Topband: Regarding ==> Thoughts on making low resistance joints between pieces of AL

[Dick and Adele Bingham]

Greetings everyone -

I have used the following process to make soldered connections to Aluminum
using regular PC-board solder:

 1 - Remove the oxidized surface by polishing/filing/sandpapering/etc
 2 - Immediately after de-oxidizing, coat the surface with oil (I use 10W30
       motor oil)
 3 - Heat the surface using the biggest soldering iron you can find. While
you are
       heating the aluminum, constantly abrade the aluminum surface with
the S-I-
       tip to maintain an active (non-oxidized) surface below the oil-film
air-
       barrier.
 4 - Once the aluminum is sufficiently hot, start applying the solder and
continue
       scrubbing the al-surface with the S-I tip
 5 - Eventually you will see the solder flow and bond to the aluminum at
which
       point you are done. Puddle-up a solder-ball to simplify making
soldered
      connections later.

I have used this method and after several years of being outside in the
weather
seven miles from the ocean, there was no deterioration/corrosion at these
connections.

73 -
Dick - w7wkr  CN98pi


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