This has noting to do at all with “better sound” or audiophile BS, it’s metallurgy.
If you are soldering something that is silver or has silver in it, the most common being good teflon wire, (where the copper needs to be silver plated to resist something in the teflon), there needs to be a percent or two silver in the solder so make it so the solder doesn’t corrode the silver and eventually break down the joint.
Tin/lead/silver/copper, preferably in a ratio that will be euctectic. This is the mix Western Electric came up with as the most long-lived for telephone network repair, from what I’m lead to believe.
In my experience, lead-free solders are, well, not very good at all…
If you are soldering something that is silver or has silver in it, the most common being good teflon wire, (where the copper needs to be silver plated to resist something in the teflon), there needs to be a percent or two silver in the solder so make it so the solder doesn’t corrode the silver and eventually break down the joint.
Tin/lead/silver/copper, preferably in a ratio that will be euctectic. This is the mix Western Electric came up with as the most long-lived for telephone network repair, from what I’m lead to believe.
In my experience, lead-free solders are, well, not very good at all…
It's "beneficial" in that lead-free solder is legal for commercial products in the EU, whereas lead-bearing solder is not.
If you're not soldering on a production line, use 63/37 as it has the lowest melting point and is the easiest to work with. Take ordinary precautions such as washing your hands after soldering.
Got this nearly full roll for free. Was being thrown out at work for being "out of date".
Attachments
Well in a commercial setting, ROHS pretty much dictates international standards. The US from what I know do not enforce such standards, but they still push industries to minimize lead by offering benefits
What keeps leaded solder around is probably the military and other high-reliability areas where pure solder can be a problem (tin whiskers)
Tin whiskers are a big problem that was either unforseen or ignored by the bodies governing international standards. They are extremely difficult to prevent in the long run, and we can expect most commercial products manufactured with lead-free solder to fail well before what would have otherwise been their expected lifetime. The combined cost of accommodating lead-free solder and early failure of products will be staggering.
dimkasta - Everything there is IPC-A-610 Class 3 PCB assemblies for the rail industry. They are quite strict with the requirements and certifications. We have a date coming up soon to get the J-STD-001 certification along with IPC-7711/7721 (rework, mod, and repair) later on. ESD is covered ad nauseam. Multiple audits every year, both internal and external.
I requested notification as well but received none. Not sure how well that feature functions. With the store, when wanting something, I check everyday. The unicorn that it is, not waiting for it to poop on my lawn.
I have no idea what some manufacturers out there use, but some of the solder is near impossible to heat and remove! Sometimes I have to resort to methods that are not my cup of tea, including melting cadmium in with the resistant solder, or using a bunch flux, and maybe even turn up the heat. None of this is beneficial.
But when it comes to solder in general, I have used so many types to try out and see what I think. Again and again, Wonder Solder is my choice. Something that I found out recently was that really old solder doesn't work very well. Never knew about this until I got 3 rolls of solder in a swap. One Kester (worked the best) one WBT (really bad) and some Wonder Solder (almost as easy as Kester).
I preach a good mechanical connection first before solder is applied.
But when it comes to solder in general, I have used so many types to try out and see what I think. Again and again, Wonder Solder is my choice. Something that I found out recently was that really old solder doesn't work very well. Never knew about this until I got 3 rolls of solder in a swap. One Kester (worked the best) one WBT (really bad) and some Wonder Solder (almost as easy as Kester).
I preach a good mechanical connection first before solder is applied.
I never had to deal with that since I got the desoldering pump with a large-mass nozzle and a TS100 connected to a lab PSU. Being able to hold the temp steady even on big chunks of metal makes all the difference
It probably has more to do with the specific flux chemistry
I still have the first roll I ever bought as a teenager. Branded Multicore. I got it around 30 years ago. Still probably my favorite, although these days I am keeping it as an heirloom and I am more used to eutectic stuff
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Willain2001, Having a friend who works on control gear for the rail industry, I'm unsurprised. Recently I ran low and found an absurdly old roll of Alpha Metals Reliacor stashed in a box. It seems to work just fine but I'll set it aside for further aging as a fresh spool of Kester has arrived.
Ya that's right. Every roll in the building was checked. There were probably 15 rolls in the box that was about to disappear. Expiration dates, on everything, is another focus point. If your blue Loctite has just expired but still 90% full, kiss it goodbye...
That sort of thinking about expiration dates can be good or bad. The waste that I routinely see no matter where I look is probably due to 'human nature'. Not an excuse but a problem that has never really gone away. When my company got fined, they just lied about the numbers after the heat was off.
It does work, I got notice of JFETs, maybe only sends out so many notices by order they were generated?
You know what I'm thinking, it's not so much that a $30 to $40 product (the price of the last 1-lb new roll of solder I bought, maybe 10 years ago) (x15) is being tossed, it's that 1/3 pound (x15) of lead being put right into a landfill, just the kind of thing that EU's ROHS is designed to prevent.
They would have a heart attack metal detecting Toronto public beaches.
Taiyo Goot SE-0AG08 silver solder is still easily available on EBay, with the usual caveats of unknown vendors.
That's like a jar of 2000000 year old sea salt with an expiration date on it.
