Voltera printer - the beginning..

[stephen_usher]

This all sounds a right pain.

I seem to remember you saying that the manufacturer does sell their own solder at an exorbitant price. This is probably why they get away with it.

Yeah, thing is , I use the same alloy as is quoted on their label. But I really starting to wonder if that's a load of BS and there is something different in it. I am thinking to just buy their own brand stuff to try that again.

The alloy is probably the same but it's probably the matrix fluid which is different and it has a different flow characteristic, as in it may become more fluid under pressure etc.

[exxos]

I put the original nozzle back on ( the clear one from the manufacturer) nozzle and the settings are pretty much as default now, and I have printed something 4 times now and it seems fine...

So I am also now wondering if these cheaper nozzles not being fully tapered are actually hindering efforts as well now :roll:

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EDIT:

Bear in mind nozzle on the left has snapped off and is normally a few millimetres longer..

[exxos]

I can see where cutting the nozzle has gone wrong, even though I was doing this very gently with some shop cutters, it has squashed the area down a fair bit making the hole very much smaller :roll:

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EDIT:

filing it down...

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..and more... seems to have blocked it totally now :roll:

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EDIT2:

Forcing air through it...

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So if I force some water through it it may unclog it even better...

EDIT3:

Water comes through just fine, but even turning the cartridge by hand, I still cannot get paste to come out of the nozzle, so it must still be damaged after cutting :(

[exxos]

I have chucked the cut nozzles away and got a fresh red nozzle out... Now bizarrely this one still needs more force, but not as much as before... I think it is obvious that the longer tip is going to need more pressure to get the paste through.. But it is getting consistent results on all the pads seems to be the problem more than anything...

[sporniket]

All that reminds me about my recent experiences regarding my bottle of mustard "à l'ancienne" (the one full of mustard seeds). Quickly it get clogged and require more strength to squeeze, and at the end it becomes impossible to dispense mustard by squeezing it at, as all the seeds are blocking the noozle of the bottle.
In fact most of the mustard paste/vinegar leaves the bottle quicker than the seeds.

Back to soldering paste, maybe this is the same thing, even if the alloy particles are finer, the fluid goes out quicker than the particles that accumulates and clogs the noozle. "Venturi effect" pops up to my mind.

[exxos]

Back to soldering paste, maybe this is the same thing, even if the alloy particles are finer, the fluid goes out quicker than the particles that accumulates and clogs the nozzle. "Venturi effect" pops up to my mind.

I have no idea. As @stephen_usher suggested, maybe its down to the flux part itself. It pretty much happens every time, that the paste comes out really fast, then simply stops and needs incredible force to get it flowing again (sometimes it can't be made to flow again ).

Its possible the flux comes out first freely, then after several inches, not so much flux in the tip to allow the particles to flow anymore. It's one reason I got the T5 paste, but it doesn't seem to make any odds so far.

I've done the same PCB about 10 times so far and its not clogged..yet... I can't do my run of TOS206 boards as I forgot to order some chips (just done that) so probably be Tuesday before I can do a proper test run now :(

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[exxos]

There is actually a video on the paste...





This one is on about "ruptured" cartridges :shrug: But this seems to happen really bad for me anyway :roll:

[exxos]

According to the video above, this would be classed as a ruptured cartridge...the guy says it will lose pressure and cause problems and should be replaced... But I don't see how this could lose pressure anyway... Even just simply refilling the cartridge and pushing the plunger down creates this problem even before actually printing with it...

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[exxos]

Printer was left "as is" all weekend. A few little tweaks to the settings and it is still printing fine. still needs a heck of a lot more pressure to go through a syringe tip. Though this has a side effect of it not dripping out of the nozzle at rest now.. I always had the problem that a little drip out at rest, would then end up on the first pad it printed, which could smudge it over to the next pad next to it.

Anyway, printing currently is looking very promising. I am deliberately not covering the entire pad, because the height of the solder is generally a little bit too much anyway. Plus keeping the edges of the pads clear helps prevent shorting across pads while reflowing..

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EDIT:

Now and then it just suddenly starts printing very bad.. I think what is going on is occasionally the stepper motor on the Voltera "skips" a few steps.. Then the effective pressure drops and it stops printing until I adjust it again..

[exxos]

The plot thickens..

Going back to the bung thing inside the syringe jamming up...

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The metal plunger being tapered actually pushes the red bung outwards as the pressure increases.As the red bung expands, it will just fit even tighter inside the syringe and jam up even more :roll:

So my plan is to put a nut inside so the piston pushes on the inside of the bung as opposed to the outside..

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EDIT:

Oh looky...

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EDIT2:

Now with like 50% less "pressure"..

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.. I get the same results as yesterday!

I really should get paid for all the constant debugging of other people's stuff :roll: