I just started soldering and have a random selection of solder.
I thought I would sell that and pick some up that I know what it is.

It has been my experience it is generally worth getting half decent stuff.

So, I asked a guy. But he is in the states.
Sounds like he knows what he is talking about.

He suggests:
63/37
With RMA flux core.
Suggests a decent make like Kester, multicore,AIM and AlphaMetals.

Fine, I thinks.
Makes sense, I thinks.

So, I hunt and hunt and have got in a spin with tens of tabs open.
Seems like I am hunting for Hen’s Teeth.

Best I get is Farnell UK
https://uk.farnell.com/kester-solder/24-6337-9713/solder-wire-63-37-sn-pb-183-c/dp/2817111

But it is 1lb (450g).
Comes in at £53.47 after VAT and it is 0.8mm when actually, I would prefer more like 0.5mm. (£16 is shipping from the states, don’t know what the import fees might be either)

Well, I would quite like one of each. I would rather get 125g and get a 0.5, a 0.8 and maybe an RA as well of one of the sizes.

Is there a more local, maybe euro, make that is as good do we know?

Cheers.

What are you soldering?

A good question.
All sorts really.
Mostly electronics I think.
So far I have fixed a digital kitchen timer, desoldered and resoldered an electric toothbrush, done a couple of cheap soldering kits, I have the parts to put together a pc keyboard so diodes and switches, I have a plan to put something together that will text my son when the doorbell rings which has like a little board and other bits, I have a pi zero which I want to add stuff to for in the garage, I have a pi 3b+ which I suspect will get some stuff done to it, I have a phone I want to play with but i think that needs solder paste so different game, then I want to be able to do just general type soldering which I think the stuff I already have will be fine for, so some wiring on my motorbike and stuff with my dynamo lighting on my commute cycle, then whatever else comes up, then I want to start playing a bit more with electronics (my knowledge is poor) and get better. A friend wants something done with his guitar when I am good enough. I’d like to be able to play and fix stuff.

Maybe I’m massively out of touch, but your suggestions seem very expensive for the work you’re suggesting. (My electronics is in the 7nm region nowadays)

That solder you linked to, it’s it tim/lead? Why not silver solder?

Electronics? Any old multicore.

Taught myself to solder properly recently for a rPi project, used some old Antex branded stuff I got from RS years ago, works fine. I also picked up some cheap Chinese stuff off eBay, haven’t tried it yet but I’m sure it’ll do the job. The biggest improvement I found was getting a much smaller tip for my iron.

Electronics? Any old multicore.

+1

Sounds like you are massively over thinking it. Good technique and a well tinned iron will make a lot more difference.

definately overthinking it.  I believe that tin/lead might be slightly easier that the newer lead frees but I’m not 100% sure.  In any case you aren’t doing vast amounts so I would just pick what is available in whatever size you need.  Just start with something in the middle, say 0.7 and work from there.  When I used to do massive amounts of soldering I still only ever used one size of wire.  More important might be looking at how toxic the flux fumes are as you won’t be working in a specially ventillated space.  I would imagine that anything for DIY use is likely to be ok though.  Think eveything I used before was ‘multicore’ brand fwiw

Well, I don’t know how to over think it. I don’t know anything, so I can’t overthink it.
I don’t know what is bad and what is good so I thought i would go with what is recommended.
This was suggested as the best stuff, so I thought i might as well get the better stuff.

Given as I would like to do more and more, I thought i might as well get better stuff.
Often you can get the cheap stuff and end up getting the better stuff later on anyway, right?
Also, even if you get 125g it will last quite a while.
Given the difference in cost per job from cheap to expensive stuff is peanuts, why not get the better?
From what I read there are benefits to the better stuff.
Ease of use, better joints (and other stuff I can’t remember)

When I have read about what people recommend when doing things, they all seem to agree.
I have generic solder, but I can’t work out what it actually is.
Maybe it isn’t important, I don’t know yet.
Like I say, I thought it would be better to go with recommended stuff than guessing and mucking it up.

as nickjb says

Good technique and a well tinned iron will make a lot more difference.

if you very fancy stuff it may be trickier to use, higher temp etc.  Something standard for diy electronic use it likely to be fine.  Most important is learning how to get everything to the right temp at the righ time so you don’t end up with ‘dry’ joints that look like they are ok but in fact are likely not to last

“definately overthinking it. I believe that tin/lead might be slightly easier that the newer lead frees but I’m not 100% sure. In any case you aren’t doing vast amounts so I would just pick what is available in whatever size you need. Just start with something in the middle, say 0.7 and work from there. When I used to do massive amounts of soldering I still only ever used one size of wire. More important might be looking at how toxic the flux fumes are as you won’t be working in a specially ventillated space. I would imagine that anything for DIY use is likely to be ok though. Think eveything I used before was ‘multicore’ brand fwiw”

Well, I was thinking of going 0.5-0.6mm as I reckon that might be easier for me as a noob, and ‘multicore’ was one of the recommended brands.

I have been doing it in the garage with a paper mask and the door open, but I think a ventilation thing is a good idea. Also, everything I have read says that leaded is way easier than lead free. So I agree with everything you say.

Did you over think that ? 🙂

“Most important is learning how to get everything to the right temp at the righ time so you don’t end up with ‘dry’ joints that look like they are ok but in fact are likely not to last”
Agreed.
But doesn’t decent (the right) solder make good joints easier than using the wrong solder?
I picked up a half decent soldering station.

I thought soldering was like rocket science before.
But turned out my iron was kernackered and I was using cheap lead free solder as well.
It ain’t that hard it turns out.
But it would be nice to do it well.

So, I am just trying to work out what to buy really, of the thousands of things that exist.
Is everyone saying that 63/37 RMA by either Kester, AIM, Multicore and Alphametals is the wrong thing to buy?

What do you all suggest instead?

Lead free solder is no harder than leaded if you have a soldering iron that can get hot enough, which almost certainly it will.

As above, technique is a lot more important, but it’s not difficult unless you want to start using surface mount components.

i’d buy a 60/40 from multicore as that seems more available in the uk.

a small amount of a liquid flux can help if you are repairing old stuff rather than working on new stuff as old stuff can be a bit tarnished.  But I would only use it if it was clear that i couldn’t get the solder to flow well by itself

0.5-0.6 is just fine as well.  If you need something thicker you just twist a couple of bits together

I bought about 250g of the stuff years ago, and I’m still working my way through it, but you could try rapid electronics: https://www.rapidonline.com/rapid-lead-free-solder-wire-22swg-0-7mm-100g-reel-85-1166

60/40 tin/lead flux cored easier to work with than lead free due to the lower melting point (so you don’t melt things you hadn’t intended and less chance of the joint moving under cooling). 0.7mm should be fine, bigger starts to get hard to be accurate with. Lead free’s been normal in Europe for years now though, which might be why it’s getting hard to come by.

Never worried too much about ventilation for hobby stuff, I spent most of my adolescence breathing lead fumes.

(I have forgotten how to quote)

“i’d buy a 60/40 from multicore as that seems more available in the uk.”

Yes, I have seen multicore about.
So, you don’t reckon 63/37 is any better?
Since I started looking about, a lot of people seem to say it is.
(Is that the one that goes off quicker and so less chance of it moving while wet?)
Which is why i thought the advice I was given seemed good.
Was I given duff advice?
Also, what is your thoughts on RMA?
I have been told I need to match my flux with my solder core.
But it is hard to find what the flux is in the solder sometimes.
Isn’t RMA need less cleaning up or something as well?

“0.5-0.6 is just fine as well. If you need something thicker you just twist a couple of bits together”
🙂 Nice one. You know, I hadn’t thought of that. I was trying to use bigger stuff and dropped to some 0.56mm I have when playing with some transistors. Made it much easier for the noob that I am.

“As above, technique is a lot more important, but it’s not difficult unless you want to start using surface mount components.”
Of course I want to play at that as well.
I have an old phone that is missing a couple of components.
Going to have a crack at that (nothing to lose). They measure in at 0.5mm.
For a bloke whose tool of choice is generally a club hammer, that is tiny.

Another little job is I am going to try is to reflow the pcb below a faulty screen on my laptop. (I think it has a dry joint on it somewhere. (Again, nothing to lose.))

Never worried too much about ventilation for hobby stuff, I spent most of my adolescence breathing lead fumes.

Are you sure it doesn’t show 🙂

Isn’t RMA need less cleaning up or something as well?

I believe so.  I think it also helps with stuff that is a bit more tarnished.  I just use a bit of extra flux if necessary but that is very rare.  Board cleaning is isopropyl and a toothbrush so I’m not too fussed about a bit of extra scrubbing

I used to be the guy they roped in to hand solder the surface mount stuff when prototyping. My eyes aren’t that good any more( that was 30 years ago). I think it was my patience they needed more than actual skill. If 63/37 is what’s available, it’ll do fine. Stuff moving isn’t something you really want to fix with the actual solder flow if you can help it, much better to either bend the legs then trim in the hole so you have a mechanical fix before flow, or clamp your component so it isn’t moving (avoiding your clamp becoming a heatsink so you can’t get up to temperature, or surface mount stuff will have some form of sticky stuff to hold it in place until it gets to the reflow bath/oven. It’s worth practicing on Vero board and random bags of components from ebay until you get confident, though these days once you get onto the real stuff things tend to be smaller and surface mount. The old ways often work though, solder suckers, tub of flux and braid to soak up excess, isoprop for cleanup, practice and patience.

As someone who teaches 11 year olds to solder, any old multicore will do, but lead free is a bit more fiddly. We use boggo Rapid stuff from Rapid, recently switched from leaded to lead-free. Only real difference is lead-free has a higher melting point, so if you’re using a small tip (stores less heat), it can take a little longer to get a good joint.

Make sure you open a window, but don’t solder directly under it, it’s amazing how much a draft can cool the iron.

Use lead free if soldering new components – the modern ones are pretty good and easy to use. Anything around 0.6mm will be fine for discrete electronics.

You’re asking for trouble if you try using leaded solder to repair lead free soldered boards (and vice versa) – the mixture just makes a pasty mess. You need to remove all the solder and remake the joint. I would expect virtually everything from the last 20 years will have lead free solder.

The type of solder and flux matters a lot if you’re joining metals, but for electronic components, just use a commercial multicore* solder and practice your technique. You will learn quickly (it’s not that hard – you can get good joints with a very wide range of equipment and solder).

* As in solder with several flux cores, rather than a specific brand.

Is there a way to test/determine if solder is lead free? I’ve got a big coil of unidentified stuff (too thin for my liking). It’s old but couldn’t say if 10 or 20 years.

Lead tastes sweet.

If 63/37 is what’s available, it’ll do fine.

Well, it isn’t what is available, it is what I was specifically suggested to get.
As being ideal. So I thought, why not.
There are thousands of options, I need to get one.
I don’t know what the relevance of all of the various ratios of metals/% of flux/R,RMA,RA/different types of metals/different makes/cheap vs good quality/etc etc

As I need to get a roll of something that I know what it is, I thought I might as well get good stuff. As the cost per job of expensive to cheap doesn’t seem like a lot.

I used to be the guy they roped in to hand solder the surface mount stuff when prototyping. My eyes aren’t that good any more( that was 30 years ago). I think it was my patience they needed more than actual skill. If 63/37 is what’s available, it’ll do fine. Stuff moving isn’t something you really want to fix with the actual solder flow if you can help it, much better to either bend the legs then trim in the hole so you have a mechanical fix before flow, or clamp your component so it isn’t moving (avoiding your clamp becoming a heatsink so you can’t get up to temperature, or surface mount stuff will have some form of sticky stuff to hold it in place until it gets to the reflow bath/oven. It’s worth practicing on Vero board and random bags of components from ebay until you get confident, though these days once you get onto the real stuff things tend to be smaller and surface mount. The old ways often work though, solder suckers, tub of flux and braid to soak up excess, isoprop for cleanup, practice and patience.

Thanks. Yes, I have been playing with some vero board as well. Plus a couple of cheap kits etc etc
I have been bending legs, I just read everywhere that 63/37 is better, so I thought why not get that then? Is it not good? Was I given duff advice?
I have been using a solder sucker and some braid.
I need to get some flux, which is basically why I am trying to get some solder as I have been told to make sure the flux and solder core match. It seems easier to get flux, so I thought I would get the solder first.
People are saying not to overthink it and then I have been given loads of suggestions on here. Although it seems they are mostly saying that ‘cheap stuff will do’ (I think that is what they are saying anyway ) but then why get the cheap stuff when all I want is say 100g to get me going. Other places you read and they say the cheap stuff isn’t as good.
We have all bought cheap toools and consumables in the past and then that is just a waste of money in the medium term.

As someone who teaches 11 year olds to solder, any old multicore will do, but lead free is a bit more fiddly. We use boggo Rapid stuff from Rapid, recently switched from leaded to lead-free. Only real difference is lead-free has a higher melting point, so if you’re using a small tip (stores less heat), it can take a little longer to get a good joint.

Make sure you open a window, but don’t solder directly under it, it’s amazing how much a draft can cool the iron.

So, yes, as lead free is a bit more fiddly, I reckoned go for leaded.
(I have read that a lot)
So why not give myself more of a chance of getting things right?
I would rather spend 0.001p (or (whatever it is) extra per solder than mess up a joint and have to take the thing apart again.
(That was my thinking)

Use lead free if soldering new components – the modern ones are pretty good and easy to use. Anything around 0.6mm will be fine for discrete electronics.

I do appreciate the advice.
But now I have been told ‘get leaded’ and ‘get lead free’ 🙂
Not really a compromise there is there.

You’re asking for trouble if you try using leaded solder to repair lead free soldered boards (and vice versa) – the mixture just makes a pasty mess. You need to remove all the solder and remake the joint. I would expect virtually everything from the last 20 years will have lead free solder.

See, I have wondered this.
I have also been told ‘any old solder will do’but then I read things that say more like ‘you need the right stuff’ and sometimes from the same sentence.
I will be fixing old and new I suspect.
As I understand it, if you get the wrong flux for your solder it causes a similar mess right?

The type of solder and flux matters a lot if you’re joining metals, but for electronic components, just use a commercial multicore* solder and practice your technique. You will learn quickly (it’s not that hard – you can get good joints with a very wide range of equipment and solder).
* As in solder with several flux cores, rather than a specific brand.

Thanks for the * there 🙂
Oh, ok, didn’t know the first bit.
So, basically, it seems like what people advise is right is specific to what the specific job they generally do is.
I am finding soldering fairly simple, (I am not very good yet of course) as opposed to the rocket science i thought it was. Now that I have gear that works.

Is there a way to test/determine if solder is lead free? I’ve got a big coil of unidentified stuff (too thin for my liking). It’s old but couldn’t say if 10 or 20 years.

I am pretty sure that the answer to that is no.
I have asked the same question.
Sort of got no answer to it.
So I am pretty sure that it is a no.
Which is why I am thinking of selling what I have and starting again.
I even have some that I can find what it is but even where it is being sold it doesn’t tell me what the core is, so I don’t know how to match the flux to it.

I have some with labels on which i was thinking about asking if anyone on here might be able to explain to me what they are for before I get rid. Because I can’t work it out.

See, I have wondered this.
I have also been told ‘any old solder will do’but then I read things that say more like ‘you need the right stuff’ and sometimes from the same sentence.
I will be fixing old and new I suspect.
As I understand it, if you get the wrong flux for your solder it causes a similar mess right?

You are fixing electronics so any solder for electronics will do you fine

It won’t be a mess because you are cleaning off the old solder with a solder pump

I rarely use additional flux and when I do it has never caused a mess

Buy whichever solder you can find at a price you are willing to pay. Think of it like bike chains. At the very top end there be a difference in energy loss between best and worst but actually is about how you ride and not the chain

Is there a way to test/determine if solder is lead free? I’ve got a big coil of unidentified stuff (too thin for my liking). It’s old but couldn’t say if 10 or 20 years.

Often identifiable by the reel colour if the label’s fallen off, green was introduced for the new RoHS-compliant (Pb-free) solders, eg Multicore is red for Pb/Sn, green for Pb-Free.

You are fixing electronics so any solder for electronics will do you fine

It won’t be a mess because you are cleaning off the old solder with a solder pump

I rarely use additional flux and when I do it has never caused a mess

Buy whichever solder you can find at a price you are willing to pay. Think of it like bike chains. At the very top end there be a difference in energy loss between best and worst but actually is about how you ride and not the chain

Lol, nice one thanks for that.
I just thought similar and
was about to ask how much difference there is.
So I am unlikely to be picking up a 25mm slick for my hardtail then? Let alone a tractor tyre for the road bike.

So I am unlikely to be picking up a 25mm slick for my hardtail then? Let alone a tractor tyre for the road bike

Not if you stick to stuff intended for *electronics*

If you venture off into other applications, you might end up with something like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tinmans-Solder-Stick-Size-0-25kg/dp/B0051ODKIE

Pretty sure they’ll all be at remembrance services this morning.

Blimey. I solder all sorts (successfully) and never thought there was this much to it. To me, soldering isn’t an activity in its own right any more than knocking nails in or sawing things.

I have no idea what solder I have either. Just fixed my wife’s sewing machine with a few inches of solder I found in the garage. Time before that I fixed the igniter on the water heater in the caravan using a screwdriver heated on the cooker and a blob of residual solder left elsewhere on the PCB 🙂

Well, nor did I.
Then I wanted to get some flux.
Someone said ‘make sure it matches the solder core or it can make a terrible mess”…..

……. “Huh?”

Did a lot of soldering during my apprenticeship. Still get the occasional job.
You know more about it than I do.:-)
Any old solder from RS does me.
I was deadly with a solder sucker though .

The solder sucker is an art form it seems.
I reckon that will take more practice than my soldering.

Use desoldering braid, I’ve always found it much easier than a sucker. Plus you can use it on your scalextric in a pinch.

The biggest difference I’ve found with lead free solder is I have a harder time tinning the tip at the end of a session.

I finally bought myself a decent iron, with adjustable heat, which helps. You just have to leave the iron in the joint a bit longer (like seconds, not minutes) before introducing the solder. Wetting the tip is also more important.
If you are just getting into it now, get lead free, practice with it, once you’ve got it you’ll have an easy time with leaded if you ever need to but the lead free is friendlier to you in the long run. The electronics industry is going that way anyway.

Get RMA or better. It’s less corrosive and can be cleaned with water. R or RA typically need solvents.