Opinion on Solder Wire

[SamwelP]

Hi, guys. I know this might be a silly question but I was wondering if any of you have any good suggestion about what brand of solder is best for through hole soldering. It needs to be leaded, 60/40 and 0.7mm. The problem is that there are so many brands out there that it got confusing which one to purchase. 

[bdunham7]

https://www.amazon.com/KESTER-SOLDER-32117-24-6040-0027-Diameter/dp/B00068IJPO/ref=ya_od_pd_dx_gr_3/130-6637747-9001643?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00068IJPO&pd_rd_r=dd020551-2a97-45cf-8776-967bf06001e4&pd_rd_w=TJzyc&pd_rd_wg=Njd2K&psc=1&refRID=WH9FZDMNS6Q29CRMX0TS

I'm not sure about availability where you live, but that's what I'd use.  I have .020" (0.5mm) and I think this is as close as they get to 0.7mm. 

[ggchab]

Some info here:
"SDGEE #055 Cheap or expensive solder? A comparison with PCBs from JLCPCB" on SDG Electronics Youtube channel:

[SamwelP]

This is the solder we use at our university. It is amazing stuff but I was about to buy it of mouser and they have a minimum requirment of 25 reels !!! Thanks for the link

[Logical]

If i may suggest a good solder wire i would pick the Kester 63/37 for leaded applications.

The leaded wire i use is this 0.4 mm https://www.ebay.nl/itm/Kester-Solder-SN63PB37-1LB-454g-ANSI-J-STD-006-C-Flux-No-Clean-24-6337-8806/302694564773?hash=item467a0083a5:g:FVAAAOSwrXdaxgGs

Regards
Logical

[GreyWoolfe]

If i may suggest a good solder wire i would pick the Kester 63/37 for leaded applications.

The leaded wire i use is this 0.4 mm https://www.ebay.nl/itm/Kester-Solder-SN63PB37-1LB-454g-ANSI-J-STD-006-C-Flux-No-Clean-24-6337-8806/302694564773?hash=item467a0083a5:g:FVAAAOSwrXdaxgGs

Regards
Logical

That is what I use also.

[Dabbot]

Kester 285 63/37 0.79mm (24-6337-9710). Nice shiny joints!

[mariush]

63/37 - euctetic, cheaper than 62/36/2
62/36/2 - 2% silver, euctetic like 63/37 but more expensive due to silver.
60/40  - regular lead solder, the cheapest of the bunch but not euctetic (which may not matter much for a beginner)

thickness ... 0.56mm or lower ... but shouldn't go below around 0.4mm, too hard to use due to small flux amount

flux ... rosin flux, rosin activated (RA) or RMA (mildly activated) or no-clean flux ... stay away from water soluble or "organic" fluxes, they usually must be properly cleaned from circuit boards and sometimes they're more toxic for you.
Aim for 2-3% flux

Kester solder, Multicore / Loctite / Henkel (same brand) , Stannol, Edsyn ... good brands, as long as you stick to fluxes with the properties i mentioned 2-3% / no-clean or Rosin/RMA/RA

Buy separately liquid flux... it will help a lot.

[djnz]

I personally like Kester with type 44 flux.

If you want to buy Chinese solder from AliExpress / ebay, Mechanic is a good brand to buy. It is not as good as Kester, but it's quite good nonetheless. Avoid buying other Chinese brands (KOOCU / JINHU / whatever) - my experience is that they are vastly inferior in quality. They don't flow well, have higher impurities so form a thick slag like consistency upon melting, and they also need higher temperature to get them flowing.

[Ysjoelfir]

I have to admit that I am a little Stannol fanboy - maybe because I was born in the region where they produce.
For leaded soldering I prefer Stannol Kristall 505 which is simple 60/40, for lead free I use Kristall 511, preferably in SN95.5/Ag3.8/Cu0.7.
They have a new product series called "Trilence" which I will try soon, the marketing wank at least sounds pretty nice.

[tooki]

Kester solder, Multicore / Loctite / Henkel (same brand) , Stannol, Edsyn ... good brands, as long as you stick to fluxes with the properties i mentioned 2-3% / no-clean or Rosin/RMA/RA

Multicore/Loctite/Henkel and Stannol are all the same product. It’s unclear whether the Stannol company is actually owned by Henkel right now, but the products are the same.

As for me, I use mostly Kester, but I’ve also had great success with MG Chemicals and Felder. I’m sure Multicore (and its aliases) are all superb, too.

[tooki]

(Just a little followup to my last post: in the meantime, I've learned that the Stannol company definitely is not owned by Henkel.)

Apparently, back in 1989, Stannol was acquired by Kelsey Industries, the parent company of Multicore Solders. Then in 2000, Henkel acquired Kelsey. Just a year and a half later, Stannol was reprivatized via management buyout.

It must have been during the Kelsey Industries period that their product lines were merged, and after the buyout, they started diverging again.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Another company which makes fine solder is Balver Zinn. They have a lead-free solder which makes shiny joints, is well hand solderable and gives even passable results on lead wires and connectors. But also good for leaded ones.
In addition to the abovementioned alloys:
Sn60Pb38Cu2 (or Pb38Cu1) is intended to add proof against copper leaching for better long-term stability.
(was standard for telecommunications under the DBP, often seen as Fluitin rolls marked 'POST' or 'DBP')

[tooki]

Wasn’t the copper originally intended to prevent soldering iron tips (which at the time were unplated copper) from eroding so quickly?

[tooki]

Here is list of good solder leads that you may find helpful: https://www.electronicshub.org/best-solder-for-electronics/

Fuck off with the garbage Amazon affiliate link page, which lists one real solder brand and five no-name Chinese brands.

[BrokenYugo]

Here is list of good solder leads that you may find helpful: https://www.electronicshub.org/best-solder-for-electronics/

Fuck off with the garbage Amazon affiliate link page, which lists one real solder brand and five no-name Chinese brands.

One isn't even flux cored, some sort of stained glass solder. 

[Paul B]

hi best advise for home use and repair work is stay away from lead-free solder

OK the newer lead-free solder is beater than the original / older lead-free solder but  for best results I use lead solder

I believe the exemption to not using lead-free solder in manufacturing is aircraft , medical  and repair  happy to be corrected

Paul B

[tooki]

That’s not the “best advice”. (That honor goes to “avoid no-name solder from AliExpress”.)

Honestly, for most soldering, it makes not an iota of difference whether one uses leaded or lead-free. The situations where you really notice it is when you’re pushing the limits of your soldering iron anyway (like large joints on multi-layer boards) and every bit of heat is needed. But the solution isn’t to whine about lead-free, because even with leaded you’d only gain a little bit more room. Instead, using appropriate tools and techniques (like supplemental heating) is the answer.

For repairs, one should use the kind of solder originally used. It’s unwise to mix them on a board.

And for hobbyists in Europe, it’s a moot point anyway, since it’s now illegal to sell leaded solder to consumers there. So people are going to have to get used to lead-free anyway, so whining is stupid and pointless.

[nigelwright7557]

I find Neillsen solder 60/40 works well for me.
Nice and runny for SMD work and good for TH too.

[Bassman59]

hi best advise for home use and repair work is stay away from lead-free solder

If, at this point, you can't manage hand-soldering with lead-free solder, then maybe it's time to consider another hobby.

[HumbleDeer]

I have to admit that I am a little Stannol fanboy - maybe because I was born in the region where they produce.
For leaded soldering I prefer Stannol Kristall 505 which is simple 60/40, for lead free I use Kristall 511, preferably in SN95.5/Ag3.8/Cu0.7.
They have a new product series called "Trilence" which I will try soon, the marketing wank at least sounds pretty nice.

I have been using Stannol 2630 for a while now and ever since the day I tried it at a friends place I've been sold on spending money on solder. Hell, this stuff flows onto 10awg wires at 280c.

And for hobbyists in Europe, it’s a moot point anyway, since it’s now illegal to sell leaded solder to consumers there. So people are going to have to get used to lead-free anyway, so whining is stupid and pointless.

Any written source on that for following up? I can still buy my favourite Stannol with 0.2% halide containing flux If I should stock up, I should do it sooner than later.

Lead-free solders from decent brands (like lead-free alternatives to the Stannol 2630 I use) have remained a fair bit pricier than the old leaded stuff. And I'm not talking four euros more per roll that lasts a year. I'm talking three quarters extra. €12 for a leaded roll can be as much as €27 for lead-free, which is insane.

[JustMeHere]

I use Radio Shack solder with no issue.  Having some flux (I like the paste) will help more than anything.

[TomS_]

The last batch of solder I bought was lead free, since RS will no longer sell leaded to me.

Honestly, it makes no difference to me. The only thing I noticed is that it seems to create more pointy joints if I rework it too much, more than I seem to remember the leaded stuff doing. A dab of flux and a quick application of heat fixes it right up though, just like it did with leaded, so meh, couldn't care less about the type of solder I'm using now.

If you have special requirements for a particular type of solder, then fair play, but you're probably in a situation to know that you need it at that stage.

As for flux, I'm done with those flux pens for sure. They never seemed to work great for me, and not to mention the tip eventually becomes a mushy mess. I would apply some, then touch my iron, and it would seem to bubble and hiss at me for a second or two and then barely make an improvement to the joint. I'm now using a more pasty flux from a syringe and it works a million times better.

Felder ISO-CORE "RA" solder

MG Chemicals 8341, 10ml tube but it goes a long way (unless you're Louis Rossmann)

[tooki]

And for hobbyists in Europe, it’s a moot point anyway, since it’s now illegal to sell leaded solder to consumers there. So people are going to have to get used to lead-free anyway, so whining is stupid and pointless.

Any written source on that for following up? I can still buy my favourite Stannol with 0.2% halide containing flux If I should stock up, I should do it sooner than later.

Some retailers (especially small shops) are just ignoring the law*. It’s been in effect for several years now. See https://ila-reach.org/2018/01/new-restrictions-and-labelling-requirements-affect-lead-from-march-1-2018/

*the law restricting the sale of lead solder to consumers is the REACH directive. It’s separate from RoHS, the directive disallowing the use of lead solder in finished electronics.

Lead-free solders from decent brands (like lead-free alternatives to the Stannol 2630 I use) have remained a fair bit pricier than the old leaded stuff. And I'm not talking four euros more per roll that lasts a year. I'm talking three quarters extra. €12 for a leaded roll can be as much as €27 for lead-free, which is insane.

Depends on the alloy — the lead-free alloys with silver are significantly costlier than the ones that are just tin and copper. But yeah, lead-free solder is substantially more expensive. But I maintain it doesn’t matter, given how little of it one uses in a project. Even if it’s 3x the cost, 3x practically nothing is still practically nothing.

[Paul B]

Hi OK about Lead free and i stand corrected if all on this topic are using lead free but a suspect not

The line ( Honestly, for most soldering, it makes not an iota of difference whether one uses leaded or lead-free. )  i wonder if other agree with you considering mixing is not recommended

ok the person that clams to be his job and quotes (If, at this point, you can't manage hand-soldering with lead-free solder, then maybe it's time to consider another hobby.)
I think this is harsh and not in the spirit of helping

my only response is my repair and rework is often to deal with dry or cracked solder joints that were made using lead solder also a do not deal with the domestic market
manly test and measurement and the Defence market but I am open to advise on the best lead free solder that is available so more open minded to lead free after reading this topic