What to do when you have to solder parts to aluminium?
I considered aluminium clad PCB's for a design and aluminium solder was required to solder components to the aluminium.
At the time I Googled and didn't get a hit. I recall getting an email from Kester that their solder for aluminium is no longer available. Alusol.
I even tried a low oxygen solution of using regular solder and cooking oil. Mmmmm fried solder. Didn't work.. :( Goofed or myth ..I dunno but I hate greasy electronics.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
Why not got through the entire periodic table... backwards??
Why?
martin
Try again. I got about 1,200,000 for aluminum solder. Regards,
Mike Monett
Get rid of the second "i" when you search. ALUMINUM. no ium.
TIG welding?
Or rather, perhaps you should clean and solder the parts in a modified atmosphere in one of those cabinents with a window and rubber gloves.
"Bob Eld"
** Only Yanks say "aluminum" - the rest of the planet says "aluminium".Google automatically finds both spellings in a search on aluminium.
aluminum solder = 1.2 M hits
aluminium solder = 1.4 M hits.
BTW
What out for those six toed Septic weirdos who call solder " soder " !!
..... Phil
Ooopss..Thanks for pointing out the aluminUm typo..My spelling is almost as bad as my electronics designs. :)
Also noticed somebody posted that I should check google again for Al solder....Over 1 million google results...Ok..Those are hits...I wish it was 1 million sources of Aluminum solder.. (I'll use the proper spelling too in Google.)
I did some Google searching again for Al solder... Found solder to be used with a torch :( Found Freeman aluminum solder but $250.00min order. :(
Found aluminum solder paste on ebay :) !!! Could try...
myth
Get rid of the second "i" when you search. ALUMINUM. no ium.
Listen to EEore. Those aluminum solders had cadmium in them, and cadmium fumes can
*kill* you - one of the major reasons they were hard to get and now banned (ROHs). There are a few "secrets" to soldering aluminum: 1) Zero oxygen; cooking oil has oxygen in it. Try Sal Ammoniac or other high temperature fluxes. 2) Any solder will do, including tin-lead solder providing the surface to be soldered is completely protected from oxygen. 3) You need a much higher temperature to do this; perhaps in the 450F and upwards region. 4) Once the aluminum oxide "skin" on the metal is breached with solder, the solder will spread rapidly like a pool of lava under the skin, and the thickness of the aluminum will rapidly devrease as the aluminum alloys with the liquid solder.There is no known reason to use aluminum in PCB circuitry,evenif you are the owner of that farce patent that describes making of PCBs from powder (which makes aluminum).
Hmmm...PCBs made using DU! Makes it easier to see in the dark?
"D from BC"
** You did not make one.Only Yanks say "aluminum" - the rest of the planet says "aluminium".
Google automatically finds both spellings in a search on aluminium.
aluminum solder = 1.2 M hits
aluminium solder = 1.4 M hits.
..... Phil
Perhaps he wants to bond aluminium to aluminum.
myth
Listen to EEore. Those aluminum solders had cadmium in them, and cadmium fumes can
*kill* you - one of the major reasons they were hard to get and now banned (ROHs). There are a few "secrets" to soldering aluminum: 1) Zero oxygen; cooking oil has oxygen in it. Try Sal Ammoniac or other high temperature fluxes. 2) Any solder will do, including tin-lead solder providing the surface to be soldered is completely protected from oxygen. 3) You need a much higher temperature to do this; perhaps in the 450F and upwards region. 4) Once the aluminum oxide "skin" on the metal is breached with solder, the solder will spread rapidly like a pool of lava under the skin, and the thickness of the aluminum will rapidly devrease as the aluminum alloys with the liquid solder.There is no known reason to use aluminum in PCB circuitry,evenif you are the owner of that farce patent that describes making of PCBs from powder (which makes aluminum). .
Oh no....now I'm wondering about the toxicity of that aluminum solder paste I just saw on ebay...gotta get the MSDS. Thanks for the safety tip..
Let's say for the moment there's some very good reasons to use aluminum in my application. Maybe it's goofy...maybe the solder lead got to me :)
More like 13,900. Don't forget to put quotes around it so you won't include hits for only one word. Ie: googling for "grape solder" (no quotes) is good for 93,000 hits yet I hardly think there's anybody using grapes for soldering.
Nah, you need to get all the wierd tricks people might want to use. Haven't you ever heard of putting grapes in a microwave? Makes nice plasma balls.
So maybe some has figured out a way to use the plasma ball to heat something so it could be soldered without any contamination from flux.
Of course, you would have to go through all 1,200,000 hits to make sure there are no tricks like that worth remembering. So before you discard valuable info, make sure you know what you are discarding:)
Anyway, it's clear there is plenty of info on soldering aluminum. Hey, that's another search thread to try. That gives even more hits - about
1,210,000 with no quotes, and about 563 with quotes. Now that's 2,410,563 hits to check, but some are probably dupes.Hopefully, that should answer the op's question:)
Regards,
Mike Monett
I got four hits for "grape solder" :)
snipped-for-privacy@comic.com (D from BC) wrote in news:MSjhh.500839$R63.192733@pd7urf1no:
I just saw a Harbor Freight sale ad for aluminum solder. Alumiweld.
snip.
Of course, anything to add unnecessary letters and syllables. Why not?
Yes but he runs the risk of electrolysis making a bad joint. Two dissimilar metals you know!
------------------- My electrochemistry is a bit rusty :) but I think air and water are part of the reaction. There's many spray coatings I can use to block that but it's an extra step and could be a "strike one". I could check component lead out metals. I'll guess for now Cu,Sn,Ni,Fe to be bonded to Al. D
Yes but he runs the risk of electrolysis making a bad joint. Two dissimilar metals you know!
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