Lead Free solder , Sn Ag & Cu

[Ricardus]

It always surprises me when I go through a whole roll of solder.

Since I started using the 62/36/2, I've gone through 2 rolls. It feels kinds good knowing you've built a lot of things.

 

[Whoops]

It feels kinds good knowing you've built a lot of things.

I remember you were on Fire building projects, maybe still are

 

[Ricardus]

I remember you were on Fire building projects, maybe still are

Less money has slowed me down, but I'm trying to stay busy! 

 

[Whoops]

I want to try the 63/37 type solder although can't find it in my local electronics stores.
They just have 60/40 and lead-free.

Where do you guys buy the 63/37 stuff?

 

[totoxraymond]

They have some on Farnell.

https://fr.farnell.com/c/outils-fournitures-de-production/stations-de-soudage-accessoires/soudure/fils-de-soudure?alliage-de-la-soudure=63-37-sn-pb

 

[Whoops]

They have some on Farnell.

https://fr.farnell.com/c/outils-fournitures-de-production/stations-de-soudage-accessoires/soudure/fils-de-soudure?alliage-de-la-soudure=63-37-sn-pb

Nice mate, thanks

 

[JAY X]

Hi!

I use lead free solder SN/cu alloy with flux. And is relativelly easy to solder, except on thermal relief pads.

Would spraying flux on the pads easy the solder process?.

When desoldering, i apply paste flux and leaded solder to melt the lead- free joints...so applying flux over the board should help soldering...or not?

Jay x

 

[Rob Flinn]

They phased out lead solder due to the ROHS directive when I was teaching soldering at a college. Fortunately me for they had a few 500gram reels of solder that they were unable to use from that point. The downside was that the poor students had to learn to solder with the lead free solder which just used to roll around in a blob on there soldering iron tips & wouldn't really stick to anything.

In my view it's possibly the cleanliness of the work environment that makes it difficult to hand solder with. When you see flow soldered boards it always seems to work well, but then most flow soldering plants are like walking into an operating theatre in terms of how clean they are

 

[gyraf]

..enough wattage through the iron is probably main concern..

/Jakob E.

 

[Whoops]

I think lead-free solder it’s awfull and my experience with it is pretty bad.
I will make sure that I have enough stock of 60/40 solder for my Lifetime as I think one day it’s sale will be banned, by then I will be sorted with some KGs of stock

 

[FIX]

For what it's worth department, the older NASA certification had a sequence for lead soldering, where you basically do a 1-2-3-4-5,

1&2, touch the joint and heat it, 3, apply solder, 4 wait, 5 remove.

With lead free, I found to get a nice looking joint, 1, place solder to joint, 2&3 heat while loading more solder if needed, 4 remove.

This uses the solder to melt and heat the joint faster, but once it flows, you get off quickly.

When buying solder, some manufacturers specify the rosin core diameter, you want to buy the one that has the most, because the flux it what keeps the solder flowing nicely and doesn't make it look like crappy sand paper afterwards...

 

[sahib]

For a long time I have been using lead-free Delta SAC305 on production. It was giving me all sorts of griefs like developing air bubbles and splutter, whiskers and so on. But I am now half way through the reel and a couple weeks ago all suddenly disappeared and now giving me quite consistent results. The only thing it does is the usual muck it develops after so many hours of soldering. So, I leave the boards overnight and brush off the muck the next day. I do not use any cleaning stuff. The picture on the right is with the muck, and the one on the left after brushing.

The soldering iron I use is not temperature controlled, and I have not changed the tip for almost 20 years now. I am not bulls*itting. I have been using it on lead free, leaded, dipping it into solder past and everything else. Any other thing would have got aids by now but this thing keeps going. The tip temperature reaches around 290 degrees (measured on my temperature sensor) which is quite high but not an issue for me as I get in and out of a solder node in about a second (reciting "one thousand" from my photography days).