5 ms·

My only tip, and this is super basic, is spend the money on silver solder. It handles much more like lead solder, and flows freely, it'll make learning to solde

My only tip, and this is super basic, is spend the money on silver solder. It handles much more like lead solder, and flows freely, it'll make learning to solder a fucktonne easier. its about twice as expensive, but will make your life easier as you don't need to apply as much heat. So you'll save in fried delicate components.

unxdfa 4y ago
I wouldn't bother. I use silver solder for special occasions (Felder stuff) but it's too expensive to use all the time. You're probably fine with 60/40 loctite multicore. Just keep your parts, iron and boards clean and it's no harder.
- twawaaay 4y ago
  Seconded. Silver is expensive and really doesn't do anything useful for an amateur. Decent soldering station + correct and well taken care of soldering tip + thin multicore 60/40 + tools and supplies to clean your board + a bit of soldering training. There is lots of really good instructional videos on YouTube which is how I learned to solder.
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    > doesn't do anything useful for an amateur It really depends on what you are building. If you're building a HAM transmitter then it is very useful.
    - unxdfa 4y ago
      I’ve built a couple of fairly hefty transmitters without silver solder. I don’t get your point. The main use cases are certain alloy joints. I’ve seen it quoted as having better mechanical strength but that’s not what’s solder is for!
      - jacquesm 4y ago
        > I’ve seen it quoted as having better mechanical strength but that’s not what’s solder is for! That depends. Back in the day when I did this work large end stages were built pretty much 'in the air' and in the stuff I worked on there were trimmers and coils that were pretty heavy and that were only supported by the solder. So we used silver for those joints, and they held up pretty good. Hefty => 1KW and up... As for the skin effect, that is the reason we did it in the first place, but I never had access to the kind of gear that would have allowed me to test in practice what the difference was and I've long ago stopped doing this sort of thing.
        unxdfa 4y ago
        Ah yeah that sort of stuff makes sense. Most of the high power stuff I did was with waveguides. Never needed it for VHF or lower. Skin effect makes sense. Hence why I use silver plated stuff in my VHF stuff.
        jacquesm 4y ago
        I actually tried to build a 100 to 200 MHz end stage using stripline to get rid of all of the hand wound inductors to replace them with silver plated traces but never could get it work in a predictable manner and I lacked the math background to figure out what I was doing wrong. The people that can do that sort of thing intuitively are magicians to me :)
        twawaaay 4y ago
        I can highly recommend Signal and Power Integrity from Eric Bogatin.
- chongli 4y ago
  You're probably fine with 60/40 loctite multicore Where do you buy this stuff? I’ve looked everywhere and I can’t find it. Amazon doesn’t have it, Mouser doesn’t have it, Digikey doesn’t have it. Seems like it might be discontinued!
  - zrobotics 4y ago
    I've never used loctite solder, but I've had excellent luck with Kester or alphametals. I don't see smaller spools than 1 lb on digikey, but they have an excellent spec sheet. Personally, 8oz spools are a good size where they aren't too heavy or bulky, but that's personal preference. Additionally, 0.032" is for me a nice balance where you can still do SMT (id say 0603 is ideal, 0402 can be done but for that I'd recommend smaller) but you can still solder larger stuff, up to around 14AWG wire. https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/kester-solder/24-6040-9713/7565026 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/kester-solder/24-...
  - mindcrime 4y ago
    Newark? https://www.newark.com/w/c/tools-production-supplies/soldering-stations-accessories/solder-wire?solder-alloy=40-60-sn-pb|60-40-sn-pb&st=multicore https://www.newark.com/w/c/tools-production-supplies/solderi... Also, Amazon appears to have it, per this listing: https://www.amazon.com/MULTICORE-LOCTITE-3096525-M-SOLDER-WIRE/dp/B00DKF13JY https://www.amazon.com/MULTICORE-LOCTITE-3096525-M-SOLDER-WI... Looks like you can get it from Digikey as well: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/multicore/386824/2498902 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/multicore/386824/... Note that part of the problem might be if you're searching for "Loctite Multicore" and not just "Multicore". I think the brand might have been sold off, or something of that ilk, so you may not see it with the "Loctite" branding everywhere. I don't know the backstory on that entirely, but it's something I've noticed (being a big fan of Multicore solder!)
    - chongli 4y ago
      Oh I forgot to mention that I'm in Canada, so the Amazon link says "cannot ship to your location. The Newark link doesn't work either, although they do have one Multicore solder product when I search their Canadian site, it's only about 6 feet in length. The Digikey link has a price of $60 which seems outrageous for solder.
wrycoder 4y ago
You have to be careful when saying "silver" solder. For soft solder, the eutectic is SnAg3.5Cu0.9, which melts at 217C, 34C higher than the 63/37 eutectic Sn/Pb. There's a lot of low cost lead-free solder out there which is essentially pure tin[0], with silver and copper content below 0.5 percent each. That melts even higher, at about 230C, and tends to be not eutectic, i.e. it has a pasty range. I think you are talking about the eutectic alloys with about 3% silver. Good stuff, but the higher temperatures involved make it harder to use without damaging the components. For repairing 20th century electronics and for general DIY electronics use, 63/37 is great, and flows better than 60/40 - just wash your hands afterwards. For repairing 21st century electronics, use lead-free for compatibility. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin-silver-copper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin-silver-copper Also, to many people, saying "silver solder" means a silver-copper high temperature brazing alloy, which is a whole different thing. Better to say "tin-silver solder" or "tin-silver". Edit: See also this entry on degradation of pure tin electronic connections[0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_pest#Modern_tin_pest_since_adoption_of_RoHS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_pest#Modern_tin_pest_since...
- bmitc 4y ago
  I am just beginning to solder, and I am committed to using non-leaded solder. After some research, I have settled on SN100C, but I haven't used it yet. https://aimsolder.com/products/solder-alloys/sn100c https://aimsolder.com/products/solder-alloys/sn100c
  - bmitc 4y ago
    Not sure about the downvotes. Is this bad solder or something? Don't try to convince me about leaded solder, please.
    - ansgri 4y ago
      Probably because you haven't used it yet. Would like to hear from you after having some experience with it though.
jacquesm 4y ago
I've used silver solder for very special stuff (HF, high power) where skin effect matters but wouldn't bother beyond 63/37 for normal soldering and that will melt a lot lower than your silver solder would.
logbiscuitswave 4y ago
I agree with this. I’ve long found Pb-free solder to be very hard to use for hand soldering. It has a high melting point and it never seemed to flow well. Pb solder is of course easier to use with its low melting point and flowability, but I don’t like using it on account of it being more toxic. Silver solder has been a great middle-ground for me. While it has the high temp requirements of other Pb-free solder, it flows much more like lead. I also can’t emphasize enough just how much of a difference an application flux makes. I spent years struggling with sloppy solder work and thinking I was just doomed to be bad at it. Using flux made a massive difference. I was no longer having to constantly clean up bad joints or deal with solder blobbing where I didn’t want it. Just recently I was able to effortlessly hand-solder a bunch of tiny SMD components onto a board. Something I never thought I’d be able to do. When I was learning to solder I really wish the importance of flux use was taught to me. It would have saved me a lot of cursing and frustration.
- sgt 4y ago
  It's bizarre - I talk to a lot of people who've been soldering for years and few of them use flux. They use solder with flux but not the flux liquid.
  - saalweachter 4y ago
    You know, I'm going to give it a try. Since the last time I soldered electronics, I've soldered a lot of copper pipe, and the flux is just critical.

unxdfa 4y ago

I wouldn't bother. I use silver solder for special occasions (Felder stuff) but it's too expensive to use all the time. You're probably fine with 60/40 loctite multicore. Just keep your parts, iron and boards clean and it's no harder.

twawaaay 4y ago
Seconded. Silver is expensive and really doesn't do anything useful for an amateur. Decent soldering station + correct and well taken care of soldering tip + thin multicore 60/40 + tools and supplies to clean your board + a bit of soldering training. There is lots of really good instructional videos on YouTube which is how I learned to solder.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  > doesn't do anything useful for an amateur It really depends on what you are building. If you're building a HAM transmitter then it is very useful.
  - unxdfa 4y ago
    I’ve built a couple of fairly hefty transmitters without silver solder. I don’t get your point. The main use cases are certain alloy joints. I’ve seen it quoted as having better mechanical strength but that’s not what’s solder is for!
    - jacquesm 4y ago
      > I’ve seen it quoted as having better mechanical strength but that’s not what’s solder is for! That depends. Back in the day when I did this work large end stages were built pretty much 'in the air' and in the stuff I worked on there were trimmers and coils that were pretty heavy and that were only supported by the solder. So we used silver for those joints, and they held up pretty good. Hefty => 1KW and up... As for the skin effect, that is the reason we did it in the first place, but I never had access to the kind of gear that would have allowed me to test in practice what the difference was and I've long ago stopped doing this sort of thing.
      - unxdfa 4y ago
        Ah yeah that sort of stuff makes sense. Most of the high power stuff I did was with waveguides. Never needed it for VHF or lower. Skin effect makes sense. Hence why I use silver plated stuff in my VHF stuff.
        jacquesm 4y ago
        I actually tried to build a 100 to 200 MHz end stage using stripline to get rid of all of the hand wound inductors to replace them with silver plated traces but never could get it work in a predictable manner and I lacked the math background to figure out what I was doing wrong. The people that can do that sort of thing intuitively are magicians to me :)
        twawaaay 4y ago
        I can highly recommend Signal and Power Integrity from Eric Bogatin.
chongli 4y ago
You're probably fine with 60/40 loctite multicore Where do you buy this stuff? I’ve looked everywhere and I can’t find it. Amazon doesn’t have it, Mouser doesn’t have it, Digikey doesn’t have it. Seems like it might be discontinued!
- zrobotics 4y ago
  I've never used loctite solder, but I've had excellent luck with Kester or alphametals. I don't see smaller spools than 1 lb on digikey, but they have an excellent spec sheet. Personally, 8oz spools are a good size where they aren't too heavy or bulky, but that's personal preference. Additionally, 0.032" is for me a nice balance where you can still do SMT (id say 0603 is ideal, 0402 can be done but for that I'd recommend smaller) but you can still solder larger stuff, up to around 14AWG wire. https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/kester-solder/24-6040-9713/7565026 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/kester-solder/24-...
- mindcrime 4y ago
  Newark? https://www.newark.com/w/c/tools-production-supplies/soldering-stations-accessories/solder-wire?solder-alloy=40-60-sn-pb|60-40-sn-pb&st=multicore https://www.newark.com/w/c/tools-production-supplies/solderi... Also, Amazon appears to have it, per this listing: https://www.amazon.com/MULTICORE-LOCTITE-3096525-M-SOLDER-WIRE/dp/B00DKF13JY https://www.amazon.com/MULTICORE-LOCTITE-3096525-M-SOLDER-WI... Looks like you can get it from Digikey as well: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/multicore/386824/2498902 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/multicore/386824/... Note that part of the problem might be if you're searching for "Loctite Multicore" and not just "Multicore". I think the brand might have been sold off, or something of that ilk, so you may not see it with the "Loctite" branding everywhere. I don't know the backstory on that entirely, but it's something I've noticed (being a big fan of Multicore solder!)
  - chongli 4y ago
    Oh I forgot to mention that I'm in Canada, so the Amazon link says "cannot ship to your location. The Newark link doesn't work either, although they do have one Multicore solder product when I search their Canadian site, it's only about 6 feet in length. The Digikey link has a price of $60 which seems outrageous for solder.

wrycoder 4y ago

You have to be careful when saying "silver" solder. For soft solder, the eutectic is SnAg3.5Cu0.9, which melts at 217C, 34C higher than the 63/37 eutectic Sn/Pb. There's a lot of low cost lead-free solder out there which is essentially pure tin[0], with silver and copper content below 0.5 percent each. That melts even higher, at about 230C, and tends to be not eutectic, i.e. it has a pasty range. I think you are talking about the eutectic alloys with about 3% silver. Good stuff, but the higher temperatures involved make it harder to use without damaging the components. For repairing 20th century electronics and for general DIY electronics use, 63/37 is great, and flows better than 60/40 - just wash your hands afterwards. For repairing 21st century electronics, use lead-free for compatibility. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin-silver-copper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin-silver-copper Also, to many people, saying "silver solder" means a silver-copper high temperature brazing alloy, which is a whole different thing. Better to say "tin-silver solder" or "tin-silver". Edit: See also this entry on degradation of pure tin electronic connections[0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_pest#Modern_tin_pest_since_adoption_of_RoHS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_pest#Modern_tin_pest_since...

bmitc 4y ago
I am just beginning to solder, and I am committed to using non-leaded solder. After some research, I have settled on SN100C, but I haven't used it yet. https://aimsolder.com/products/solder-alloys/sn100c https://aimsolder.com/products/solder-alloys/sn100c
- bmitc 4y ago
  Not sure about the downvotes. Is this bad solder or something? Don't try to convince me about leaded solder, please.
  - ansgri 4y ago
    Probably because you haven't used it yet. Would like to hear from you after having some experience with it though.

jacquesm 4y ago

I've used silver solder for very special stuff (HF, high power) where skin effect matters but wouldn't bother beyond 63/37 for normal soldering and that will melt a lot lower than your silver solder would.

logbiscuitswave 4y ago

I agree with this. I’ve long found Pb-free solder to be very hard to use for hand soldering. It has a high melting point and it never seemed to flow well. Pb solder is of course easier to use with its low melting point and flowability, but I don’t like using it on account of it being more toxic. Silver solder has been a great middle-ground for me. While it has the high temp requirements of other Pb-free solder, it flows much more like lead. I also can’t emphasize enough just how much of a difference an application flux makes. I spent years struggling with sloppy solder work and thinking I was just doomed to be bad at it. Using flux made a massive difference. I was no longer having to constantly clean up bad joints or deal with solder blobbing where I didn’t want it. Just recently I was able to effortlessly hand-solder a bunch of tiny SMD components onto a board. Something I never thought I’d be able to do. When I was learning to solder I really wish the importance of flux use was taught to me. It would have saved me a lot of cursing and frustration.

sgt 4y ago
It's bizarre - I talk to a lot of people who've been soldering for years and few of them use flux. They use solder with flux but not the flux liquid.
- saalweachter 4y ago
  You know, I'm going to give it a try. Since the last time I soldered electronics, I've soldered a lot of copper pipe, and the flux is just critical.