What kind of solder do you use?

Wing Nut: yes your right but if taken care they will last for ever, the electronics industry discovered resistance soldering guess what happened to the price on thoes soldering sets.Upupupupupupup they went in price.                        Aceses

And old train guy recently told me the same thing.  Kind of pricey though. Unless I am looking at the wrong thing.

Brian: Here is an old trick I learned when I was still into model trains,try resinstance soldering you will use less sololder and get cleaner joints. American Beauty makes an excellent soldering set, give it a try I think you'll like it you can use core or coreless solder.                                 Aceses5

Hello,

I found that the best solder to use with PE is called Tix Solder, you can find it a Micro Mark.

http://www.micromark.com/TIX-SOLDER-PKG-OF-20-3-STICKS,6707.html

There is also a seperate flux as well that works great.

Cheers,

Thom

Hey Brian,

I just found another article which may be of interest.

http://www.indy-amps.org/articles/soldering/soldering.html

Of note is this section:

Solders that contain rosin (or some kind of "core") flow easily everywhere there is metal and enough heat. Solders that do not contain flux tend to stay put when melted. This property of rosin is what you exploit to get good results soldering PE. Use a rosin core solder on PE and you have an uphill battle contoling the solder flow. It will be very hard to keep solder from covering up detail and your joints will be huge silvery blobs. However, if you use carefully applied rosin flux and a core-less solder, you can prevent solder from getting into places you don't want it. I recommend practicing on some etch fret to see how the two types of solders behave before your first attempt on actual PE.

I hadn't thought about that aspect, but yes, when you heat rosin core solder, particularly in situ the flux boils out in a puddle around the joint.

Excellent Phil, that clears up a few things.  Thanks!

Brian

Hi Brian,

I think the recommendation about not to use rosin core solder is because it often leaves an unsightly burnt plasticky residue around the joint.  Most solders commonly used in electronics applications are rosin cored.

Commonly, solder is a mixture of lead, tin and copper. In electronic applications, you will also find "silver solder" which is a mix of silver, tin and copper (no lead) which has a higher electrical conductivity (less resistance). "Lead Free" solders are commonly tin/copper.

Lead free and silver solders generally have a higher melting temperature than solders containing lead, and I believe you need an iron-clad tip when working with silver solders.

I believe that using a separate flux provides a cleaner joint in that any residue is more easily cleaned, compared with rosin fluxes. Also, the fluxes are somewhat corrosive, the purpose being to clean the joint to allow the solder to flow and adhere to the metals. This is not ideal in an electronicv application, hence the use of rosin cored solders where the flux is "contained" to an extent.

Hey modelchasm,

If your interested here is the article I found that mentioned which solder NOT to use:

http://www.ipmsrichmond.org/resources/IPMS%20Richmond-Soldering%20Photoetch.pdf

And then of course a few weeks later I got my latest issue of FSM and Rick Lawler has his article in there (but makes no mention about which solder is appropriate).  I ran a search on Radioshack.com to see what they have to offer....and the answer is about 3 dozen different brands/types.  A lot of it with rosin in it too.  Hmm......

Brian

I don't think that I can answer your question about which solder to use, but I too am interested in trying this out. Seems like it would be good to use solder on PE screens as when using CA I've gotten some glue stuck in the small holes w/ no way to clean it out. With solder, at least you could reheat it and try to flow it out ...

We'll have to do some more research to see if I can find some more answers ....

Maybe you guys at FSM staff have some answers???

The bond is much better.  You can deform parts more relaisticly on armor builds, and you have more leeway when assembling.  It is pretty much the same deal for anything out there in the world, CA glue is good for some things, but not others, soldering is good for something but not others.

Brian

What would even be the purpose of soldering PE parts? Why can't you just use CA glue on them?

The only solder I have ever used has been rosin core but I only use that when I install a car stereo in one of my vehicles. I use that with my solder station and it works great. PE parts on the other hand I don't understand.