Solder and Soldering Irons

Discussion in 'DIY' started by JK47, Nov 28, 2015.

  1. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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  2. JeffYoung

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    The flashing on my roof is lead. It's welded at the seams and corners. The welding "rod" is no more than strips cut off the edge of the lead sheeting. It's welded with an oxy-hydrogen torch (you can use oxy-acetylene, but it's more diffiuclt as it's a bit on the hot side).

    I don't worry much about the lead in my solder.
     
  3. Zampotech

    Zampotech Friend

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    Last edited: Mar 12, 2019
  4. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    I think this roll of Kester was my dad's... I've use it for years and have hardly made a dent in it.

    [​IMG]
     
  5. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    Here you can find the composition and melting/flow points in F for jeweller's silver solder: https://blog.halsteadbead.com/2019/01/08/types-of-silver-solder-in-jewelry/

    There is actually one more grade of silver solder: enamelling. An enamelling kiln heats to almost yellow heat and would laugh at ordinary "hard" solder. Enamelling-grade solder melts juuust before the point at which the silver itself would.

    Brazing is a funny word, because isn't it's root brass? But it is used for what might also be called hard soldering of various metals. It requires red heat, but is waaay cooler than welding.

    Silver and gold items for testing and hallmarking must meet the minimum relevant standards for proportion of the precious metal, and that includes the soldered joints, so it is important to keep that percentage up and use as little solder as possible. It is also important to keep the colour of the solder close: the standard for the soldered joins is invisible.
     
  6. Zampotech

    Zampotech Friend

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    I have samples of radios made in the ' 50s. There's no solder at all. All joints are made by welding. Each junction point is a copper drop. To repair these receivers is a terrible horror.
     
  7. tomchr

    tomchr MOT - Neurochrome

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    As long as you don't eat a bunch of greasy food with your fingers right after spending a day soldering, there should be no concerns about lead poisoning. It doesn't get hot enough during the soldering process. Just wash your fingers before you suck on them ... or be civil and use a fork. ;)

    Weller has a nice flux fumes extractor. It's basically a fan with a charcoal filter. I have one. It works great. Weller P/N: WSA350.

    As for the different solder alloys, I wrote a bit of a thesis on that. You can find it here: https://www.neurochrome.com/choosing-solder/

    Tom
     
  8. Zampotech

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    Thanks so much. Very interesting research. Met some unknown to me details.

    On solvents. I want to Supplement your research.

    When washing printed circuit boards of the devices on the tubes I've tried lots of different solvents.

    The minimum leakage current was when using a mixture of pure gasoline and pure wheat alcohol. Hydrolytic (synthetic) alcohol can not be used, it leaves a thin white film. Gasoline, too, should be very transparent and not smelly as the usual gasoline.
    The mixture consists of 50% alcohol and 50% gasoline. When mixing it is necessary to give time for complete formation of the mixture.
    This mixture quickly removes water-soluble, fat-soluble and alcohol-soluble contaminants. In applying separately the alcohol and petrol separately, the effect will be worse.
     
  9. Armaegis

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    I was not aware that there was a non-smelly gasoline... is the smell due to additives that they put into it? Or perhaps the gasoline in your part of the world is different from ours?
     
  10. randytsuch

    randytsuch Friend

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    Couple comments.
    This is in Tom's writeup, but I'll reemphasize that if you use water soluble flux, its conductive and you really need to clean it off well. I never have used water sol flux at home, but we use it at work so I know its conductive and can affect circuits if not completely cleaned off.

    For cleaning rosin flux, I still use alcohol, I think I've said this earlier but I'll post my method again.
    Get a small, fairly stiff brush, dip in alcohol, and scrub your board. Then get a paper towel or similar, and immediately dab the board while its still wet. The paper will absorb the now dirty alcohol, and turn brown. May take a few cleanings, but the board should get pretty clean, and without having to buy special cleaning solvents.
     
  11. Biodegraded

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    Heh. I still vividly recall my father's reaction after my youthful attempt at 'repairing' his old Leak Stereo 30 amp using soluble flux...
     
  12. Priidik

    Priidik MOT: Estelon

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    Have you not seen the colour of the flame when cars in Russia crash?
    The non smelly stuff for you is regular gasoline.
     
  13. Zampotech

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    In fact, you're right, the smell of gasoline depends on oil. Russia has relatively young oil, it needs another hundred million years before it is fully ripe. It is difficult to get high-octane gasoline from such heavy oil.

    At the previous work, when we needed high-octane gasoline, and there was only low-octane, we added hydrolytic alcohol.

    Octane number of motor gasoline is increased by additives. Sometimes add liquefied gas. Very smelly mixture.


    Here's my clean gasoline

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Mar 15, 2019
  14. Biodegraded

    Biodegraded Friend

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    Imprecise term, but here we'd call that naphtha. Are those numbers intial & final boiling points? If so, that's a light to medium one (hydrocarbons mostly lighter than C6).

    Edit: Forgot to mention: heaviness of oil is not directly due to its age; commonly it's because it's been... biodegraded :D

    /OT.
     
    Last edited: Mar 15, 2019
  15. Zampotech

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    The description for this gasoline says that the initial boiling point is 80C, the final 120C. Density 0.7 grams / cm3

    That's possible. I have in this area superficial knowledge. So we at the University explained the reasons for the small amount of high-octane gasoline. The course of fuels and lubricants we had a small. We studied the nature of oil only for acquaintance.
     
    Last edited: Mar 15, 2019
  16. JustAnotherRando

    JustAnotherRando My other bike is a Ferrari

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    A reminder to ventilate* your room when soldering.

    I neglected to open my balcony doors whilst soldering last night and this is what I found with my air monitor, despite running two fairly beefy air purifiers in the room.

    Normal versus soldering shots:


    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    * Ventilate doesn't mean use one of those dinky little fans with a carbon sponge next to your station. I'm convinced that those things only 'work' by taking the plume of soldering fumes and invisibly dispersing it throughout the room.
     
  17. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    I'm just amazed you can concentrate enough to solder at 28c, when it's that hot I have a river of sweat in my eyes.
     
  18. JustAnotherRando

    JustAnotherRando My other bike is a Ferrari

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    There's something to be said for soldering in just your boxers.

    Good thing my solder doesn't splatter about when applied to the iron.
     
  19. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    Man, I wish I could forge shirtless but you only need to experience spark-to-nipple or spark-to-bellybutton contact once to nope the f**k out of that idea :(
     
  20. elmoe

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    Hahaha, I've yet to experience the spark to nips, though I've gotten a good zap from a huge film cap in my MPX3 when messing with it in the past. Definitely shook the brain some.
     

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