.
Used to make it with gasoline and rosin to solder tin roofs many, many years ago.
🤯
That second one looked more shinny than the first, maybe that little extra rosin ??
How do you know the homemade flux is working when you are using flux core solder to demo with??????????????????????????????????????????
🙄 Read my other comments on the matter please.
I finished up with Zinc Chloride! Amazing. John. C
Have you tested it on microsoldering like laptop ics and tv motherboard cpus not bga ones
Hi Mahmoud, personally I have not tested it for micro soldering. Electronics Repair School has, and he seemed satisfied with the results. Thanks for watching!
yes, Sorin tested it. it is quite good
@@daveytechca Sorin has been using it for years
I use Vaseline and pine resin --work great for me. 🙂
I use butter.
How long does it keep for in a sealed container?
Another question, do you know what the best flux for tip longevity is?
As long as it's capped when not in use I would imagine it would last for quite a long time. Personally I used Chipquik and I've never replaced a tip in five years and all my tips are still going strong.
You don't need to mash it up. You can leave it as chunks. It will desolve.
That would involve patience! 😂 However, you're not wrong. Thanks for watching!
Is it ok to use less alcohol and make it thicker? Can it be used to weet circuit legs so they melt when using heatgun? Also for soldering circuit legs using heat guns like you do with paste flux?
Excellent questions! I haven't tried it any other way other than what's shown in the video. Never hurts to experiment!
What I'd like to know where you got the time machine to find a piece of single layer pcb without a solder mask layer.
A friend of mine had a friend that was an electronics engineer from the 1950's until the early 2000's... When he passed I got to cherry pick his stash.
I have some Stockholm pine tar left over from staining wood. Can that be used?
Hi! From what I know any tar will work.... how effective it will be may vary. Experiment!
Now I gotta figure out to make my own flux paste and I'm set 😂
Interesting. I assume that this is a type R flux. RMA and RA fluxes are more common commercially, but they are also more corrosive than a type R.
What was your conclusion?
Hello Davey T
I got a problem
When I add the alcohol, the dust becomes an a ball, while I'm shaking it. Am I doing something wrong?
Thanks
Perhaps you're not adding enough alcohol? Other than that I've never seen that happen before. Thanks for watching!
@@daveytechca thank you for answering me
What you mixed in water or alcohal ?
Isopropryl Alcohol 99% - Thanks for watching!
The only problem is that after 20 minutes of the rosin melted all the way in the alcohol, the rosin solidify itself in the alcohol. Its like a block of iceberg. And when i used the liquid which i thought would have rosin in it, solder didnt stick. In the video, it looks good but the guy didnt tell you the aftermath. By the way, i used the alcohol that you would use to clean your hand during covid. So now what i do is i melt the rosin with alcohol, once melted, i add vaseline to keep the melted rosin from solidifying itself in the melted vaseline.
I find that using melted candle + the melted rosin does the same trick, it keeps the melted rosin from turning solid again.
@@joseramos3076 I found the solution: Make sure to use 97% or 95% isopropyl alcohol. How would you know you bought the right percentage alcohol? The Rosin will stay melted and the alcohol will be sticky and turn light to dark brown for good. No more turning to an iceberg or get solidified after 20 minutes or so. PS Good to know: the reason why it didn’t work on my 1st trial was that I used diluted (Mixed with water) alcohol to sanitize my hand from the Covid era so the percentage dropped , it wasn’t 97% to 95% anymore.
As mentioned by another viewer, be sure you're using 99% isopropyl alcohol. I'm pretty sure I mentioned that in the video.
@@daveytechca I no longer use Rosin for Flux soldering, it takes too much time and frustration, I found a much simpler way.
I recently saw a video where the bloke added VG Vegetable Glycerin the kind you get in vape liquid. Have you tried this?
I haven't tried it, but it sounds like it worth a shot! Thanks for watching!
@@daveytechca It apparently stabilizes the mixture. I've not had a chance to look into it. You're welcome, nice work.
Did the solder you used in this video have a flux core?
Sure does! And a realize that the flux core is doing the majority of the work in the video. The home made rosin is good for quick touch ups. However, after an experience earlier today my mind has been changed.
you can buy kilos of this stuff for the price of this small box
imagine how much profit those flıux companies make with just a bit of rosin, alcohol and some jelling agent
maybe you could dissolve the rosin in ethanol gel Chafing Fuel to make something similar to Amtech flux, please try and make a video about
Best non corrosive flux
Hi there I have tried making this Kind of flux as per your video however it turn out to be solid state stone like after dried out .
Not sure what happened there... Maybe too much rosin?
I used 1 parts of rosin 2 parts IPA 75% alcohol...not got 95% ipa ...can this be the problem... believe me tried thrice , and failed all Times. My bad luck
@@daveytechca Nop, your alcohol got too "macho" water.
coffee filters = brilliant
Cheap, pre-cut and plentiful! Lint free too!
Absolutely, I made a video about coffee filters some time ago, I was happy to see someone using
Been doing this for years.. I also add a drop of glycerin, but i cant remember why xD
new sub :) I also watch Sorin :)
Sorin is great isn't he? I've learned a thing or two from him! Thanks for watching and sub'ing!
How about using a small paint brush...
Whatever works!
What is IPA ??
Iso
Propel
Alcohol
🍸
Cool!
It's Cobs! My boy!
I will have to try to replicate your experiment with natural pine rosin. Some of the trees around my home weep rosin that would be easy to collect. Have you tried using 91% IPA? (It's more readily available.) I'm also wondering if a bit of light mineral oil might make the flux a bit more persistent. Good stuff, man. This is the first video of yours I've seen - I'll check out your channel for sure.
Thanks for your feedback on both videos! Glad you enjoy the channel :)
I feel like your demonstration has a fairly large issue in showing possible effectiveness. The solder you are adding has it's own flux core being added as you apply it.. what happens if you add solder to the tip and bake off that core, then touch the pad? Compare that to a bare pad untreated and also with only the commercial flux.
I didn't make this demonstration to be scientifically accurate. So, what you see is what you get. Thanks for watching!
I fully saturated mine in 99% isopropyl, it is much darker than what I see in your bottle.
It works good for clean metals, and I use it in wire connectors on my brother's airplane.
Alcohol Is it any alcohol like bear
thx you
Nice
Moooore Roooosin.
😂
What is this liquid😢
99% isopropyl alcohol
To much alcohol. It's came 50:50 to work very well
Subbed thanks
Better than Amtech😂
I go with dissolution here. Not everyone knows what you mean by IPA since you not once mention it. I am going to assume you mean isopropyl Alcohol.
Anyone in the electronics repair industry knows what IPA is. I haven't run into a tech that doesn't in my 30+ years doing repairs.
@@daveytechca Yes, I see. You are one of those - always right. Perhaps write in the title: For experts only!
If you aren't sure of something, ask. Don't post a comment bitching me out for not specifying what most people know.
@@daveytechca I spelled it out for you on my first comment. Perhaps a few more people will benefit.
It's okay, you're the only with a problem so far. I won't be changing how I do things. Thanks for watching.
It's too thin. Add more rosin and some glycerin for a flux that stays long enough to make a solder joint. By the way, your vocabulary needs work; _dissolve_ is the correct word.
Thank you for your feedback! Especially the part about my vocabulary. It really gives me the perfect opportunity to tell you that if you can't handle someone making a mistake to the point where you feel the need to correct them, don't watch. Thanks again!