Q Alpha paste flux

What do you want it for?

I use MG Chemicals 835 RA flux. It's the bomb.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

-- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

The MG site says

835 - Rosin Flux

835 is a rosin-based liquid flux with moderate activity. It is composed of pure Water White (WW) grade gum rosin in a unique solvent system with highly effective activators. Post soldering residues are non-conductive, non-corrosive, hydroscopic, non-tacky, and fungus resistant.

flux-835

It is available on Amazon for CDN$ 21.34

I bought a bottle from a local electronics store on your recommendation. It did not work.

One Amazon customer found a similar problem:

March 21, 2017

The bottle I received did not look like the product image. It did not say instant wetting and appeared watered down. Worst of all it did not work or make soldering easier in any way.

Mouser lists it but does not sell it here:

"Shipping Alert: Mouser does not presently sell this product in your region."

I'm sure if I can find a real bottle, it will work just as you say. I think the Amazon price may be a bit high. Still looking.

Weird--whod'a thunk that you could make money selling counterfeit tree sap?

I'm still using the litre bottle I bought eight or so years ago. (IIRC from DK or Mouser.)

I also have a 4-litre bottle of Kester RA flux, but stuff has crystallized out of it, so I'd probably have to boil it if I want to use it. The MG stuff has been stable for years. (MG 835 is RA not RMA btw.)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Where would they get the bottles and labels?

That's excellent news. Thanks.

It doesn't make sense that anyone would try to counterfeit MG Chemicals 835 RA flux. Besides getting bottles and labels, they would have to get it introduced into the product stream. They couldn't ship large amounts as it would quickly be detected and traced back to them.

It makes more sense that there was a production problem that allowed defective bottles to enter the product stream. This means if I order another bottle, there is a very slim chance I would get a dud.

I also owe an explanation to those who may have read your post but decided against buying a bottle in case it turned out dud.

I wrote MG Chemicals to ask about the problem. If I get a reply that makes sense, I'll post here.

Another mystery to track down!

Amazon has been known to sell counterfeit products. There's probably lots of money to be made selling cheap fakes to big buyers like Amazon. I had problems with their Frontline Flea repellent for my dogs not working for more than a week. Caveat emptor you know. I wonder what an independent lab test would cost?

[about activated rosin soldering flux]

If you had a sample of the right stuff, that worked, AND a bottle of suspect replacement, they could work with that. Otherwise, what's the 'standard' you want them to test to?

You know how to heat solder and inspect a joint? Tthe test you want, then, doesn't require an independent lab.

I got a reply, and it makes sense:

I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble with this product. It's difficult to say what has happened in your case or with the other review but it doesn't seem to be a systemic problem so I don't think there's a processing problem otherwise we would have received many complaints. If you let me know the batch number (stamped on the bottle or lid) with the format B#XX XXX I can check out the retain we have here to see if it might be a batch issue.

True. Good points! All my soldering was a small production/custom thing that I had no problems with. Tri-Chlor was the solvent of the day. Never had a problem. I did run into a board leakage problem once on a low density PCB between the first and second stage of a high impedance guitar/violin j-fet preamp. Rin was

1.5 M. Adding a ground trace between them stopped that. How much of a problem is that with today's tight spacing? My main gripes with counterfeits was with my dogs flea meds. But it could be anything. Counterfeit goods is a billion $ industry these days. Back in the '40s my mom a nice Singer sewing machine. Probably prewar. Worked good. She found out years later that it was a Japanese fake.

Fleas have become resistant to Frontline. Advantage is the no 1 recommendation now, and they are taking advantage of that with their pricing.

NT