[johnjen]

No one has any experience with 'Wonder Solder' from TRT?

It is what I have been using since the 70's when I first ran across it.
I use it for all my audio related solder jobs.

http://www.partsconnexion.com/solder_trt.html

Flows well, is nice and shiny and comes in 2 sizes.
Also pay attention to the temperature as it tends to help burn off the flux.

JJ

 

[FallenAngel]

No one has any experience with 'Wonder Solder' from TRT?

It is what I have been using since the 70's when I first ran across it.
I use it for all my audio related solder jobs.

http://www.partsconnexion.com/solder_trt.html

Flows well, is nice and shiny and comes in 2 sizes.
Also pay attention to the temperature as it tends to help burn off the flux.

JJ

 
Yep, tried it. Easy to work with and works well.
 
Honestly, after some years of experience, 63/37 works very well when you know what you're doing. I don' remember the last time I had a cold joint or any other issue using it.

 

[FallenAngel]

Question for the older guys: have you seen low melting point solder melt and not stick to the materials? I remember using some Cardas solder flowing across larger connectors (think Cardas RCAs) and then breaking off as if it never stuck. That's one of the reasons I use 63/37. Both materials should be hot enough to stick.

 

[MisterX]

I have seen that with the Cardas rhodium plated connectors but those are a pain regardless of the solder.

 

[GreenBow]

  The Cardas Quad Eutectic melts at 370° and the flux has a rather distinctive smell.
Could also check to see if the retailer is listed on the Cardas site as a distributor.

 

The best connection is a solid mechanical connection, in a proper joint solder should be seen more as a glue and sealant to maintain said mechanical connection and not as a conductor.

Also, I don't see any reason to go with exotic solder brands, you're paying mostly for the name. With research you will find the chemical makeup of the exotics is almost identical to a leadless Kester as it is silver bearing as well. But any "silver" or leadless will require temperatures of or near 400 degrees C or 750 degrees F for proper flow.

 

  These 96.5% Tin, 3.0% Silver, 0.5% Copper solders are referred to as "SAC305".  I have the version Adafruit sells, though I've bought a bunch of random stuff from Sparkfun, too. 

  I don't have any issues getting this SAC305 RoHS solder to flow, but I do have a Hakko soldering station (FX-888).  I get good results with the temp set to 270C (I'm not sure how accurate the temp is, though, since I've never had the opportunity to calibrate it).
 
I'll have to look up this Cardas Quad, though.  The stuff I have ends up corroding everything if I don't clean it with 90% isopropyl when I'm finished.  It claims to be a 'no clean' (rosin core) solder, but I've had conductive crystals form between headers and the pins of nearby ICs on breakout boards and everything I soldered together when I first started looks 'crusty'... sort of like a white rust, sometimes with normal rust mixed in.

 
Thank you for these replies. I just discovered what the temp is that my iron works at; 390'C. It is an Antex XS 25, http://www.antex.co.uk/soldering/precision-range-soldering-irons/xs25/
 
It is an excellent iron with bog-standard solder.
 
Anyway I have been rethinking the job I was going to do. My intention was to open some speakers of mine, the Q Acoustics BT3. They are power speakers and connected by a length of cable. I relaced this cheap black cable with some Chord Clearway and saw the improvement. 
 
I was also thinking that the cabling inside either the master or the slave speaker, was cheap cable. Anyway on further thinking I guess opening the speakers would void warranty. Therefor I can't do anything until I find out. Even so though I wonder if they are soldered at all. They may use connectors.
 
I would need to replace cable from amp to speaker, inside the powered speaker. Also the cable from amp to sockets out for the slave speaker. The slave speaker maybe the cabling too.
 
I guess I need to contact Q Acoustics, and look for repair vidoes on youtube. Though I doubt there will be repair videos as there isn't much on these speakers on youtube.

 

[Cidious]

I use WBT 4% 0.8mm silver for all my serious projects. For testing and some smaller work I have some simple Chinese 0.6mm flux core solder which is actually not bad I guess.. 

 

[MrMojo1]

I use Kester 44 63/37 .031 and .020.  I use the .031 for most projects but do use the .020 for SMD soldering.  For around $30 you can buy a 1 lb. spool!  That's enough for a long time if not a lifetime depending on how many projects you do.
 
Based on high recommendations from many online, I bought some Cardas Quad Eutectic for my last audio project.  It was kind of expensive (~$27 for 100g) but it was nice to work with like people say.  My initial impressions are that it flows well and my joints were nice and shiny : )  I don't know if it makes the sonics better but it doesn't hurt ; )
 
I have also heard Wonder solder is good but I have not tried it yet so I can't comment.

 

[sceleratus]

I have always used Multicore / Loc 0.5mm 5 core.    I get great results.  I learned to solder SMD using Dave Jones (EEVBLOG) 3 part tutorial.
This is the solder Dave recommends.  SMD is not a problem.  I can't imagine that some exotic or solder with say Ag would make much sonic of a difference.
 
My son had limited soldering experience.  After watching the tutorial, he's building a dense SMD differential preamp.
 

 
 
 

 
 

 

[ShinAyasaki]

Switched from WBT 4% to Cardas Quad Eutectic because of the cheaper price 

Actually It not too bad comparing with the WBT, except the smell of lead is strong with this one.

 

[FallenAngel]

Switched from WBT 4% to Cardas Quad Eutectic because of the cheaper price 


Actually It not too bad comparing with the WBT, except the smell of lead is strong with this one.

That's not lead

 

[tangent]

Originally Posted by ShinAyasaki 

...the smell of lead is strong with this one. 

That's not lead

 
...or if it is, I want to know how you got the solder to 1,749°C.  

 

[UnknownAX]

...or if it is, I want to know how you got the solder to 1,749°C.  

Not implying that what he smelled was lead but sure enough, soldering fumes do contain lead. At 400°C the lead concentration of the air around the tip would theoretically be around 1.9x10^-8 mol/m3. Much of that will bond to the fumes so at worst you could have 4ug of lead in 1 cubic meter of fumes...

 

[ShinAyasaki]

The Cardas Quad Eutetic contains lead, and WBT Silver Solder doesn't (http://www.musicdirect.com/p-7735-wbt-silver-solder-lead-free-42g-09mm-dia.aspx)
 


And the smell of the WBT silver solder is much better than the Cardas, so I guess the difference is because of the-amount-of-lead-was-contained in the Cardas solder.
But of course, the ingredients of the WBT solder and the Cardas one are much different, so maybe it's not about lead but the other thing, who knows?

 

[b0bb]

  I have seen that with the Cardas rhodium plated connectors but those are a pain regardless of the solder.

 
 

  Question for the older guys: have you seen low melting point solder melt and not stick to the materials? I remember using some Cardas solder flowing across larger connectors (think Cardas RCAs) and then breaking off as if it never stuck. That's one of the reasons I use 63/37. Both materials should be hot enough to stick.

 
The Cardas RCA connectors have a lot of metal in them, I pre-heat mine with a hot air wand to about 240degF
 
Flux is required to get the solder to wet the Rhodium plated connectors, I apply it and use a big tip to do the soldering especially for the ground connection.
The solder flows nicely and the connection is very strong (cannot pull it apart using pliers)

 

[AnyDave]

I'm a big fan of Kester 63/37.  I mostly use 0.20" and 0.025" but occasionally use smaller for SMT work and larger if I'm soldering larger joints.