Solder Wick/Braid...What am I doing wrong?

[humidbeing]

I have never been able to get solder wick to work...like, at all.

I've tried wick from: MG Chemicals, Chemtronics, and NTE.

I'm using a TS80P iron with a chisel tip. I've tried temps from 340 to 400.

I'm applying plenty of Amtech flux.

The solder will completely liquify UNDER the braid, but will not soak into it. Not even a tiny bit!

I'm using 63/37 leaded solder.

What am I doing wrong? I see people on Youtube using this stuff and it just soaks up the solder. I'm baffled.

[xrunner]

If you put flux on the wick by itself and just apply solder to it like you would a stranded wire does it tin the wick or not? 

[wraper]

Do you put soldering iron on top of the braid or just poke melted solder with a cold braid?

[humidbeing]

Do you put soldering iron on top of the braid or just poke melted solder with a cold braid?

lmao, yes iron on top. The solder liquifies under the braid, but doesn't flow into it.

[humidbeing]

If you put flux on the wick by itself and just apply solder to it like you would a stranded wire does it tin the wick or not? 

Good question will test this and reply back.

[coppercone2]

[xrunner]

If you put flux on the wick by itself and just apply solder to it like you would a stranded wire does it tin the wick or not? 

Good question will test this and reply back.

OK. If it does tin the wick by itself I think that you don't have enough heat when trying to use the wick on an additional load such as a component lead or PCB trace.

[themadhippy]

No need to add flux or solder,put the wick  on the solder you want gone,apply your iron and let the braid work its magic.Ive always had good results with the chemitronics stuff,not so with the Spirig stuff,think  they forgot to add anything to the braid  .

[Veteran68]

No need to add flux

In my experience adding a little flux to the wick helps a lot. It allows the solder to flow easier and farther up the wick, removing more solder in one application.

[IanB]

Solder wick tends to have good and bad quality, and the difference between the two is like night and day. Good solder wick is pre-impregnated with flux, and it sucks up solder like blotting paper. Bad solder wick rejects solder and won't wet at all. It may just be that you have bad or counterfeit solder wick.

A good test of solder wick is to put some molten solder on your iron tip and then touch the solder wick to the iron. If the wick is good it will just suck up the molten solder like a sponge. If you have some gel flux, dip the solder wick in the flux first, and then it should definitely attract the solder.

[CaptDon]

In years past I had gotten some 'Solder-Wick' that was as alergic to solder as if it were Litz Wire or Stainless Steel. I fully believe it was bogus although the label looked genuine. I may have bought it at a stateside hamfest. It was unusable!!

[coromonadalix]

same here, recent purchases of solder wick, different sizes

the copper mesh is bad, had to pour flux on it to help,  ditched them and bought elsewhere

since covid  quality as dropped on many things

[coppercone2]

I want a response from the OP

[fourfathom]

I want a response from the OP

While we wait for that. I vote for bad solderwick.

[coppercone2]

i think the flux worked when it was on the braid and the passed out after hours of all the desoldering that he has been avoiding

[RoGeorge]

Any piece of copper multi strand wire should work well enough.

How To Make "AMAZING" SOLDER BRAID / Great Soldering Hack
Mr SolderFix

[shapirus]

I have yet to see solder wick braid that doesn't work. Anything I have ordered so far, including Aliexpress, has worked like a charm for me. Maybe I've just been lucky.
Some specimens were impregnated with really smelly flux, though, yet they still worked.
Good thermal contact and sufficient power transfer between the tip and the pad, via the braid, are vital.

[Bud]

I buy MG Chemicals wick all the time. I wet it with a flux pen on both sides though, as it is not factory impregnated with flux. I just can't see why MG Chemicals not work, unless OP bought a bogus one from Ali.

[armandine2]

I want a response from the OP

While we wait for that. I vote for bad solderwick.

I was given a large old reel of copper braided wire over a polyester (I guess) cord, which I haven't been able to find for sale.

I cut a few cms off the reel, remove the cord and it works, marvellous - the solder wick I bought was useless.

I doubt this is anything other than strand thickness.

[themadhippy]

A random thought,how well will braid designed for silver solder work with tin/lead solder,or vice versa

[jonpaul]

after decades of use, my experience:

1/ Match the width of the braid to diameter of the solder joint eg use 0.100" brade on a joint abot 0.100

2/ No flux needed on good braid it is embedded already

3/ Apply hot iron with clean tip right size to braid, NO added solder.

Push tip against brid and braid on the connection

4/ Jiggle tip for best thermal contact

5/ Beware any epay or Chinese vendr may have counterfeit braid

6/ After someburned boards and ruined parts we went to other desoder methods, like the one strok spring pump irons, perhaps $15 ea from China.

Bon chance


Jon

[macboy]

A random thought,how well will braid designed for silver solder work with tin/lead solder,or vice versa

Copper wets very well with lead free, leaded, or silver bearing solder, it makes no difference. As long as the braid is made of clean pure copper, then any electronics solder will wet into it.

The "Amtech" flux that the OP is using may not be ideal. First, there is the possibility that it is fake. Second, even if genuine, the most popular Amtech NC-559 is a no-clean flux. A very important property of virtually all no-clean fluxes is that the fluxing action is very limited in duration. In other words, the soldering heat activates the flux so that it cleans the oxides from the surfaces, then - this part is important - the chemicals are used up, which effectively de-activates the flux, and it no longer has any "fluxing" action. At that point, it is benign residue, which is exactly why it is considered "no-clean". At soldering iron temperatures (much higher than reflow), this happens within a few seconds at most. When desoldering with braid, you will always exceed this heat/time, and deactivate the flux quite quickly. A no-clean flux core in solder wire is designed to fully activate then become benign within the 3 or so seconds it takes to hand solder a single joint.

Other types of flux are continuously active when hot, and inactive when cool. This is true of most Rosin flux (R - not activated, or most RMA - mildly activated, and some RA - activated). The residue is hard, crusty, and ugly, but can be safely left behind on most boards. There are exceptions to every rule: high moisture makes a difference, and some activators in some Rosin fluxes are not safe to leave. Always read the datasheet for your flux. If I rarely feel the need to add flux to braid/wick, I always choose a good quality RA or RMA flux, and never any type of rosin-free no-clean. If I could buy Kester 44 flux in a bottle, I would be in heaven. That stuff is just ridiculously amazingly good.

One tip for desoldering with braid: if the board is cold, forget it. I always reflow the joint first, with a little flux, making sure that the solder liquefies completely (including to the other side for through-hole). Then I quickly introduce the braid on top, and apply heat through the braid.  Especially for through-hole components, if you only heat through the braid on a cold board, just the topmost solder will melt and wick into the braid, leaving behind most of the solder in the plated hole, protected from touching the wick by a nice air gap you created. The trick is getting all the solder to melt before the topmost bit disappears and disrupts the capillary action which pulls the solder out of the hole or from behind SMD IC legs.

I firmly disagree with jonpaul about "push the tip against the [braid]" and "Jiggle tip". If you apply force to a hot pad, it may delaminate from the board. This is especially true on single sided boards which do not have the benefit of a plated hole to hold the pad in place. Your iron tip should have a tiny amount of molten solder on it, which will conform to the shape of what it is applied to, and transfer heat effectively with only a light touch.

[RoGeorge]

Also, don't use the tip of the braid, the very ending side of the braid has to be away from the solder joint.

Leave some clean braid to both sides of the solder joint that needs to be cleaned, left and right.  The solder has to find clean braid both to the left and to the right, and it will be soaked into the braid in both directions (left and right) at the same time, sideways away from the solder joint.

[fourfathom]

I have yet to see solder wick braid that doesn't work. Anything I have ordered so far, including Aliexpress, has worked like a charm for me. Maybe I've just been lucky.

You've been lucky.  I had some cheap no-name braid (via amazon) that essentially wouldn't wet. Brand name wick works.

[Veteran68]

You've been lucky.  I had some cheap no-name braid (via amazon) that essentially wouldn't wet. Brand name wick works.

Same here. I remember buying this stuff from Amazon, and it sucked.



I next bought genuine Chemtronics brand "Soder Wick" and it works great.



As mentioned before, even with the included flux, I will often run into a situation where a bit of added flux improves the performance. I don't start with adding flux by default, but at the first sign of lack of wicking, a little flux tends to clear it right up.

I'll also echo that wick isn't always best desoldering solution. I have multiple approaches depending on the situation: wick, manual vacuum pump ("solder sucker"), heated desoldering iron with manual pump, powered desoldering station. I only fire up the powered desoldering station for volume desoldering; for small one-off component removal the wick and/or manual solder sucker are usually sufficient.