Bubbling solder

While on the ARF forum today One person has a problem with bad solder and was wondering how to fix it. Well again as usual the sight went down while I was trying to post my answer.
So I decided to post it here in the meantime.

In soldering, if the solder is heated too long then the elements in the solder separate tin vs lead. Another indication is a dirty solder joint. It may be more than just trapped rosin, could be oil, water, dirt, threads from brushing, epoxy, resin, fiberglass.

As was mentioned before completely remove old solder, as best as you can, the pads could have oxidation, copper does that.

I personally would use acid core solder just to get it cleaned up. Then remove the acid core solder, making sure to Completely remove the acid with water and alcohol. then re tin with the standard 63/37 or 60/40 rosin core solder. If that doesn't work then you will have to do some wire brushing, maybe with a Dremel tool. That should solve your problem. :wink:

AFR went down? That never happens, does it?

Surprise, Surprise!!!!!

I doubt the metals in solder separate . When solder starts getting ugly & chunky its dirty and lacks rosin or flux . I usually wire brush or scrape the connection , lug or wire and resolder and maybe a bit of solder paste flux stuff .

Water and alcohol will not clean up hard solder acid core . Wire brush and strong cleaner will.