Wanted: A few feet of high quality *thin* solder...

[Peteruk]

Hey all,

A bit of a strange request, but I'm quite a newbie to DIY audio. I recently started a Tripath project, and ordered various parts from Percy Audio, including some Wonder Ultraclear solder for...well...the soldering.

Thing is, after soldering all the SMT capacitors, things seemed fine, but come the SMT resistors, I really feel I could with thinner solder to make the process easier. Now I measured mine with a micrometre and estimate it to be around 0.8mm in diameter, making it around AWG20. Now my first question is - can you get decent solders smaller than that?

So basically, if anyone has a few feet of any high quality suitably-sized solder (I'm still undecided about the hype around silver solders etc, but it's a small cost, so I'm thinking Cardas, Wonder, WBT etc) then I'd be very happy to buy it off them. If no such smaller solder exists, then I'll just have to give it my best shot :|

Any help appreciated

Peter C.

[Hartono]

the problem with tiny solder wire is that it doesn't contain solder flux properly. the hole inside for the flux is too tiny, while the solder must have minimal "wall" thickness in order not to fall apart.

it might not have enough flux to make good solder joint.

also with SMD , I would be wary with solder flux contained under component, it might present problem later on.

[Peteruk]

Originally posted by Hartono

also with SMD , I would be wary with solder flux contained under component, it might present problem later on.

Thanks for your post!

So what do you suggest? Just carry on the best I can?

Is there some special precaution I should take?

[djQUAN]

I also have 0.3mm flux cored solder but there are portions that there aren't any flux in them.

so what I did was run 6 strands of 0.1mm solid core solder together (much like litz wire) and use that along with dipping it in a pot of solder paste before soldering. then I would clean the board after soldering.


if you can get the solder practice kit from Jan, I suggest you do since 0.8mm for SMD parts is not too difficult once you get a bit of experience.

[BWRX]

I split off our discussion about solder, flux, and cleaning into a new thread you may find here: Solder, Flux, and Cleaning Discussion

[exurbia]

Peter, did you get any solder, or just lots of people advising you how to use what you didn't have

[Peteruk]

Originally posted by exurbia
Peter, did you get any solder, or just lots of people advising you how to use what you didn't have

Sure did thanks!

Email of thanks coming your way