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

[TechnicsHiFiFan]

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

i use Duratech solder at Jaycar Australia 250g , its 60.40 lead tin. I keep a small amount of silver lead solder i think Cardas brand

[eccerr0r]

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

It's basically the bagged and blister packed items out in front and stuff people usually inspect before buying.

Except as bcn readers we need to make sure we don't buy Fuhjyyus. Incidentally the guy didn't stock X safety caps, and offered regular film caps. I declined...

[Curious.George]

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

The sad thing is that they keep the parts behind the counter, you have to go ask the guy for the part. Then he brings out a crapXon and then have to say No.

Unfortunate.

Yes. I only buy the items that are on display on the "customer side": belts, (large) batteries, connectors, test equipment, novelty crap, solder, hand tools, etc.

(Note this is a list of what's on the customer side, not the items that I've bought)

I suspect they only put the (physically) larger items out front. Too easy to see customers putting components back in the "wrong drawers/bins" for smaller items (like buying hardware at a hardware store: "is this really a 1/2inch #6-32 PHMS? Or, is it a misplaced 3/8inch??"

[eccerr0r]

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

The sad thing is that they keep the parts behind the counter, you have to go ask the guy for the part. Then he brings out a crapXon and then have to say No.

Unfortunate.

[Curious.George]

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

Well they *were* around, they were indeed out in the middle of nowhere and nondescript, but eventually they still succumbed to rent.

Hasn't been my experience. The shop that I visit, here, just moved into a larger space (one that they built on an empty lot adjacent to the old space they occupied)

There is still one around but they are quite high priced and sometimes sell crap (selling 1000uF crapXons for $2 each) but it was the only way to stay in business.

You don't have to buy anything from them that doesn't fit your price/quality point! E.g., I order most of my components through Digikey, prepaying by check to avoid the shipping charges (because I am seldom in a rush to save the two days it takes for my check to make it to them by ordering on-line).

OTOH, I've used Ma&Pa to buy replacement belts for stereo kit (has the advantage that I can see if the belt will actually fit before I get home).

[stj]

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

i dont have any lead - havnt for years

[llonen]

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

I have about 30 lbs of differing diameters, quite a lot of that was liberated from a pcb factory I used to work in when it was closing. Other stock came from workshop clearances and oddly car boot sales. I have some rolls of leaded kester to try out. Thinking about it I probably don't have any lead free solder.

[kc8adu]

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

about 50 lbs.
about 20 in kester 44.
a bunch of bars for replacing industrial battery cells.
and a bunch of oddball stuff.

[tvtimmy]

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

I found a 1 pound roll in an old toolbox. I bought it back in 1986 for a high school electronics class. I used about 5 feet of it back then. Mostly to have our molten solder ball fights! It was all dingy and dark colored but with the help of some scotchbrite it shines back up and works great. Only have 10 feet of it left. When they started closing all the radio schack stores I cleaned a few of them out of their solder.

[Trevtron]

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

Funnily enough I just found a stash of the stuff the other day. I normally have two reels 'on the go'. They're both getting low so I started browsing the 'well-known auction site' before levels got critically low. I was actually looking to get some from China as they don't seem to be as fussy about reducing lead or other noxious substances; you know the stuff they removed and made modern solder crap!
But I was looking through a box of stuff that has been lying on a shelf since I moved house almost two years ago and lo! Four unused 500g reels of solder I must have bought about 15 years ago. Happy days, that should last a good few years.

[eccerr0r]

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

Well they *were* around, they were indeed out in the middle of nowhere and nondescript, but eventually they still succumbed to rent. There is still one around but they are quite high priced and sometimes sell crap (selling 1000uF crapXons for $2 each) but it was the only way to stay in business.

The most famous local one that eventually got rent-ousted was JB Saunders which is a good 30-40 minutes away or so. There was also an Eagle electronics (was also around 30 mins away) that also went under, and even Mountain State was forced to move due to rent prices. Now in the middle of nowhere, they have the benefit of Radio Shack gone. Yet they still needed to keep prices up to stay in business and they hide everything in the warehouse. Alas it's the only place that one could even possibly find components locally...

The other thing about "obvious" places is that they would save money from advertising. They either need to be there or they have to do heavy advertising, both of which can get pricey. They have to live on buyers, it's the whole reason for having a store...

[Curious.George]

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

These types of stores have long gone out of business and eaten up by radio shack and such, which have been subsequently eaten up by internet sales.

I've found them in every place that I've lived. But, you have to look for them (cuz they don't take out full page ads and often don't have "web sites"). As such, they aren't often convenient to access (it's a 20 minute drive for me to get to the nearest one).

The same is true of electrical supply companies, plumbing supplies, etc. Far easier to find a Lowe's or Home Despot... but, they will seldom have some of the more esoteric things that you might want to purchase (when is the last time you saw a divider to partition a multigang Jbox?)

Even mainstream stores can have "new old stock" that hasn't been repriced since its initial purchase. E.g., I bought 4 750ml bottles (all they had on the shelf) of a special liqueur at $11.99/each from KMART when it was selling for $22/each at every other liquor store (KMart obviously doesn't do much business in that particular liquer!). When I went back a week later, I bought 4 more (again, everything that they had on display) at that same price. When I went back a third time, they had obviously reordered and the new price was $22 (surprise!).

All good things must end -- but, I managed to save $80 on a $100 outlay!

If you look in the obvious places, then every other jamoke is also looking in those places and you're competing with more consumers.

[eccerr0r]

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

Find a "mom & pop" electronics store.

What did you say? What are those? Talking about unicorns here?

These types of stores have long gone out of business and eaten up by radio shack and such, which have been subsequently eaten up by internet sales.

I used to know two or so of these in the area but they have closed down. One of them got forcibly evicted from their store and people had a free for all, too bad I wasn't close by.

For me, the best I can get are from flea markets, if I'm lucky...

[Curious.George]

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

Solder prices also have skyrocketed since last I purchased solder, which probably is another good reason to stockpile.

Find a "mom & pop" electronics store. They will typically not be selling much solder. And, will often have priced it when they first put it on the shelf; that price reflecting what they paid for it "way back when". (i.e., when they REstock, the prices will go up to reflect their new "costs")

[eccerr0r]

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

What I wish is I could use my waste solder to help remove components if I can't use it for making solder paste Alas I need it back into a wire, even if it has no rosin...

[megaraider]

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

I use far more solder removing components than installing their replacements.

I think we all do

[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.

[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?

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...

[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...