Tinning PCB's ???.

[epineh]

Does anybody have any good methods of tining PCB's ? I use a (friends ) solder roller setup at the moment, but I would love to get something like a nickel plating setup going, all for "hobby" prices of course

Russell.

[vladdy]

I use a product called TINNIT from Datak [Rockford, Il, USA], and it works reasonably well..
It comes as two small packets of tinning salts, I dissolve one in about 6oz of hot water, and store in a plastic container. A packet will plate [supposedly] up to 300 sq in. but I don't usually get that much as I prefer a slightly heavier plating layer. shelf life is about 6 months.
The solution is designed to work best when heated to appx 130F, and takes 10 to 30 minutes depending on thickness required and pcb size...
It also requires a quick neutralizing wash with houshold ammonia.
When not heated some yellow fine crystals are in the solution, but dissolve when heated.
Thier part number is ER18

personally I prefer a solder bath / roller application, it's quite a bit heavier, can allow higher trace current, plus I like the 'wrinkles' on a non leveled application, looks nice when conformal coated...

enjoy..

[kowell]

The good news
Tin plating crystals available from RS Australia

The bad news
The price of a 450g bottle ( you may need to take a seat )

Aussie dollars $ 138.00

And that the cheapest i have found:

kym

[epineh]

Hey Kym, have you used the stuff from RS ?

I have looked around and it seems like the best I can do in Aus. It mentiones this is enough to cover 2.7 sq.m, which is a lot of small boards, is this accurate ? It may be the best option.

I have been using cool amp, we have some at work but I am not really happy with the results.

Cheers.

Russell.

[epineh]

Oh yeah one more question, how long does it last once mixed... I am hoping 6 months, the same as Tinnit?

[EMMKAY]

Not being able to get any commercial products for tinning can someone suggest the names of the chemicals used for tinning.. I am currently using the old fashioned way of using the soldering iron to tin tracks... it works great on thick tracks but on thinner tracks or where the track isolation is little it casues a problem

Vladdy: do you have a pic of the sodlerbath/roller design that I might be able to look at

[vladdy]

here's a pic of one similar to what I used at one time...nothing fancy, temp regulator, stainless?? roller with just very lower portion in solder bath, and in/out feed rollers with adjustable speed...the gears etc..were out of the solder bath itself, small wipers on the sides to take care of 'drool'

It also used some time of a 'salt' layer on top of the solder to help resist oxidation and excess dross...
the one in the photo is fairly large, appx 18" tinning width..

lately all I use is some copper braid [from RG59 /62 coax cable] and make a little scrub brush about 3/8" diameter, and keeping it lightly 'soaked' with solder, just 'scrub' a tin coat on...works reasonably well for even fine traces without the grief of lifting tiny traces off, pretty quick, and 'real cheap'....and a final conformal coat, and when I'm out of that I just get some candy blue spray paint, I've also heard the spray bombs for glass staining look relatively good, can even make them pink if you want...

enjoy..

[kowell]

Russell

Don't seem to have WON the lottery lately , so that would be NO.

Kym

[epineh]

No probs Kym, I would like to try the stuff from RS, as the boards I am doing get more crowded it would be nice to have nice shiny tracks to solder to. I have a friend that may be interested in going halves but I need to find a little more on the shelf life once mixed.

Cheers.

Russell.