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| Type of solder to use: important for a hobbyist? |
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| Doctorandus_P:
I can confirm all of the above. I jumped onto lead free soldering because I disliked the idea of using lead even before RoSH, but I could not even finish the first 100g roll of lead-free solder. It is a nuicanse to work with as a hobbyists. Extra Flux is mandatory when working with smd components. As my eyes are aging with the rest of me I recently bought an Amscope 7x-45x stereo microscope. This wonderfull piece of equipment makes soldering small SMD stuff a breeze. Instead of a 0.5x Barlow lens I would have prefered a 0.7x lens though, but those are EUR25 as spare, so I will probably buy one. My desk is too high for a 0.5x Barlow lens and my chair too low, so I have to sit very straight and stretch my neck / back to reach the oculair with my eyes. A bit uncomfortable, but not straining, some folks might say it is a "healthy" position. When you are working with Lead-Free solder you have to look out for Lead contamination. 1% of lead contamination can mess with the lead free alloy and you can loose upto 90% of mechanical strength, and solder isn't that strong to begin with. The other way around is not so critical. Whether your're soldering with 50/50 or 30/70 may influence the ease of soldering, but not the strength of the final joint. Nowaday's "low temp" solder is also becoming more popular, and often used for repairing high density circuits such as those portable super computers of the last 15 years, which are somtimes called "phones". I have no Idea what happens if those low temp bismuth based alloys get in contact with lead. In my youth the Cray-I seemed to be the most wonderfull super computer ever in existance, probably because it was at that time :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray-1 The Iconic form of the Cray 1 is also still being recognized by many (even not so computer savvy) people. An average phone will outperform it by a factor of 20 or more, and at a fraction of the power consumption :) Happy Soldering. |
| mrpackethead:
--- Quote from: Doctorandus_P on January 26, 2019, 08:54:06 am ---I can confirm all of the above. I jumped onto lead free soldering because I disliked the idea of using lead even before RoSH, but I could not even finish the first 100g roll of lead-free solder. It is a nuicanse to work with as a hobbyists. --- End quote --- What kind of solder where you using. I regulary use SAC305 ( henkel ) with a Hakko FX-951 set at 365C and it is really no more hassle to work with than 60/40. --- Quote ---Extra Flux is mandatory when working with smd components. --- End quote --- I find that the flux ( 5 core ) that is embedded in the solder i use is normally sufficent. |
| Domagoj T:
--- Quote from: Doctorandus_P on January 26, 2019, 08:54:06 am ---When you are working with Lead-Free solder you have to look out for Lead contamination. 1% of lead contamination can mess with the lead free alloy and you can loose upto 90% of mechanical strength, and solder isn't that strong to begin with. --- End quote --- Really? It's that crucial? I usually suck off the original stuff and reapply the leaded, but never paid too much attention to it. You learn something every day. |
| Electro Detective:
I've gone over lead free solder after sucking it out, isohol clean up, refresh with standard lead solder, and clean up Never a problem, shiny and 'tough as nails' joint I must be doing something wrong to get it right :-// |
| wernerj:
--- Quote from: Domagoj T on January 26, 2019, 09:58:10 am ---Really? It's that crucial? I usually suck off the original stuff and reapply the leaded, but never paid too much attention to it. You learn something every day. --- End quote --- Especially important to keep the lead out if you ever work with the low-temp solder (Sn42/Bi57.6/Ag0.4 for example), I've been told that lead wreaks absolute havoc with the melting point on those. As the melting point is already a very low 138C this apparently gets lowered even further by having even small amounts of lead present. I use low-temp solder paste for SMD prototyping as it is a lot easier to move stuff around, but these days lead-free "high-temp" paste is almost as simple. Getting the reflow profiles dialed in is a bit more challenging though - plastic connector bodies tend to have their surface finish ruined when running too hot. :/ I still also have some spools of SnPb in a drawer somewhere but haven't touched them in something like 10 years. Most importantly though, as already mentioned above - liquid (or gel rather) flux _will_ make your live a lot easier! |
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