Silver Solder

Don't ask the question if you don't want to know the answer

 

Yeah, I think it is now illegal to sell solder which contains Lead. So they're various mixtures, some obviously very clever, based on Tin with maybe a small % of Silver.
What do they use in Leaded windows, you know the real Stain Glass ones. Oh those fun days of inhailing Lead and Mercury fumes and washing my hands in Benzene

 

Well I now have a nice Antex 25 watt soldering iron, very nice, too. Well worth it.

Kit from maplins with a stand, £20.

And some 60/40 multicore, which totally wastes that maplin crap solder. Its lovely stuff. From farnell.

I am sure these companies like wondersolder and cardas and audionote just get a bit maker to do it for them. I bet the stuff is no magic, and is just commercial.

I am not a master solderer myself, I think dull joints can be caused by too much heat and reheat and setting.

There is no short cut, you have to prepare everything fully. Take the solder off and start again if it goes pear shaped.

 

If you have a muilti or variable temp iron why not have a couple of different types, as an example one for small PCB and light cable work (low Temp Melt Lead Based) and one for heaver cable and point to point work (Higher Temp Tin Based) they can both be with or without rosin and silver, a damp sponge is essential to keep the tip clean, if using a light weight stand why not stick some metal, rubber whatever to the base of it to give yourself more confidence, I agree with the dull joint due temp usuallaly caused by over exposure, with regard to drys on PCBs as a btw usually you can see a ring around the component lead out wire and when you re solder it the solder just falls away first go and needs another, for my own gear I use this for low temp

http://www.williamshart.com/otheramp.htm

And this for high temp

http://custom1.farnell.com/cpc/prod...pc+catalogue&category_name=&product_id=266302

 

Does it actually matter sonically/electrically whether a joint is dull or shiny?

Michael.

 

best solder i have ever used was made by lockheed martin with 4% or so silver. haven't got a clue where to find more as i found it in akihabarra in tokyo. just wish i had bought more of the stuff. i suppose one could try contacting lockheed martin and seeing if they would sell it to you.

it was quite fine gauge and was great using in confined / small joints. i'm guessing that they probably use the stuff in all their electronics.

 

QUOTE]Originally posted by michaelab
Does it actually matter sonically/electrically whether a joint is dull or shiny?

Michael. [/QUOTE]

Well, it used to. A shiny joint was a happy joint. More important was to see that the solder had flowed naturally, or not looking like it has a skin [ie cooled quickly]. A joint which is not right is a disaster waiting to happen and can give intermittent failure in the future. I don't see how overheating solder can affect it, though it's definitely bad for the items you want to join. Also there is only so much flux in the solder, and if you vapourise all of it, then there is non left to help the joint.
Before machine/wave soldering, quality control with hand soldering/mass production was fairly unknown. The only way to improve it was to make staff less productive, ie slower!
Lots of solder mixes do not give a shiny finish, where 60/40 did. So maybe you can't tell with alternatives. Other info is in the thread started in April:

https://www.audio-forums.com/as-rediect/showthread.php?threadid=3670