I seem to have lost the recipe I downloaded here for prips flux, and can't find it in the archives. Could someone please post it again?
About a liter of water, boiling.
120 grams Boric acid
80 grams borax ( I use the grocery store, laundry aisle, stuff.
Borateem is virtually pure borax with a bit of some blue dye/bleach or
something, which doesn’t seem to hurt the flux at all. 80 grams sodium
phosphate This can by monosodium phosphate, disodium phosphate, or
trisodium phosphate. All work. The first two are usually chemical
supply house items. The third is TSP, often found in paint/hardware
stores as a cleaning agent. Be sure it’s really TSP, rather than one
of the very common phosphate free substitutes, which won’t work
dissolve the three chemicals in the boiling water and allow to cool.
Sometimes needs a little addtional water to fully dissolve or keep it
all in solution once cooled. You can use more water or less chemical
too. I’ve seen this same weights of chemicals used with a gallon of
water too, in schools using big spray bottles to apply the stuff to
holloware, where overspray wastes a good deal. More dilute also
doesn’t so quickly clog the spray bottles. But you then need to apply
a lot more to get the desired result. In any case, the important
thing about the quantities is the 3:2:2 ratio of the weights. The
actual amount you use, or concentration of the chemicals, is up to
you.
If any of you want a copy of the article I wrote a few years ago here
on orchid (and elswhere on the net) regarding the use of Prips flux,
feel free to email me for it. Should be in the archives though. check
not only “prips”, but the misspelling “pripps”. I’d mispelled the
name in that article, a mistake that seems somehow to be propogating
over the web now and then… (oops. Apologies to Jack Prip)
Peter Rowe