Homebrew PCBs

I've had good luck in the things I get from DealExtreme. They're in Hong 
Kong, sell Chinese products, and ship out of China. The Lodestar solder 
paste I've tried is:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4711
and a bit of searching returns
http://www.elodestar.com/showproduct_en.aspx?id=241
has some specifications. Lodestar does recommend cold storage, but I 
don't and haven't seen problems that I recognize. The vial is sealed 
with aluminum foil, and once you open, the solvent starts to evaporate. 
So you need additional flux eventually if you don't use it up 
immediately. I solvate it with Butyl Celllusolve, but I suspect clean 
kerosene would also work well. In comparison with some cheap syringes I 
got at Fry's (an electronics store still selling parts in California) 
that I paid twice as much for a quarter as much and really didn't flux 
properly. The quality of the DealExtreme paste is much better as the 
balls are finer and more consistent. Wetting is good. I've looked at 
some professional Kester product (used on an SMT line) that is a finer 
grit, so the Lodestar is a bit coarser but not unreasonable.

Currently it's US$3.37 for 50 gm and shipping is free, so the biggest 
drawback is that orders take perhaps a week to 10days to arrive. I used 
it with a solder mask from
http://smtstencil.co.uk/
They had a good price and it worked fine.
My 2 cents,
Regards,
Charles Patton



drsage2007 wrote:
>
> You'd have to define tiny. A small 15cc 5 gram Syringe is available 
> from Digikey. It has a shelf life of 6 months. Longer of kept in the 
> fridge. (probably longer anyway).
>
> Sage
>
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com 
> <mailto:Homebrew_PCBs%40yahoogroups.com>, Jan Kok <jan.kok.5y@...> wrote:
> >
> > Where do you get tiny amounts of solder paste? What is the shelf life?
> >
> > Also, does anyone know where to get small amounts of 10-mil diameter
> > solder wire? Like, less than a $100 roll of the stuff, which would
> > last me longer than my expected lifetime?
> >
> > I got 1/2 pound of 15 mil solder from Mouser, I think, but I prefer
> > thinner stuff.
> >
>
>