If all you've used is crappy old SAC305 lead-free solder, you owe it to yourself to try a modern alloy like SN100C (& friends, it has several names and similar

If all you've used is crappy old SAC305 lead-free solder, you owe it to yourself to try a modern alloy like SN100C (& friends, it has several names and similar competitors). It's generations newer and with the right flux (I like AIM's Glow Core wire) it's just great for routine work. It runs a little hotter, but most people already solder too hot anyway, so who cares. I still use 63/37 or 62/36/2 for anything challenging, though. Or for old rework: many people in this thread are missing that you really, really shouldn't mix alloys on a joint, so you've got to get the old stuff out before switching to lead-free, and at single-joint scale that's a lot more polluting than just grabbing the spool of 63/37.