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I also never seen those crystal formations. Even the past looks sickly. I would ditch those!For trackwork I would go with @robert3985 Superior liquid flux. It really, really works well (I apply it with a largest size Micro-Brush). A little goes a long way. It is not expensive and worthy investment. BTW, I still prefer the standard Radio Shack rosin electronic past flux for super precision electronic soldering.Also, I don't know what you use for soldering iron, but remember to keep the iron's tip very clean and shiny coated with wet solder. Moist sponge is your best friend. I see some people building super nice layouts using 30 year old Radio Shack pencil iron with a burned tip for soldering. When one is spending thousands of dollars on the layout it makes sense to buy a decent quality iron. Not saying it is you, but I see that all often.
Some fluxes have a shelf life, although I have a bottle of Superior No.30 Supersafe Solder Flux that's probably 30 years old, and it still works okay on my turnouts and trackwork, along with repairing brass engines & rolling stock, and building etched brass/nickel silver kits. When the blue fades, it's supposed to be replaced, but...like I said, it still is working excellently. Just for information's sake, you can get Superior No. 30 Supersafe Solder Flux here: https://www.hnflux.com/ along with my favorite silver-bearing 96/4 Tin/Silver solder for turnout building, trackwork and a lot of other brass/bronze/nickel-silver/copper soldering jobs.I used to be a big believer in the wet sponge to clean my iron tips between soldering joints, but recently I learned that using a wet sponge will fairly quickly ruin a good iron tip. Cleaning a soldering iron tip with a wet sponge ruins it quickly because the sudden temperature drop causes thermal shock, which cracks the tip's protective iron plating allowing air and aggressive materials to get to and oxidize & dissolve the underlying copper core of the tip.A better solution is "brass wool" or a "dry brass sponge" which I have been using with my new digital Hakko FX888DX-010BY soldering station even though the included iron holder includes a wet sponge as well as a space for the included dry brass sponge.What happens, particularly with solders that have a high tin content such as my favorite 96/4 Tin/Silver solder, is that the iron plating on tip cracks because of the sudden temperature change when water in the wet sponge steams away, allowing air and molten tin to get into the micro cracks. Molten tin acts as a copper solvent, so the cracks get bigger and it becomes increasingly difficult to tin the tip because it becomes porous and blackens until tinning is impossible....Cheerio!Bob Gilmore
lol I remember the first time I heard about Superior No. 30. I ordered some and never got it to work at all. Still have it. I use thick plumbing flux from Home Depot.
I remember someone wanted me to build turnouts using their FT jig. I didn't want to use the Home Depot stuff so I asked around and bought a different type. It pitted the FT jig (that wasn't mine). So then I tried the Superior #30 and couldn't get the solder to melt or flow. So I went back to the Home Depot stuff:https://www.homedepot.com/p/RectorSeal-Nokorode-Regular-Paste-Flux-1-7-oz-14004/202281197Just sayin' I dunno everyone does stuff differently.
I notice that when I tin the tip it quickly turns from silver to a kind of golden color. Does that mean it's dissolving copper and I need a new tip?I did just get one of those brass wool cleaner thingies, and they do work nicely, but I've used a sponge a long time.
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Topic: Old Flux - does it go bad? (Read 608 times)
