soldering

pwhere do i get solder to solder silver internal wires.....what type do i get and where on the high street i want to get some this saturday and dont want to use bog standard solder. it needs to be silver solder

 

Maplins.

 

ta

 

Did you get some?

I bought some to build my phono stage and it has a much higher melting point than the leaded stuff.

It was quite tough to do some of the fiddlier points.

 

yes, got the 4 % stuff from maplins...did the job.....can solder affect the sound quality of components?

 

Carful, you've got a hair in your can of worms.

 

quality pic.....has this therfore been previously discussed on the forum?

 

and if yes....what is the answer, save me having to trawl.....

 

It may or may not have been discussed here before, but I've discussed it in the past with people well known in the industry. Basically, it's like the cable debate. There is not and never will be agreement between the yes and no camps, no matter how many thousands of posts of "proof" are made by both sides.

 

what is your slant on it issac?

 

I use silver solder .....but I can't hear any difference in the small amounts I use.

Silver solder though is a pig if you try and rework it ...it was explained eutectic points move or something. If you need to repair a silver solder joint its best to remove the old solder and start again .

 

what is good soldering etiquette? i just blobbed a few bits here and there!! should this make a difference...do you need more or less? does it have to be neat or no???

 

Sounds like you should practice first!

A good solder joint is usually a neat solder joint as the solder would have flowed well.

Make sure you use a good iron able to transfer enough heat. It your iron keeps 'sticking' then the components are drawing the heat away faster than your iron can produce it.

Don't move the components about while you are soldering. Keep them still else this could produce a 'dry joint' (this is bad!).

As a quick rule (assuming you are soldering to a board):

Put component in place ( a bit of masking tape can be handy to hold it)

Turn the board over and hold the iron so it touches both the component and its copper track. Feed in a bit of solder (5mm as a very rough guide).

When you see the solder flowing out nicely onto the board draw the iron back up the leg of the component and off.

Then snip the excess wire leaving a little 'nipple'.

Be warned not to leave an iron on a component too long as it could cause damage. Now go practice!

 

A good soldered joint, well done using unbranded solder with no silver will be better then a poor joint made using top quality branded silver content solder.

I recently built a DIY kit amplifier using this Maplins silver content solder, based on previous experience of high silver content solder i was expecting problems but it worked brilliantly and was very easy to use, with a normal melting point.
I was going to invest in one of these Temp controlled solder stations , and eve had access to one at work which i could have borrowed but I built the whole amp using a tatty old 30w Draper soldering iron that I've had in my tool box for donkeys years with a couple of new ( & cheap ! ) tips.

The craftsmans skills are more important than the tools that he uses....

 

thanks to all...andy