Soldering wire

[Thunderbird]

Hi guys was just wondering what brands and gauges of solder you are using I use the standard weller 60/40 solder in 1mm and 2mm gauges depending on what I'm soldering 👍( and christ ain't the stuff rocketed in price) 

[neepheid]

I don't do a lot of soldering - I've still got the Draper reel of 60/40 I got soon after my first soldering iron when I was a lad, probably 2mm.

 

I tried to go lead free a few years ago but it was awful and went straight back to the good old stuff

 

[Thunderbird]

14 minutes ago, neepheid said:

I don't do a lot of soldering - I've still got the Draper reel of 60/40 I got soon after my first soldering iron when I was a lad, probably 2mm.

 

I tried to go lead free a few years ago but it was awful and went straight back to the good old stuff

 

I tried the lead free really hated it went straight in the recycle bin 

[paul_5]

I adore soldering with 60/40, but have switched over to lead free recently. It took a lot of effort initially, but with practice (and a slightly higher temperature) I got there in the end.

@neepheid - 2mm!? Are you a plumber? 😄

 

Edited October 23, 2021 by paul_5

[pfretrock]

Lead free is the work of the devil. (or maybe I've used 60/40 for so long and don't like lead free). just restored a very big valve radio, had to pay £30 for a reel of the thick solder required.  Another problem is getting spare bits for my old Weller  for 60/40 - the bit determins the iron temperature in these old irons. New higher temperature bits are way  too hot for 60/40. I've also done some lead free soldering on very small surface mount components, lead free is dreadful stuff!

[PaulThePlug]

60 / 40 or Silver LMP...

[Thunderbird]

21 hours ago, pfretrock said:

Lead free is the work of the devil. (or maybe I've used 60/40 for so long and don't like lead free). just restored a very big valve radio, had to pay £30 for a reel of the thick solder required.  Another problem is getting spare bits for my old Weller  for 60/40 - the bit determins the iron temperature in these old irons. New higher temperature bits are way  too hot for 60/40. I've also done some lead free soldering on very small surface mount components, lead free is dreadful stuff!

Valve radio sounds like great fun nice one 👍

[Matt P]

60/40 for me too, i have a reel of 1.2mm and a reel of 0.7mm for finer work. i have some of the silver stuff too but don't use it often.

 

Matt

[bloke_zero]

I’ve been using this. It’s lead free but tastes like butter, I mean it melts like lead. I tried other ones and they were really hard to make work, I think it’s about the formulation. I do have some lead but I mainly use this now for pcb work.

Edited November 5, 2021 by bloke_zero
Sense

[nekomatic]

Er, I don’t think that’s lead free:

 

https://uk.farnell.com/multicore-loctite/c-400-60en-5c-0-7mm-r-250g/solder-wire-60-40-188-deg-c-250g/dp/609961

[pfretrock]

23 hours ago, Thunderbird said:

Valve radio sounds like great fun nice one 👍

There were two. One had 4 valves and the other 21 valves. Just needed to replace one valve and a whole load of leaky capacitors and aged resistors.

[pfretrock]

1 hour ago, nekomatic said:

Er, I don’t think that’s lead free:

 

https://uk.farnell.com/multicore-loctite/c-400-60en-5c-0-7mm-r-250g/solder-wire-60-40-188-deg-c-250g/dp/609961

Yep, 60/40 lead tin. No wonder it tastes so good. Incidentally, RS Components would not sell me leaded solder (i'm not a trade customer) . Farnell did not care.

[ezbass]

54 minutes ago, pfretrock said:

Yep, 60/40 lead tin. No wonder it tastes so good. Incidentally, RS Components would not sell me leaded solder (i'm not a trade customer) . Farnell did not care.

They are brilliant and I don’t mean that sarcastically. I’ve had to do some loom splicing recently and using lead solder has made this operation much easier.

[pfretrock]

13 hours ago, ezbass said:

They are brilliant and I don’t mean that sarcastically. I’ve had to do some loom splicing recently and using lead solder has made this operation much easier.

Yes they sold me "outlawed" solder no questions,  avoided the ebay offerings as I was not sure of the quality. Also got from Farnell some big resistors. The half watt are way too small these days to put into valve gear so I was using 1W even if this rating was not needed.

 

The other place I have used is:

https://www.ampmaker.com/

Did not buy their full kits but got some parts when building  a copy of a Fender Bassman amp.

 

Getting hard to get some components these days

[pfretrock]

...Just noticed Ampmaker now only sell full kits, no parts. Might be a supply problem, some Farnell resistors took a few weeks to arrive earlier this year.

[franzbassist]

I use Weller Rl60/40-250 General Purpose Solder Resin Core, which is lovely to work with.

[Hellzero]

I'm still using the 60/40 0.8 and 1.6 mm wire that my father gave me some 35 years ago.

 

I finished my first kilo of wire a few years ago (I was making loads of repairs) and I don't think I'll see the end of the remaining kilo I still have (500 grams of 0.8 mm wire and 500 grams of 1.6 mm).

 

My soldering iron is still the same JBC SL 2300 I bought at the same time, some 35 years ago...

 

And it still has the same soldering pin !

 

I've tried lead free, but it's simply awful.

 

Here is the wire I still use :

 

[BlueMoon]

I've found lead-free ok, if it is all new work that I'm dealing with. It's where you try to make repairs to old boards with lead-based solder on them using lead-free solder l that I've had problems. The two formulations don't play nice together.

[bloke_zero]

On 05/11/2021 at 17:26, nekomatic said:

Er, I don’t think that’s lead free:

 

https://uk.farnell.com/multicore-loctite/c-400-60en-5c-0-7mm-r-250g/solder-wire-60-40-188-deg-c-250g/dp/609961

Duh - sorry for my confusion!