Replacement: None at this time. We are currently acquiring a new supplier for solder paste check back later for more information. This page is for reference only.
Solder Paste Stenciling is the easiest and quickest way to solder some of the trickier SMD components. Here at SparkFun, we use solder paste stenciling on pretty much all of our boards. It saves us a lot of time. But stenciling takes more than just a stencil and a dream... you're going to need some paste.
So here's 30-grams of solder paste! We wanted to get 50-gram containers but these are closer to 30 so this is ~~just~~ almost just the right amount of paste for most hobby projects and it even comes in a small reusable container. It does contain some lead, so you wouldn't want to use it in production, but it's just fine for hobby-use or prototyping.
Note: These tubs are labeled as 50g but lately we've measured closer to 30g of solder paste in each container.
Check out the Solder Paste Stenciling tutorial (and the video below), if you haven't already.
This skill defines how difficult the soldering is on a particular product. It might be a couple simple solder joints, or require special reflow tools.
Skill Level: Experienced - You might be required to do some reflow or basic rework with SMD components. A heat gun, Heaterizer or other tools might be required, and a good understanding of SMD soldering as well as PTH soldering are required.
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Is there a chance you guys could link to the reflow temperature profile for this paste?
Soldier paste usable lifetime. Just in case anyone else was wondering, I asked, via chat, and apparently this stuff has an expiration date on the bottle and should generally be good for 6 months to a year. They also said that if it get's dry you can add a bit of flux and it'll pretty much rejuvenate it to useful form again.
What kind of flux is best for extending paste life?
The actual paste that we got was JLY-583 http://www.priceangels.com/JLY-538-Quality-Soldering-Paste-50g--s75419.html Could not find any info about the profile or content. Can you please tell the reflow profile or which alloy is it?
I also got JLY-538. Unable to find any info online.
Lead free solder is complete crap. I don't know why professionals who should know better keep making snarky little comments like "you wouldn't want to use this in production...". Seeing as how Sparkfun hasn't been around that long I guess they've never had to deal with whiskers on lead-free solder. It's harder to work with, and it's crap. It wrecks tips (even those made for lead free won't last nearly as long as a tip made for leaded that's used with leaded). Lead is poisonous but when it's in solder nobody is eating it! What's the big deal?!?
Lead free solder is indeed crap (and has caused me plenty of headaches), but I agree entirely with their statement "you wouldn't want to use this in production". Unless you don't plan on selling your product in certain regions of the world, you should avoid using things that will make your product RoHS non-compliant (i.e. lead).
Seeing as they do prototype and sell RoHS compliant boards, I'm pretty sure Sparkfun has dealt with their fair share of lead free issues as well.
Did SparkFun get more solder paste?
Lead solder is accepted for use in population of boards for automotive, aerospace, and aviation. This is to prevent solder whiskers from developing with Lead free paste.