Which solder for electronics?

[Man at B&Q]

Bollocks. The difference in use is marginal.

See above.

MBQ

[Man at B&Q]

Only for rework. I never need to use separate flux for new build.

MBQ

[Man at B&Q]

Correct.

You are handling it.

Some fluxes in lead free are more harmful than some of those in the leaded version! And vice-versa.

THe fluxes are sometimes more aggresive. That and the higher soldering temperature can shorten the life of poor quality bits.

MBQ

[Man at B&Q]

Not really, there's enough flux in solder paste to do it. It just takes practice, like any other soldering.

MBQ

[whisky-dave]

It's not that marginal, and the reason we gave up on unleaded solder. Even with good irons unless you're pretty good at soldering.

I'd stay away from unleaded solder unless you need to use it.

[Man at B&Q]

Ah, the blacksmith approach. I nearly ended up in a fight when a fellow pupil brough a toy into metalwork lesons and was trying to repair it thus. I had already learned to solder properly by then, but they wouldn't have it.

That's what regular cleaning (damp sponge) and tinning does.

The flux in the applied solder does that, no need for any extra.

MBQ

[Man at B&Q]

At least 50W with proper temperature control and good range of easily changeable bits available

I wouldn't trust anything much less than £100.

MBQ

[Man at B&Q]

+1

MBQ

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've still got a working one which lives in the bottom of the toolbox for a 'just in case' situation when I'm not at home.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It melts at a lower temperature, so less chance of damage to heat sensitive components. And given there are only disadvantages to lead free solder, why would anyone bother with it unless forced to?

[John Rumm]

With paste, yup quite possibly. But with wire solder, its much better with extra flux.

[John Rumm]

Sometimes one needs to adjust one's notion of "right" when confronted with new situations.

Those are required as well - but its very much harder to stop the bit oxidising over time without a fluxed solder for tinning it.

Depends on your technique. Soldering a few pins at a time with a touch and sweep off technique, you can just use what is in the wire. Same for touching on with a chisel point. However when you do finer pitch stuff with a drag technique, it is not adequate because you are applying the solder only to the bit and not the joint, so the joint does not get much flux otherwise.

Have a look at the way this chap does the fine pitch QFP device in this vid:

[whisky-dave]

Intersting that he used a wet sponge when the iron and holder have the dry 'brillopad' method which is better for the iron as water tends to cool the bit too much. We have 2 weller WD1 irons which we use the brass wool cleaner. We use standard wet sponge method with our 10 antex 690SD irons

[meow2222]

'brillopad' method which is better for the iron as water tends to cool the bit too much.

Wet denim works well too

NT

[Man at B&Q]

dry 'brillopad' method which is better for the iron as water tends to cool the bit too much.

So does a wet finger. Think walking on coals and mind over matter.

MBQ

[dennis]

If you walk on hot coals you get burnt. Its a trick, they are hot ashes they walk over and they have almost no heat capacity so they cool as soon as you touch them. There is nothing to burn you if they have done their job correctly.

If you want to see them fail just slip a few ball bearings or some real coal in the fire 30 mins before the walk. They will burn.

[whisky-dave]

e dry 'brillopad' method which is better for the iron as water tends to coo l the bit too much.

Wet students work too, well when I say work I mean conduct heat away from t he iron rather than the normal use of the word work, which rarely applies t o students ;-)

[Tim Lamb]

Umm.. I thought they use wood embers which have poor thermal conductivity.

Naughty!

[PeterC]

'brillopad' method which is better for the iron as water tends to cool the bit too much.

iron rather than the normal use of the word work, which rarely applies to students ;-)

Students follow their own third law: for every action there is an equal and opposite inaction.

[docholliday93]

I remember using a huge solon iron - a larger version of this:- - must have been 250 watts or so; the chisel bit was abour 1/2 inch thick and near 2 inches wide. The main problem was finding somewhere safe to put it, since nobody had thought to get a stand - I remember putting it down af ter making a particularly difficult joint and suddenly realising it was on top of a plastic reel...