Fun Poll: how much solder wire do you have stockpiled at home?

[eccerr0r]

Just solder wire. As I heard someone else say, I think I have enough solder to outlast myself... at least at current use.

Include:
- any gauge
- any flux
- spooled or spiral (estimate!)
- Pipe solder wire (make a note of it if you wish)

Don't include:
- solder pot solder
- solder bars
- waste solder

Yes I know the US "avdp" pounds vs metric measurements are slightly off, just pick which you use.

And I forgot to add the metric conversions for the last three options. 2lb option => 1kg option and 4lb => 2kg option.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Fun Poll: how much solder wire do you have stockpiled at home?

I think I have about 2.2 lbs (~1kg) of solder wire, about 0.75 lb (~0.33kg) is pipe solder.

I have another 0.5lb (~0.25kg) of waste solder I think... haven't weighed it in a while.

[diif]

Re: Fun Poll: how much solder wire do you have stockpiled at home?

One spool of quality 0.7mm solder
One spool of Chinese 0.4mm solder a bit crappy
One spool of Chinese 1mm solder, very crappy and thick but good for removing parts.
One spool of Chinese 0.4mm low temp solder.

I just have a lifetimes supply of Chemtronics braid (56 bobbins).

[stj]

Re: Fun Poll: how much solder wire do you have stockpiled at home?

one 100g reel of 5% silver 0.5mm very expensive stuff,
about half a 250g reel of 0.7mm pretty expensive stuff.
but as both are lead-free, there is a lot more on those reels in meters than it sounds.

and about 0.5L of industrial flux intended for wave-soldering.

[Curious.George]

Re: Fun Poll: how much solder wire do you have stockpiled at home?

About 7 pounds (various diameters) of "wire" -- a mix of Sn60 & Sn63 -- and a few tubes of paste.

Probably 3 pounds of "plumbers solder" as there tends to be more "waste" with that activity.

A dozen cans of aerosol board/flux cleaner.

[stj]

Re: Fun Poll: how much solder wire do you have stockpiled at home?

well if we are including cleaner, 10L of pure IPA.
(only way to get a decent price!!)

[eccerr0r]

Re: Fun Poll: how much solder wire do you have stockpiled at home?

Oh gosh, I totally forgot about paste (and solder balls for bga) and since they are used for construction, I should have included it with this poll. Alas probably need to multiply paste mass by a fraction as I don't want to count the flux/carrier as there's more not-solder in it than in wire solder. Solder balls probably have a go as-is.

Of what I have, I have that 0.25 lb of lead free electronics solder and a bit less than 0.5lb of lead free pipe solder. Yes I still have leaded pipe solder...

... and I have a minuscule amount of solder paste as I don't stockpile enough surface mount components at home to build with...

[Curious.George]

Re: Fun Poll: how much solder wire do you have stockpiled at home?

well if we are including cleaner, 10L of pure IPA.
(only way to get a decent price!!)

Easier to just "rescue" a case (but, then you have to store it :< )

[stj]

Re: Fun Poll: how much solder wire do you have stockpiled at home?

case?
that's in 2 5L containers.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Fun Poll: how much solder wire do you have stockpiled at home?

I wonder if my waste solder, if I skim enough of the crap out of it, is good enough to grind down into a powder and mix with flux to make homemade solder paste...

[diif]

Re: Fun Poll: how much solder wire do you have stockpiled at home?

I wonder if my waste solder, if I skim enough of the crap out of it, is good enough to grind down into a powder and mix with flux to make homemade solder paste...

Surely it will have lead and lead free solder mixed together ?
That can't make for an even melting paste, which is super cheap to buy anyway.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Fun Poll: how much solder wire do you have stockpiled at home?

Well I can stir it to make it homogeneous, so it shouldn't be too horrible. I suspect it has much more regular lead solder than lead free, maybe enough so that it's close to 63:37 (if 60:40 is primary component and the tin heavy lead free.)

Just seeing what I can do with this big lump of waste solder...

[diif]

Re: Fun Poll: how much solder wire do you have stockpiled at home?

I just stick mine with any scrap metal I'm taking to the recycling centre.
The lead balls are extremely small and even looking if I stick some paste under a microscope. If you think you can grind down your waste to that size without breathing in any particles why don't you try. Seems like an awful waste of time considering the price though.

[Curious.George]

Re: Fun Poll: how much solder wire do you have stockpiled at home?

case?
that's in 2 5L containers.

A dozen cans of aerosol board/flux cleaner.

Did you miss the word "aerosol" in my post?

[stj]

Re: Fun Poll: how much solder wire do you have stockpiled at home?

yes.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Fun Poll: how much solder wire do you have stockpiled at home?

And I thought I had a lot of solder, seems a few of you have even more; I guess it's ok for me to stockpile more solder

[CapLeaker]

Re: Fun Poll: how much solder wire do you have stockpiled at home?

I am usually have at least 1lb of solder, no lower than that and as high as 3lb. Different solders and different sizes also silver solder. Depending on how much you repai0r electronics you repair, adjust how much you got on hand...

[eccerr0r]

Re: Fun Poll: how much solder wire do you have stockpiled at home?

For me, building/creating uses more solder than repairing... I use really minuscule amounts for repair.

This is for home use, one can't expect to do *that* much building/repairing...

[Curious.George]

Re: Fun Poll: how much solder wire do you have stockpiled at home?

For me, building/creating uses more solder than repairing... I use really minuscule amounts for repair.

This is for home use, one can't expect to do *that* much building/repairing...

You're ignoring the fact that you often need different "(solder) wire sizes" for different tasks. Yeah, I guess you could probably buy a small qty (<< 1lb) of a variety of different sizes... if you don't mind rebuying those small quantities (at outrageous prices) often.

Or, you can buy a pound of each of several different sizes and "chemistries" (for want of a better word). It's not like it's going to "spoil" if you don't use it by next Thursday...

As to the amount of building/repairing that might be done, that depends entirely on the individual. I probably repair 4 or 5 dozen monitors in a typical year (not for profit; rather, it's somewhat "therapeutic"/mindless). I use far more solder removing components than installing their replacements.

And, any cabling that needs a more permanent connection (than wire nuts) eats up lots of solder (doing so with 0.4mm solder wire has the iron calling for solder faster than you can feed it!)

[eccerr0r]

Re: Fun Poll: how much solder wire do you have stockpiled at home?

You're ignoring the fact that you often need different "(solder) wire sizes" for different tasks. Yeah, I guess you could probably buy a small qty (<< 1lb) of a variety of different sizes... if you don't mind rebuying those small quantities (at outrageous prices) often.

That's how I would expect people to do it for home use, either buying small quantities of each size (otherwise those small spirals you see being sold) or just feeding a lot of the fine gauge solder wire (which I think is kind of dumb but to each their own.) Also the leaded vs unleaded solder, keeping both around is helpful. In any case, it's the stockpile I wonder about, even if they have indefinite shelf life.

Solder prices also have skyrocketed since last I purchased solder, which probably is another good reason to stockpile. Perhaps it's just the lead free requirements necessarily increasing the price due to tin being the more costly metal, and then vendors deciding to price their leaded solder to the same as lead free just because there's a demand for it. Don't know.

Even if you use a lot of solder to desolder and then more to re-solder, it's still less than soldering a whole new design/board

I suppose I'm also posting this on an enthusiast board versus casuals that may actually buy those small spirals of solder. Now those are quite overpriced.