Sal Ammoniac, (Ammonium Chloride) when heated, breaks down into Ammonia and Hydrochloric Acid. Definitely not good stuff to have around electronic circuit boards.
If you use it on your soldering iron, be sure to rinse the iron to dilute/neutralize/remove the acid.
I prefer to use a "Western Union" style splice if possible. It's mechanically sound.
Wrong.
Were that the case, SMT would never work.
A properly soldered joint doesn't not need a mechanical connection, like twisting the wires together, in order to make a permanent electrical connection. Matter of fact, NASA prohibits any such joint. They prohibit it because if repairs are needed it is too difficult to take apart.
The stuff with the Teflon insulation?
TDD
Well it just happens to be that NASA prohibits a mechanical connection before soldering it. It makes it too difficult to repair. I'd imagine there is a bit of vibration, but the connections hold just fine.
I forget what it's called, but I have some kind of ammonia block that I sometimes rub the tips on. Not sure if that is what you mean?
Start with Google and search for "how to tin a soldering iron".
Virtually all of it. Teflon, Tefzel, and all the other fancy schmansy stuff.
That's what the wet sponge is for. A little tray in my 40 year old Weller temperature controlled soldering station. I have some 40 year old tips for it that are still working fine. I bought it new and have replaced a few parts over the years but it ran 8-12 hours a day for years when I was doing bench work with few problems.
You are using a double negative so appear to be disagreeing with tourself - but regardless, nasa notwitstanding (if it is true) acceptable standards for aircraft repair ( I believe it is AC 43.13) specifies joints must be mechanically secure before soldering, but also (quite severely) limits where soldering is acceptable in aircraft wiring. Solder wicking back a stranded wire hardens the wire and makes a stress point where that hardening stops - a failure waiting to happen when exposed to vibration.
I love that wire for electronics work and surprise, it's the best wire in the world for soldering to those Bendix aerospace connectors and making wiring harnesses. :-)
TDD
It's called "sal ammoniac".
TDD
You have inspected millions of solder joints. I won't dispute that. What were these joints on? On circuit boards you are correct - and I stated that.
What kind of joints between 2 wires do you inspect that do not have a mechanical connection component other than solder? On what?
Educate us please.
If they were not joints between 2 wires, what kind of joint were they? ( am assuming we are on target here and they were electrical connections - although even most (although certainly not all) tinwork has some crimping involved before soldering)
Wiring onto terminal strips GENERALLY involves a "hook" of some sort on solid core connection wires.
I'm not saying you are wrong and I'm right - I'm just asking what connections, and what kind of connections, on what, do you consider to be adequate with no mechanical component to the connection other than the solder.
In avionics, in general, soldered connections in a wiring harness are FORBIDDEN. Crimped connections only, thank you very much. Soldered connections must be supported against vibration for a distance in both directions from the joint. Perhaps in space where gravity is not an issue things are different.
I've had a few of them over the years - and yes, a professional temperature controlled soldering iron works real nice - and on 4 and 6 layer circuit boards they are highly adviseable. But a cheap, old, well-used and well-tinned iron can do the job ALMOST as easily if you are doing onesy-twosies on single or double layer boards with reasonable sized traces.
Don't try fixing SMT stuff with it though. (I've done a fair amount of both - board level repairs on American Megatrends motherboards back when my eyesight was good enough to handle it, as well as repairing old tube radios, and a whole lot in between)
Would I love to have a good temperature controlled soldering and desoldering station on my bench? You bet! But the boss isn't paying for them today.
Mechanically placed components virtually all have (or at least had) that little kink that held the part in place. All the custom boards I had made also did. (we are talking in the computer industry) And all the automotive computers I've worked on/repaired (up until the '90s)
And a very large number of SMTs are glued to the board (solder paste in some cases) which does not do much for the final strength, but keeps the part in place until it is soldered
I've spent as many years in the computer repair business as I have fixing cars.
Instead of just dissagreeing with everyone why don't you give us some real information - like what you work on that things are done differently. I'm sure there are many reasons for doing things differently in diferent industries and situations.
Educate us.
My experience has been MOSTLY automotive and computer, with some communications and audio and avionics thrown in for good measure. I've done component level repair on automotive electronics and computers, as well as pre and early solid state radio and audio equipment.
When the joint area approaches or excedes the area of the device itself, and the mass of the solder involved in the joint is a significant fraction of the mass of the device, and there is no "wire" involved, you are pretty safe. That pretty well describes SMT.
Lay a wire on a PC trace and solder it on and see how much abuse it takes (generally before pulling the trace off the board - but occaisionally pulling the wire off the trace)
That would be the stuff. Not the best idea for electronic soldering because of the hydrochloric acid that co-exists with the ammonia, and is the active material involved in removing the oxide scale from the copper.
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