leaky batteries!

From: Marvin Johnston <marvin_at_rain.org>
Date: Mon Dec 1 17:28:17 2003

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 it
after I ran out (it lasted about 10 years) and when I couldn't find it,
I bought the Muriatic Acid. My understanding is that Muriatic Acid is
33% strength Hydrochloric Acid. 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.
Received on Mon Dec 01 2003 - 17:28:17 GMT