Dark brown stuff coming out of cheap perfboard during soldering

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seanspotatobusiness

Joined Sep 17, 2016
210
A while ago I bought some cheap perfboard from AliExpress. Once when I was trying to solder with it, dark brown stuff started coming out of nowhere (I guess it was coming from whatever the board was made out of) and covering the pads and when it covered a pad, it was no longer possible to solder to it). Has anyone else experienced this? I guess it's because the material the board was made from is just not resistant to the temperature? I think a proper material is called "phenolic paper" but I suppose this was something different.
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
A while ago I bought some cheap perfboard from AliExpress. Once when I was trying to solder with it, dark brown stuff started coming out of nowhere (I guess it was coming from whatever the board was made out of) and covering the pads and when it covered a pad, it was no longer possible to solder to it). Has anyone else experienced this? I guess it's because the material the board was made from is just not resistant to the temperature? I think a proper material is called "phenolic paper" but I suppose this was something different.
I've never seen it before but you can never be sure what kind of hazardous waste may be blended into polymers that junk chemical dealers (hazardous waste processors) try to get rid of.
 

DickCappels

Joined Aug 21, 2008
10,152
It might be the epoxy that holds the paper together but a more likely explanation is that you are seeing the flux from your solder.

The flux in the solder I use comes off with alcohol.
 

shortbus

Joined Sep 30, 2009
10,045
Do you clean the copper before soldering? Like Dick said it may be something on the board that the flux is bringing up.
 

Lyonspride

Joined Jan 6, 2014
137
Your iron could simply be too hot and is liquefying the material the board is made from.
When I buy perf I buy the stuff that's green/blue, made from proper PCB material (fibreglass).
 
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