1lb solder US $136.00 ?

[capwizard]

Why 1lb solder US $136.00 ? and 6 sold?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-1-Ro...-/221383237722

I can afford is this one. (Made in China) because i am broke.

PS: even it contain silver price still too high. Is that made in UK? Can anyone please share their recent experience.
http://www.cardas.com/solder.php

1 Pound Silver US $365.00
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-Pound-999-...-/262883869951

2 Kilo ( PAIR ) Pamp Suisse Gold Bar .9999 Fine US $114,000.00
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Kilo-PAIR-...-/371732170924

[capwizard]

Re: 1lb solder US $136.00 ?

Poormans Cardas Quad Eutectic solder = A + B + C

[eccerr0r]

Re: 1lb solder US $136.00 ?

[excuse the imperial measurements]

wow. That's crazy, then again anything that's an "audiophile brand" goes for quite a bit.

400g ~= 1lb (well, less than 1 lb, but at $130/lb the math is easier).

Solder prices have gone up since when I first started looking, but I thought the going price is around $16/lb now.

Then again for a hobbyist, 1lb solder will last a long, long time, and one can afford a one time charge. I think all the solder I've ever bought:

1 0.5 lb roll of 60/40 0.08"
1 250g roll of 60/40 0.04"
1 0.25 lb roll of lead free 99/0.7 0.04"

I grabbed a spool of 63/37 0.031" with 0.25 lb left that someone was dumping.

and some leftover solder wire from random places that probably weighs less than 0.1 lb...

I don't see myself buying any more solder for the foreseeable future, unless I need to solder copper pipes.

[Spitz]

Re: 1lb solder US $136.00 ?

Whats wrong with this on amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Vastar-Activi...916060&sr=1-15

[capwizard]

Re: 1lb solder US $136.00 ?

Sin plata. (No silver) In spanish slang means "I have no money."

[petehall347]

Re: 1lb solder US $136.00 ?

i use this stuff
MBO 0.7mm Wire Lead solder, +183 → +190°C Melting Point, 40% Lead, 60% Tin, 100g
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/solde...35343733343426

[mariushm]

Re: 1lb solder US $136.00 ?

capwizard, go for something like this

63/37 26awg/0.38mm 2-2.2% Crystal 400 (no-clean flux) : http://www.digikey.com/product-detai...117-ND/2498915

Small diameter for surface mount stuff, decent amount of flux, little to no residue and no need to clean the flux. No silver but cheap.

This is even better, 63/37 Crystal 502 (no-clean, 3% flux, 0.38mm) : http://www.digikey.com/product-detai...131-ND/2498929

I personally have a 500g spool of this one 64/37 Crystal 502 but at 0.56mm. Love it.

If you want something with silver, i'd recommend this one (i'd buy for myself if i can't find 62/36/2) : http://www.digikey.com/product-detai...4OZ-ND/2177057
It's 96.5% tin, 3% silver , 0.5% copper ... good combination that melts at ~ 217c and the wire is also thin enough and it has no-clean flux

[capwizard]

Re: 1lb solder US $136.00 ?

Thank you very much,They are all good stuff but I can't afford now, I hate cheap solder before I use only USA made solder. but now more and more cheap China TV so I think China solder will blend good with it.

More and more SMD parts do not need any solder I just use Hot Air put it right back............

Next topic : How to make Homemade recycled poorman's solder or How to solder without solder.

[mariushm]

Re: 1lb solder US $136.00 ?

Most good solders aren't necessarily made in USA, for example Multicore is made in Malaysia or some other places.
As long as their quality control is good I have no problem with it.

I buy things with the concept "I'm too poor to buy cheap stuff" .. for example, i bought maybe 2 or 3 mains powered soldering irons before I said "f#$k it" and bought a used original Hakko 936 for around 50$ on eBay.

I was pissed for wasting 20$ and months waiting for that crap to come from China when that 50$ soldering station was maybe 10 times better and made the repairs I needed (when i started repairing stuff) so many times faster.

Just the same, when it was time to buy some solder, I just went for a 500g spool of quality multicore 63/37 instead of wasting money trying ebay solders and getting pissed at the bad quality.

What you're saying about using hot air to resolder surface soldered parts is not good.

At the very least, you should use some liquid flux because metals oxidize as soon as you leave them be, so using just hot air alone would make bad solder joints... you're creating weak solder joints.

Flux is cheap - i have some Polish made no-clean flux that works great and it's super cheap.. the exact bottle i have can be bought for 2$ for 50ml : http://www.tme.eu/en/details/flux-tk...mopasty/tk-83/ but they have 1 liter bottles (34 ounces) for as low as 26 dollars or 30 dollars
I don't solder enough to buy 1 liter bottles but my next bottle will be 100ml or 250ml for sure.
Liquid flux really makes life easier, especially with old boards.

Digikey only has expensive pens ... no need, you can buy syringes or toner/ink refill bottles which have tight nozzles and caps and use those.

The alphametals and the Kester solder wires seem to be of reasonable quality. If you're having problems soldering with those, maybe it's your soldering iron or technique that's the problem? Or maybe these solders don't have enough flux in them?
What solder iron are you using? If you have one of those solder guns then it may explain why you'd have difficulty soldering, as those often have the tip too hot which doesn't give the flux enough time to do its job.

[capwizard]

Re: 1lb solder US $136.00 ?

mariushm Thank you very much for your advice.

pic1 : Kester solder wires : Lot of (2) Kester Leaded Solder Wire 1-lb., SN63PB37 two for US $22.00
WoW...It is A steal , I bought it right away , I am extremely HAPPY. I do not need to use the low quality solder anymore. Good solders will pay for itself. At the meantime, I will feel guilty to put low end solder on customer stuffs.

"SMD parts do not need any solder I just use Hot Air put it right back"
I used to put a homemade Flux for SMD parts resoldering, recently I just lazy to put it , I will from now on. Thank you.

[eccerr0r]

Re: 1lb solder US $136.00 ?

Honestly I think solder is solder, just make sure the ratio is right or about right. As long as it's not contaminated with copper...

Most of the time the 60/40 or 63/37 works fine, I don't notice much difference. I've come across 50/50 solder and that solder is awful to use. It was for ancient electronics where heat wasn't nearly as big an issue.

However the flux makes a huge difference... I give thumbs up on Kester solders.

BTW, I still have a fairly significant ball of used solder, would be nice to make a wire out of it once again and use it as fill solder when external flux is available, instead of wasting fresh solder...

[capwizard]

Re: 1lb solder US $136.00 ?

How to make solder paste by Electronics and Kо. Схемы и устройства
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJZz4QAkAIA

"a fairly significant ball of used solder" https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=58792

[eccerr0r]

Re: 1lb solder US $136.00 ?

At this point I've stopped "growing" this "main" ball every time I get excess waste solder, and growing a second ball. Then I merge the two when the second ball gets large enough. All the waste solder from my desolder pump and any spilled solder gets dumped into the waste instead of the trash. Most of the solder is from desoldering.

At first I was using my 45W solder iron to grow the ball, but yes, now I have to use a butane torch to add to it as the thing takes forever to melt to grow now as it has so much thermal mass, it sinks all the heat away.

I suspect the tin:lead ratio to be near 70:30 now with lots of impurities such as ash, oxides, and copper/iron from broken wires and leads. I would have thought it should be near 60:40 but with additional ROHS solder, who knows what the ratio is now.

It would be neat to make this thing into one continuous wire.

(That's a Sacagawea US dollar coin along the side. The outside diameters of the two are similar though the picture makes it seem like the ball is immensely larger. The ball is just a bit larger than the diameter of the coin.)

[edit]

You know what, perhaps this thing should live its life as recycled solder paste instead of recycled wire...

[capwizard]

Re: 1lb solder US $136.00 ?

Thank you. That is the Meteorite from the Space. ................

I think you need to copy the Russian ( in this youtube video) files this Meteorite down to metal powder to use it. It is very good weapon for self-defence if you ever need.

[eccerr0r]

Re: 1lb solder US $136.00 ?

I got a small ceramic pot (i.e. soufflé dish) and melted it down. Got some of the impurities/ash out floating on top. Unfortunately now it no longer looks like a meteorite, but a fat metal disc... Still probably hurts though no scratches if thrown at someone.

I'm sure I'll be adding more to it, though probably not very quickly unless I have another salvaging session.

[televizora]

Re: 1lb solder US $136.00 ?

I thought that the people in US are generally better financially than in eastern Europe..
My dear Amerikan spanish friend..Cynel..Buy Cynel - 100g/8levs which is 4.41$
You can buy more than a kilogram for 40$. I would never buy solder with a price of more than 300$ per kilogram. It's insane.

[televizora]

Re: 1lb solder US $136.00 ?

I can afford is this one. (Made in China) because i am broke

This is bad.. One that I will show is the one that I use. It's Polish and it's fine.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from...cynel&_sacat=0
The price is a bit higher thou...
Here - 1kg for 32$. It's very good deal... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lotzinn-0-56...GmQqfmBKms-4DQ

[mariushm]

Re: 1lb solder US $136.00 ?

televizora, no offense but Cynel is crap solder compared to Multicore and some Kester solder varieties (depends a lot on the type of flux and percentage of flux inside the wire).

I'm not even American, i'm in Europe, but I still bought Multicore solder when I needed to, bought a 500g spool and will last me for years and I don't regret it, it's excellent solder.

[eccerr0r]

Re: 1lb solder US $136.00 ?

Of the rolls of solder I have, only the Kester "44" solder, though it makes a lot of smoke and has considerable residue, it wets very well to whatever I try to solder. The "245" ("no-clean") Kester flux I have isn't as sticky/good, and the noname solder cores are just marginally useful.

Sometimes I wonder if all that used solder, if I was to extrude it into wire again and get some good separate solder flux, would it be better than the lesser new solders that I have?

Even better if it were possible to embed the rosin into it once again...

[televizora]

Re: 1lb solder US $136.00 ?

televizora, no offense but Cynel is crap solder...

I've used perhaps kilometers of Cynel solder and I know what is it's quality.
It's much better than any cheap China crap with more lead than tin, that produces extreme quantity of smoke, wets extremely bad and produces nothing, but fragile cold joints.
Long time ago I bought 250g of China solder, that was crap. Eyes burning, extreme quantity of fumes(bad rosin) and there was no way to solder anything at all - the solder just refused to wet or stick on pure copper surface. This is how bad the China solder is.
For it's price Cynel is one of the best. The author of the topic seems to be in financial difficulties right now. And he pointed to some china solder, that is honestly crap. Cynel is much better. For it's price! Never had any troubles with Cynel!
And if you don't like Cynel, there is Stannol.