Silver solder

General project help for Adafruit customers

Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
Locked
User avatar
brucef
 
Posts: 215
Joined: Tue May 03, 2011 4:51 pm

Silver solder

Post by brucef »

So I drop electronics as a hobby for a few decades and now I find we're all supposed to be paranoid about our chemical exposures. I wish someone would have said something to me 30 years ago, maybe I would have licked less 9v batteries or soldered outside or something. At least I have an excuse now for how I turned out.

Anyway, I picked up some silver/tin rosin-core solder and I've been practicing with it on some resistors and a spare piece of protoboard. I've got a brand new Hakko FX-888, so I can't blame my tools for the mess I'm making. I think I remember the technique, but every joint I make has a dull appearance that would have disgusted my 15 year old self. Is that typical with silver solder, or am I just doing it wrong?

User avatar
adafruit_support_bill
 
Posts: 88093
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: Silver solder

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

The lead-free solders are much less forgiving. Hakko has a good page on lead-free soldering technique:
http://www.hakkousa.com/leadfree.asp

User avatar
jchristensen
 
Posts: 111
Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2011 11:45 am

Re: Silver solder

Post by jchristensen »

BruceF wrote:So I drop electronics as a hobby for a few decades
LOL, I did the same thing. Still had some old Kester "44" rosin core and it still works well. I did get some new stuff, Kester 245, mainly to try a thinner gauge (0.020 in.), but stuck with 63/37 alloy. IMHO the paranoia is way out of control. The 245 works fine. I think the flux is supposed to be a little less corrosive but there again I had stuff that was soldered with the Kester "44" in the basement for decades and no sign of corrosion. The 245 type is a "no-clean" flux, but I rarely cleaned off the 44 flux anyway.

User avatar
jchristensen
 
Posts: 111
Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2011 11:45 am

Re: Silver solder

Post by jchristensen »

Don't buy silver solder (yet) or lead-free solder. You will have a lot of difficulty using it and its not 'less dangerous'
http://www.ladyada.net/library/equipt/kits.html

I'm with Lady Ada on this one.

The old solder I had was 0.031" and while it worked fine and I didn't have any problems, I thought thinner would be better. The other thing that's happened in the last few decades is things have gotten smaller!

User avatar
brucef
 
Posts: 215
Joined: Tue May 03, 2011 4:51 pm

Re: Silver solder

Post by brucef »

OK, so I just ran out and bought a pound of .025" 63/37. By the time I got to the store I was ready to buy lead mercury solder with iodine-131 flux. Maybe by the time I'm done that I'll be ready to tackle the lead free stuff, and in the meantime I'll be saving the environment by not ruining as many tips, components and boards.

Thanks everyone for the paranoia control.

User avatar
jchristensen
 
Posts: 111
Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2011 11:45 am

Re: Silver solder

Post by jchristensen »

LOL, well, you're lucky to have somewhere local to get such things, we used to have real electronics stores but about all that's left now is Radio Schlock. Enjoy!

pstemari
 
Posts: 310
Joined: Sun Mar 21, 2010 6:10 pm

Re: Silver solder

Post by pstemari »

The hazard with Pb/Sn solder isn't using it--it comes when you toss stuff in a landfill, and the Pb leaches on into the drinking water.

As long as you don't throw solder waste and old projects in the regular trash it's fine.

User avatar
westfw
 
Posts: 2008
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2007 1:01 pm

Re: Silver solder

Post by westfw »

As long as you don't throw solder waste and old projects in the regular trash it's fine.
Personal projects aren't in the statistics. As long as you don't throw 400000 cell phones A DAY into regular trash, it's fine. And it's probably not the regular trash that's the problem. And it's probably not the lead in solder that's a problem. But that's politics for you...

Locked
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.

Return to “General Project help”