1 Dec
2003
1 Dec
'03
11:44 a.m.
On Dec 1, 15:28, Marvin Johnston wrote:
it
Pete Turnbull wrote:
>
> > For quite a while, I had a small bottle of Acid Flux that was
> basically
> > Muriatic Acid, and it worked like a charm.
>
> Actually, it was probably mostly zinc chloride, made by dissoving
> granular zinc (or old battery cases) in hydrochloric acid. Known
here
as Bakers
Fluid. The raw acid would be too strong, and lose its
efficacy too quickly.
No, it was Muriatic Acid according to the label. I went looking for after I ran out (it lasted about 10 years) and when I
couldn't find
it,
I bought the Muriatic Acid.
I'm surprised -- but I'm sure you're right.
My understanding is that Muriatic Acid is
33% strength Hydrochloric Acid.
Sounds about right. Concentrated pure hydrochloric acid is about 36%
w/v; left exposed to air it fumes and gradually loses HCl; common
concentrated acid is 32%-33%. Muriatic acid is a technical (well,
industrial, really) grade and contains impurities as well as being
subject to loss. Be careful with it; apart from its corrosive nature,
you know you're not supposed to store it in proximity to certain other
things, such as ammonia, bleach, etc?
I used quite a bit of it for cleaning
tin-lead plating when I still owned the printed circuit shop. To head
off comments I've heard before, tin-lead gets plated (NOT solder),
and
the tin-lead later in the process gets fused to form
the solder
alloy.
*I* won't argue with that description :-)
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York