Cheap A$$ solder wick issues, Rosin vs Rosinless solder & Chem-Wik vs Soder-Wick

[JonathanHerr]

Okay, trying to be frugal, I went and bought some solder wick off of aliexpress,  I got it, for fairly cheap.. 20 1.5m lengths (so that's 30 meters worth) for 8ish USD, when a local place charges nearly double that for some "Chem-Wik Rosin" soldering braid.

I go to use it tonight, and find out, it doesn't suck up the solder worth a crap! (Luckily-ish I had bought some more Chem-Wik a bit before I bought this cheapo-variety on aliexpress)

Now I go looking online and it seems some solder-wick is rosin/fluxless so could it be that the solder-braid that I got for a lark was/is fluxless?

Also, doing a bit of research on the variety Looking up online, I find out some info on the soldering braid I was using b'fore, (Chemtronics' Chem-Wik), there's two brand-names of the wick, Chem-Wik and Soder-Wick... are either one any better or worse for certain types of work?

Also, by looking up info on Chemtronics' website, it turns out I've been using the wick a bit wrongly (by dragging it across the boards vs just 'sopping' it up?  Go figure.

But the type of solder-work I tend to use this stuff for is cleaning up bridged solder joints on thru-hole components, and salvaging old IC's from dead boards (I'm an 8-bitter o'er here so certain chips are valuable due to their non-being-made-anymore-ness) for use in various projects of mine.

Sorry about the rambly-ness of the post, but I figured I'd ask o'er here my plethora of somewhat related questions all-at-once vs spamming the boards with multiple tiny-tiny single-question threads.

[CJay]

I buy all manner of stuff from China because it's cheap, dirt cheap, and I have found it almost all to be just fine but there's a few things I never cheap out on, among them are solder, I always use Ersin Multicore 60/40 and I always buy Chemtronics Solder braid where possible.

I believe there are other brands that work, that's just my preference, I believe it's worth the extra because it saves me so much hassle and results in a better quality job being done.

As for technique, you develop your own, what works for me is to go pad by pad on through hole stuff, if I'm cleaning up SMD pads then I drag.

Most times I prefer to use a manual pump type desoldering tool, I've tried the desoldering guns and found them far too much trouble.

[xaxaxa]

I have tried some random solder wick from aliexpress (labeled "TNI-U") and it works fine, but you do need to apply flux to it; either rosin or the no-clean types work.

[JonathanHerr]

Something like this?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/951-10ml-13cm-Soldering-Rosin-Flux-Pen-Low-Solid-Non-clean-For-Kester-Soldering-Solar-Panel/32908270559.html

[tooki]

FWIW, the MG Chemicals wick is even better than chemtronics IMHO, and it’s cheaper. I posted pics of them compared in a thread about solder wicks a year or two ago.

[CJay]

FWIW, the MG Chemicals wick is even better than chemtronics IMHO, and it’s cheaper. I posted pics of them compared in a thread about solder wicks a year or two ago.

Next time I run out I'll try it if you recommend it, I am however still using the reel I bought when I was repairing IBM PS/2 motherboards though it is getting a bit low now :~)

[tooki]

FWIW, the MG Chemicals wick is even better than chemtronics IMHO, and it’s cheaper. I posted pics of them compared in a thread about solder wicks a year or two ago.

Next time I run out I'll try it if you recommend it, I am however still using the reel I bought when I was repairing IBM PS/2 motherboards though it is getting a bit low now :~)

If you can find it in the UK, then by all means try it! (I ordered mine from amazon USA and had it shipped here. Maybe amazon UK carries it?)

[Siwastaja]

Some "cheap China stuff" is perfectly fine, while some is completely useless. In my experience, solder wick belong to the latter category. Bought once, will never again.

Pin header connectors would be an example of the "just fine" stuff. Have bought over a thousand, not a single problem. Using in production as well. The SMD versions can handle the reflow as well, better than some MOLEX or JST connectors. Price is around 1/20th of the brand headers at Digikey/Farnell/Mouser.