Solder lead-free,what do you use?

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:23 am

well I am almost out of my old reel of 44. Since everybody is going lead free, I thought about it and ya know. It seems like a good idea. I already got enough brain damage from cheap beer and loud bands.
So what do you guys use? I tried to peruse the Kester site for answers but its one of those opaque sites thats no help at all. (kind of like markertek).
What is the difference between activated rosin and non activated?
any apreciable difference with the tin/silver vs the tin/silver/copper?

freakmech · Post by **freakmech** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:37 am

Well to go against what your asking, i use Multicore 63/37 tin/lead, .61mm, 370 flux 5 core. Call me crazy but i swear by the stuff. its an industry standard and has never let me down. despite lead content, there is a reason its been used in solder for decades.

Nate Dort · Post by **Nate Dort** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:25 am

I solder 40 hours a week, and I tried to switch over to Kester lead-free about 6 months ago. Got about 1/3rd of the way through a roll and went back to 63/37.

What I didn't like about it:

melting temp was much higher
destroys tips very quickly
hard to tell when the joint is good (doesn't turn shiny)
Joints fail more often
rosin spits out of it and shoots all over as it melts
smells worse

What I liked about it:

nothing

As long as you practice good habits, like washing your hands after handling lead solder, there's no reason to switch.

pjwhite · Post by **pjwhite** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 8:53 am

Also, tin-only solder can produce "tin whiskers", which can lead to eventual circuit failures.
http://nepp.nasa.gov/WHISKER/background/index.htm

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:15 pm

the nasa article only talks about tin whiskers on electroplated tin. Not the same thing as solder at all. I had read elsewhere that tin whiskers are more likely to propagate on circuits that undergo very large temperature changes. Like avionics. (th other forum I read had some fellas really irate about the EU lead-free legislation. Basically making aircraft less safe in their opinions!)

I also am confused by all the hype about silver solder. Most of the info I get seems geared towards audiophiles. Which of course us audio guys could be loosely interpreted as. Is allsilver solderlead free? Is silver solder and easier to use than straight tin?

@nate- what kind of lead free was it that gave you such problems? Was it the Kester 48 or 275?

Nate Dort · Post by **Nate Dort** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:48 pm

calaverasgrandes wrote:@nate- what kind of lead free was it that gave you such problems? Was it the Kester 48 or 275?

48. I haven't used the 275.

Randy · Post by **Randy** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 2:34 pm

Does anyone here use silver solder? I've been contemplating giving it a try and just want to know if it's any good. If you're soldering a joint that was leaded, do you have to clean the leaded solder off completely?

tubetapexfmr · Post by **tubetapexfmr** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 4:21 pm

Forget the lead free solder. It is garbage. Tin whiskers aside it is really only usable effectively by large scale manufacturing processes. One of the biggest reasons the ROHS was passed was to make new compliant electronics much more difficult if not impossible to repair and effectively disposable. As far as I am concerned this is worse for the environment because it will fill landfills quicker with broken shit, leaded or not.

For hobbyist/boutique electronics stick with the 60/40 or 63/37. Silver is also not worth the extra money. Stick with what works. If you're worried about metal toxicity then before you worry about solder go get rid of all your: teflon cooking pans, flourescent light bulbs, cans of tuna, house paint, tube amps, and tap water. If you want to make soldering safer wear medical gloves, eye protection and get a good vent hood.

tubetapexfmr · Post by **tubetapexfmr** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 4:25 pm

Damn has solder gotten expensive! It is like twice what I paid a year ago. Glad I stocked up!

kdarr · Post by **kdarr** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 4:51 pm

I work at an pro audio electronics repair shop, and the techs here hate the RoHs solder like vampires hate sunlight-emitting garlic crucifixes.

Completely agree about modern electronics becoming landfill material as opposed to being something worth repairing - it is a drag, especially for a business like ours.

[<|>]

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:29 pm

jessemesasavage wrote: For hobbyist/boutique electronics stick with the 60/40 or 63/37. Silver is also not worth the extra money. Stick with what works. If you're worried about metal toxicity then before you worry about solder go get rid of all your: teflon cooking pans, flourescent light bulbs, cans of tuna, house paint, tube amps, and tap water. If you want to make soldering safer wear medical gloves, eye protection and get a good vent hood.

I dont use teflon cookware, havent eaten any meat in almost 20 years, dont have any fluroescents, dont paint my apartment with lead or oil based paint, and I filter my water. Yes tube amps do have thoriated tungsten in them among other things. Heck most electronics would be fatal or carcinogenic if you ingested them. The lead thing just bugs me because of the fumes you get. I used to have a little homemade solder station with a small fan that would come on when you turned the iron from standby to full. Maybe I just need to resurect that plan and get over the lead.
The other thing, which I hesitate to bring up, is that I have always wondered about solder conductivity. Its fucking lead and tin (and sometimes other stuff) how much does it matter that I have OFC cables when its terminated with something of such poor conductivity. If I remember correctly silver has a higher conductivity than even copper. Of course I would need to solder with some pretty expensive solder to take advantage of that right?

dubsymmetry · Post by **dubsymmetry** » Mon May 05, 2008 7:54 am

I?m new to DIY and soldering and trying to educate myself... I bought an Iron and solder wire few weeks ago, started with cables and got to my first BYOC kit (phaser).. I had some trouble soldering the pcb, but now I have it, I think.. now I found this thread and searched the web and found out that solder containing lead is banned from the EU since 2006 and I have the evil lead-free solder - so it wasn?t my lack of skills, the solder is to blame

I still wonder what what my wire is made of; the label is red-white-red and it says "super solder wire 60% 1.0mm" - at the shop they told me it?s rosin core, but couldn?t tell what the other 40% are. anyone came across this solder wire?

Jim Williams · Post by **Jim Williams** » Tue May 06, 2008 8:30 am

I've used either Ersyn multi core SN/62, 2% silver or Kester's version for 25 years. It melts faster, wets better, desolders best, leaves a very nice shinny connection and yes, it does sound better. For those in the expensive seats, I use the WBT 4% silver, the best 4% silver wetting action. For those dismissing the qualities of silver alloys, try running a 10 foot piece of your favorite tin/lead solder as a signal wire. Sounds great, ehh? You are listening through a lot of that tin/lead solder in all the equipment you use.

winky dinglehoffer · Post by **winky dinglehoffer** » Wed May 07, 2008 5:09 am

calaverasgrandes wrote:The lead thing just bugs me because of the fumes you get.

The fumes are pretty much solder rosin--certainly a harmful thing to inhale, but you'll still get fumes with lead-free. Just get a nice little solder fan for your work table & stick with the lead.

Jim Williams · Post by **Jim Williams** » Wed May 07, 2008 7:50 am

I love the smell of flux in the morning.

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