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Solder advice

Started by Burl, December 23, 2017, 12:49:01 PM

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5thwheel

#15
Burl,
I have bought it from Rio Grande riogrande.com    It lasts a very long time.  melting point about 400 degrees. Very high tense strength.  Quite expensive now. Bill Hudson
They also have other types of solder paste in syringes for higher temp.

https://www.riogrande.com/product/solder-fast-silver-solder-paste/503042
Bill Hudson
Fall down nine times,
get up ten.

Hydrostat

I'll make it. If I have to fly the five feet like a birdie.
I'll fly it. I'll make it.

The comprehensive book about my work: "Vollendete Baukunst"

Hydrostat

Sorry, links directs to the homepage. Please choose your language at top of it and browse the site ...
I'll make it. If I have to fly the five feet like a birdie.
I'll fly it. I'll make it.

The comprehensive book about my work: "Vollendete Baukunst"

Lawton Maner

     The iron plating on soldering tips is to control the erosion which occurs when using plain copper tips.  Copper readily dissolves into molten solder and will pit making it difficult to keep the tip clean.  The iron plating retards this and makes the tips last much longer. 
     For solder to work, everything must be clean.  For electronic solder, a simple moist pad will work.  And there needs to be a microscopic gap between the parts for the solder to wick into the joint.
     To all a Happy New Year.

greenie

Apologies for a late answer to this posting.

If you want to use a soft solder for the job, then possibly this will help you out.

Go buy a roll of rosin cored solder, here's the kicker though, make sure the thickness of the solder is as fine as you can get hold of, the stuff I use is 60 Tin/40 Lead and the thickness is 0.56mm, or about 0.025" of an inch thick.

If you use this real fine stuff, you just cut a bit about 2 or 3mm long, place it under/wrap it around the bit your soldering to, then heat it all around the solder with a "bong lighter" or some other form of 'flame thrower'. By doing it this way you will NOT get any big blobs of bird shit solder on your job at all. Just check out how big 2 mm is and turn it into a blob and you'll soon get the idea of why using this very small amount is the way to go.

By using a fine flamethrower, it will just heat up the area you want the solder to run and join together, looking at the photo you have supplied, you are using sewing pins as locators. That's a good idea and if you wrap a small 2 mm piece of solder around the shank of the pin and when it's pushed into the hole in the frame, the solder is now exactly where you want it to be. So by using the fine flamethrower you just melting the EXACT amount of solder directly where you want it, easy peasy, eh.

If you want to use an iron with the solder added to the hot tip, then just look out for them birds, they gunna leave ugly great deposits of bird $hit, all over your nice clean job.

A soldering iron can be used for the heat in a particular spot, BUT, with NO HOT WET solder on the tip AT ALL, if you DO get any solder on the hot tip, then out with a file and file the copper tip clean of any solder, then right back at it with a clean dry tip.

Try this method out and you'll be pleasantly surprised with the good clean results you'll get without those ugly blobs of bird$hit.

Lawton Maner

     NEVER FILE A TIP USED FOR SOFT SOLDER.  If you do so you will remove the iron plating on the tip and the copper center will erode as the copper dissolves into the solder.  First use a damp sponge to remove as much solder as possible and then wipe it 2 or 3 times with a damp cloth to clean it as best you can.  Remember that solder flows toward the heat so heat the part on the opposite side from where the parts come together.  The copper wool which comes with some soldering stations also works well.
     60/40 electronic solder comes in very small cross sections and for many applications the amount can be TINY.  These bits can be held in place with a dab of rosin applied with the tip of a toothpick and yes, a pocket lighter can be used, but there are some very inexpensive pencil soldering torches out there that one might trip over in the $1.99 bin in strange places such as drug stores or even Dollar stores.  Always shop with yours eyes wide open.