ColdHeat Solder irons

[RB astro]

Thanx again crew....I am now Solder educated !! ... CDB

Yes, but .... how do you pronounce Solder?
Is it Solder or is it Sodder?

:crackup:

 

[CDBEAM777]

Yes, but .... how do you pronounce Solder?
Is it Solder or is it Sodder?

:crackup:

Zoweeeeeee RB...Glad you asked !!!!!!

Hmmmm.......the word "Sodder" ...as defined by the Urban Dictionary.....

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Sodder

SO....Thereyago.....in this case....Sodder is also a noun......SO....


When verbally pronounced..... a experienced Electronic Technician may say...." I like a good Solder "....Yikes...Whada ya mean ????

:eg::eg::eg::eg::eg::eg::eg: HAHAHAHAHAhahaha

Ain't the English language a hoot !!!! Beam Out:wave::wave::wave:

 

[Nutball]

I like using Worthington rosin core 97/3 (I think tin / antimony) electrical solder. It isn't perfect, but works pretty well when you get used to it. That's all I ever use. I use plenty of flux, but definitely not too much, and not too much heat either.

 

[RedCowboy]

63/37 Melts at the lowest temp and solidifies quickly as it has virtually no plastic state, it's pretty much either liquid or solid making it the easiest to use and best for electronics.

 

[CDBEAM777]

Thanx RC !!! SO....63/37 is the " Sweet Spot " in the phase diagram !!

Well....now to get some....:evil::evil::evil: !!! Brick and Mortar that sell electronic parts...around here...THAT is another issue....likely just wait for a delivery from "All Electronic " in CA.

They are generally my goto !! :bowdown::bowdown: I do miss the Shack at times !!:yabbem::yabbem: So it goes.

Beam Out

 

[lasersbee]

BTW CDB... Using my Weller soldering station and
Multicore solder I can easily solder SOT23 SMD
components to prototype PCBs. For production
PCBs I use a Re-Flow oven and 63/37 Solder Paste.

Jerry

 

[Seoul_lasers]

The only solder one should be using in a hobby or repair environment is eutectic
Solder, as it has the best wetting properties, mechanical strength and melting temperature going.
Eutectic solder is 63/37 Sn/Pb. 60/40 while might be cheaper, may also contain an acid core which you do not want anywhere near electronic components.
The fumes from such solder will attack the traces on your PCB and components.

:angel:

 

[paul1598419]

It's pretty easy to see the type of flux used in solder before you purchase it. I have never gotten acid core solder when ordering 60/40 tin/lead solder. I do have 63/37 rosin core solder and paste. You are correct about acid core solder damaging the copper traces on PCBs, though.

 

[CDBEAM777]

Well....I got a small piece of 63/37....works great !!! So...as far as I am concerned...
No-Lead is garbage !!

Ordered a spool of this:

https://www.allelectronics.com/item/sol-5637/63/37-solder-1mm-1/2-lb-roll/1.html

...from my buddies at All Electronic. Their CS has always been perfect...so...they do not have 20K electronic parts.... but....they really stand behind their products !!! Ship really quick....and have good prices !!

Anyway.....Mystery solved....Thanx for all the insight....and Jerry...Thank you...and....I still refuse to do any SMD soldering......no way will I attempt to solder a wire to the something the size of the butt on a flea !!! NOPE...

Bob

 

[Benm]

For hand soldering you should always use lead based solder really, there is no point in using leadfree, and it's not banned either.

As long as you have rosin core flux, 60/40 or 63/37 really makes little difference. The latter is eutectic and ideal, but 60/40 as such is not far from it and will usually set into proper solder joints as it is.

One reason to use a solder that is a bit 'short' on tin, could actually be because component leads often are coated in pure tin now, not containing any lead. This mostly goes for cheap things like resistors, low cost led's, transistors and such: their leads are often made from tin covered steel rather than copper. If this is the case you'll find that component leads will stick to magnets, which they should not if made out of (tinned or not) copper.

Acid flux isn't used in electronics. It used to be used in plumbing, basically tin chloride you put on copper pipes before lead soldering those together. It's highly corrosive stuff and would damage electronics. I doubt it's used much any more since lead based soldering of water supply lines has been banned in many western countries by now, and they mostly use clamp fittings instead. Also, as far as i can recall it didn't came as solder with a flux core, but as flux in a jar with with little brush to apply it.

 

[paul1598419]

Good for you, Bob. A half pound of 63/37 rosin core solder for $16.00 is a very reasonable price. Should serve you well for quite awhile, unless you are soldering continuously 8 hours a day. Good luck, buddy.

 

[Seoul_lasers]

Well....I got a small piece of 63/37....works great !!! So...as far as I am concerned...
No-Lead is garbage !!

Ordered a spool of this:

https://www.allelectronics.com/item/sol-5637/63/37-solder-1mm-1/2-lb-roll/1.html

...from my buddies at All Electronic. Their CS has always been perfect...so...they do not have 20K electronic parts.... but....they really stand behind their products !!! Ship really quick....and have good prices !!

Anyway.....Mystery solved....Thanx for all the insight....and Jerry...Thank you...and....I still refuse to do any SMD soldering......no way will I attempt to solder a wire to the something the size of the butt on a flea !!! NOPE...

Bob

Good quality Pb free is usually expensive, and most commercial boards done in Pb free will fail due to mechanical stress as it tends to form a brittle crystal structure.

However,

* Indium Corporation's Indium5.7LT, 58Bi/42Sn eutectic alloy products look promising however and for those boards needing low temperature soldering with high mechanical shock resistance,
InSn solder is recommended. Be prepared for a sticker shock however.

 

[Benm]

That would probably be very expensive solder, and not really have any benefit to tin/lead unless you -really- need a lower melting point for some specific reason.

For manual production or repair work using lead based, rosin core solder is fine, it's not illegal, and it's the same stuff we have been using for decades.

One downside with repair work is that you have to get rid of what's already there: leadfree solder. When replacing a component it's often enough to melt some lead based normal solder onto to pads/holes and then flick/wick off the mixture before doing the joint with normal solder.

I guess you should be more careful with solder joints that also carry significant mechanical loads though.

 

[Cyparagon]

most commercial boards done in Pb free will fail due to mechanical stress

I don't think you realize most commercial electronics are lead free these days. Have "most commercial" electronics you own failed because of mechanical stress? Really? Your detachment from reality is hard to put into words here.

 

[Benm]

Well, factory made electronics have been using lead free solder for over a decade. Failure due to mechanical stress breaking solder joints is not that common afaik, but there is the whole issue of planned obsolesce: devices are just designed to break from -something- in a few years, regardless of what that something actually is.

They might as well use shitty electrolytic caps to save on cost and make a device fail faster, or purposely design things stupidly like putting a hot power resistor right next to a electrolytic capacitor.

Manufacturers might -claim- that the high failure rate is because RoHS restrictions do not allow them the make products that last longer, but these claims can be lies.

I suppose in portable electronics the simplest way the make it unusable faster is to make the batteries impossible to replace for the average consumer. People with backgrounds in electronics might be able to swap out a macbook battery, but the average consumer is not, and probably not willing to pay for some repair shop to do this despite the rest of their system being just fine and could potentially last many years.

 

[WizardG]

The most common alloy used in commercial electronics is SAC305. It's an alloy with 3% silver and 0.5% copper, the balance being tin. With decent flux this stuff is pretty easy to work with. It's only real drawback is that it eats soldering tips.