by Brendan » Sat May 25, 2013 1:26 pm
Mate, if your solder joins are cracking at 80deg C, it means they were barely hanging on to begin with and they are letting go as the copper expands.
Sorry to say, but this is due to your soldering. My guess would be that you either don't have your surfaces cleaned and fluxed well? Or you aren't getting the heat right into both surfaces so that it forms a bond :think: If you are clean with your work, it's more than likely the former.
Depending on the type of join you are doing, you need to make sure you aren't just getting it hot enough so that it slightly melt and sticks to that area...it needs to 'flow' around the entire join you are working with...
You also need to make sure that you aren't applying heat directly to where you are soldering, as you will burn the flux and the join will be very weak...you need to heat close but away from the area and let the heat travel there and across the join to the other side of whatever you're joining, then the solder will flow and take to all the surfaces filling the gap.
Your solder should not let go from any expanding from heat that's for sure...it shouldn't let go until it heats to 400+deg C and melts... :naughty: