What solder do you use for electronics?

[FullRaceMerc]

For many years, electronic manufacturing facilities have pool of molten 60/40 in "wave soldering" machine. I'm sure they had ventilation, but that is all outlawed.

Like the billion and billions of copper water pipe joined with time-lead solder.

And how many tire guy got lead poisoning from handling lead balancing weights.

I hate "nanny" regulations.

Like grounding a load center (breaker panel). For years it was the closest cold water pipe. Then a continuous un-insulted copper wire connected to both sides of the meter. Now you need 2 ground rods just because the equipment to measure if one is good enough is too expensive/hard to calibrate.

So since 1950, how many people have been killed because they grounded their load center to a cold water pipe ?

I dunno. But I have been under a house where the panel had been grounded to a cold water pipe at the back of the house. And individual grounds were tied to pipe under the house. Someone had installed a section of copper pipe with dielectric unions up at the front of the house. If you hit that gal pipe under there it would light you up. You would have thought that water in the pipe would have conducted past the isolated section & kept the gal pipe from being hot. I had heard about that house for years before actually working on it.

We tried to chase it down. It was intermittent & we never pinpointed the actual cause. There was a sub panel with a loose common that may have been part of the equation. Eventually that house got 2 ground rods for the panel, home runs for the individual grounds, & repiped in pex. It needed the repipe anyway, & for some reason the plumber involved insisted on pex instead of copper. And he had the power off during the repipe. Who could that be?

I have been surprised when I have found dielectric unions installed between the electrical panel & the water service. But people don't seem to think about electrical while repairing pipe leaks. Now that pex is easy for homeowners it seems likely to become a bigger problem.

 

[ttpete]

If you're used to anything smaller than .062 is huge. At least it seems that way. Good to have around but I don't do anything big enough to use it with any kind of regularity.

I use it on larger wiring because it saves having to feed long lengths of smaller solder into a big joint or solder lug. 1/2 inch of .062 equals about 2 feet of .022.

 

[Ed ke6bnl]

I have some solder that is about .013 very thin for most things I do, got a roll for about $2 so I just grab twice as much and roll it up to double thickness which is my most used dia.

 

[rshadd]

 

[rlitman]

Kester 44. Buy a pound roll of the 0.031" 63/37 rosin core. Part number 24-6337-0027.

Kester makes good stuff. I'm partial to Alpha Reliacore myself.

Yes, eutectic, or silver bearing, though I have 60/40 and even 50/50 around for special purposes.

...I hate "nanny" regulations.

Like grounding a load center (breaker panel). For years it was the closest cold water pipe. Then a continuous un-insulted copper wire connected to both sides of the meter. Now you need 2 ground rods just because the equipment to measure if one is good enough is too expensive/hard to calibrate.

So since 1950, how many people have been killed because they grounded their load center to a cold water pipe ?

And when the water company replaces the line to your meter with polyethylene? And your gas pipe is plastic too? Codes change, because construction methods change.

 

[pedrodagr8]

I don't know. It's driving me a little crazy. I just discovered that my local electronics supply has a bunch of Kester 44 sitting on the shelf that is the same price as it is on Amazon, so now I can't get the thought out of my head that I should return the .062" and get .050" or even .040". When I looked at the .062"in the store, it was a lot thicker than I remember.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

It shouldn't be driving you crazy. At the end of the day, it is just solder. At worst, if you choose the wrong size, it is a bit harder to solder. There is very little difference in sizes but huge differences in qualities between brands. You have the more important part solved, the latter is just shadeds of ease of use. Though the 0.062" is DEFINITELY to the high side, it isn't impossible to use but it is difficult. If it was me, I would step down to 0.040" (or on down to 0.032 as we have mentioned) as others have said, it is easier to double up or twist up larger diameters from smaller ones when you need it than to somehow make a larger diameter smaller.

 

[Steinmetz]

I've been using 60/40 for a while, but I'm thinking of switching to 63/37. What do you primarily work on with it? What thickness do you prefer to use? Brand?

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Mostly radios. Kester. Rosin core.

 

[organ]

Kester 44 .031

 

[VCaddy]

Kester 44 63/37 rosin core. Use it mostly on stereo equipment.

 

[kblee27]

Size of the solder core depends on the work used.
For small electronics device, I'd use smaller core. For larger wiring soldering, I'd use thicker core.
I've used Kester, alpha and various brands. As long as it has a rosin core, I don't find much difference.

But I do add paste flux for easier soldering and try not to breath in the fumes.

The main thing is to make sure you apply proper heat long enough, and do not have a cold joint.

 

[neonlazer]

Wish Kester 44 came in less than 1pd roll. HAHA That would last be a lifetime..maybe two if I didn't loose it.

 

[cheechi]

I use it on larger wiring because it saves having to feed long lengths of smaller solder into a big joint or solder lug. 1/2 inch of .062 equals about 2 feet of .022.

I agree that would be a lot of .022 to use. Just that I do so rarely work with stuff large enough to justify all the sizes. Biggest I currently have is some unlabeled somewhere in the .04-.05 range, biggest I've needed in a while.

 

[uart]

I use it on larger wiring because it saves having to feed long lengths of smaller solder into a big joint or solder lug. 1/2 inch of .062 equals about 2 feet of .022.

I'm not sure how you worked that one out, but 1/2" of 0.062 equates to about 4" of 0.022. Anyway, I still get your point.

Also if you're often soldering larger wires and lugs etc, bigger diameters are a little more economical to buy. Pound for pound solder tends to get somewhat more pricey when you go below about 0.8mm (0.041"), probably because it costs more to draw it out to make it that thin. Over 0.8mm it still gets a little more inexpensive (pound for pound) as you go to bigger diameters, but not by very much.

For general usage around 0.8mm (0.041"-0.042") is my preferred size. Small enough for basic circuit board work but not too much of a pain if you have to solder the occasional larger wires either. For any really fine circuit board work though, anything where you need a very fine tipped iron, smaller diameter than 0.8mm is preferable.

Personally I've never been able to tell much difference between true eutectic 63/37 and the near eutectic 60/40. I know that technically the 60/40 has a slight "mush" range compared to the 63/37, but it's only about 2 degrees C.

Just don't buy anything cheap from unknown ebay vendors out of Hong Kong or China. They are totally untrustworthy in my experience, and whatever it is that they say they're selling it almost certainly is not. I tried buying 63/37 from several of them and it just turned to mushy paste on the tip of the iron. Wouldn't flow at all and was so bad actually that my iron couldn't even fully melt it. As you know 63/37 is the easiest to melt, so whatever their garbage was it most certainly wasn't 63/37. Anyway lesson learnt, now I just use 60/40 (0.8 mm) from a local vendor and it melts and flow perfectly for me.

 

[nanofrog]

Wish Kester 44 came in less than 1pd roll. HAHA That would last be a lifetime..maybe two if I didn't loose it.

CML Supply breaks some sizes of Kester 44 down into 1oz. tubes.

 

[Steinmetz]

"...And when the water company replaces the line to your meter with polyethylene? And your gas pipe is plastic too? Codes change, because construction methods change…".

Amen