Pelliott321 wrote:
how many makers out there that when building a piece of kit clean off oxidation on components leads or legs with steel wool before soldering. do you clean pads on pcb's or terminals on devices or strips.
Some say is a waste of time because the flux does this for you.
Just curious
Rosin-core solder, as typically used for electronic assembly, is not corrosive enough to clean oxidation or some other film. When I am working on a project any parts that I am installing such as resistors, capacitors, connectors, or whatever -- get cleaned down to bright and shiny metal. Same goes for fresh PC board traces. They have to be cleaned. Same with terminal boards.
Those that mistakenly believe that the rosin is going to clean as one solders are those that get nasty introductions to cold solder joints that at best are readily obvious or worst are intermittently un-reliable. Even manufacturers that use automation such as wave-soldering will run the boards through a cleansing "bath" before the solder "bath" and even then the work is done in a nitrogen atmosphere to assure complete reliability and to prevent oxidation during the process.