Review on 🔥 Chip Quik SMDLTLFP Solder Paste: Low Temperature, Lead-Free - Melts at 138C (281F) by Jeremy Sabey

Creates tiny solder balls that leave the main bead of paste and run around the board getting stuck in small SMD components. this effect (until I messed up a phone I was working on and then read this in a review of a competitor's product). Had I known that, I would have taken a few steps to avoid damage. If you're using this paste to lower the melting point when desoldering, here's my advice: be prepared for little balls of solder to splatter all over the place. Protect your workspace with a peelable solder mask. I used Pink from MG. It seemed to apply well, but the flux from the paste lifted the dam off the board and let the balls roll underneath. My mistake may have been for not rinsing the board with alcohol before applying the peel-off mask. Do not use hot air with this paste to melt and mix with high temperature solder. Maybe it was the air lifting the peeling mask. Simply add paste to a layer of existing solder, then heat and stir with just the tip of an iron. Try using an iron just above the constant melting temperature of the solder - maybe balls will form if the paste is cooked? It probably wasn't, but it could be. Finally, tip the workpiece in the vise so that when the ball forms, it rolls on the board, not the plank. Of course I could have taken these precautions, but nothing drew my attention to this strange effect. Now (after disassembling the phone) I will also throw away this paste and buy this competitor brand. This paste is perfect for projects that aren't super small SMD packages. I think anything other than a phone's SMD would be perfectly fine. The balls have a diameter of approx. 0.5 mm (no. 76 drill bit). I actually used this paste to desolder a faulty power button on a Samsung Galaxy S4 and balls formed there too, but that didn't matter as the components were much larger than modern phones and there was plenty of room around the switch to get around Better to hold dams Bad workmanship or bad product? It's up to you, I'm not sure, hence the 3 stars.