Soldering. Lost the plot somewhere.

I agree with the calls to avoid lead free solder, but when buying leaded solder consider the newer 63/37 mix rather than the more traditional 60/40.

63/37 is eutectic unlike 60/40 and this reduces the chance of fine movement creating a dry joint, particularly if you are working in less than ideal circumstances. Overall 63/37 is just more pleasant to work with.

Also consider the flux that is built into the solder. There are weak and aggressive fluxes. The former make cleaning up the joint easier and reduce the chance of subsequent corrosion, the later are better for hard to solder situations such as wire with some corrosion. A cheap solution if you are not doing much soldering is to buy solder with an inbuilt mild flux and add some more aggressive flux if it needed.
 
Checked my solder stock. Did have a roll of Chinese 60/40 which I'd abandoned due to problems tinning the new iron. I've just found an old Welco iron with a copper bit the 60/40 works fine with that so I'm just going to make some copper bits. That should restore the skills of my youth. Thanks for the help solving the mystery.
 
KAM said:
In desperation I bought a couple of new irons branded Antex. I seemed to remember they were good but both are poor quality with very stiff electrical flex.....
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The old names are all "made in china" now, so don't expect the quality of 50 years ago.
 
Nothing wrong with lead free solder, it just doesn't hide poor technique as well. Get on YouTube and watch some videos on soldering and you'll be fine. The main issue is usually not having molten solder on the tip to transfer heat to the wire, like cooking in a dry pan it just doesn't work.
 
Both the Antex soldering irons I bought on Amazon recently failed pretty quickly. On the 80W one the handle has melted. The handle on smaller wattage one has also started to melt but has now failed electrically.
I thought Antex was a decent make. I'm wondering if these are fakes. Looks like they are Chinese generics exactly the same as Silverline, Draper and other cheap brands unfortunately. Any recommendations for a better brand. On the upside I bit the bullet and bought some expensive solder from RS which works a treat.
 
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KAM said:
Both the Antex soldering irons I bought on Amazon recently failed pretty quickly. On the 80W one the handle has melted. The handle on smaller wattage one has also started to melt but has now failed electrically.
I thought Antex was a decent make. I'm wondering if these are fakes. Looks like they are Chinese generics exactly the same as Silverline, Draper and other cheap brands unfortunately. Any recommendations for a better brand. On the upside I bit the bullet and bought some expensive solder from RS which works a treat.
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Don't be fooled by the old names, you haven't really bought 'Antex' everything is Chinese now. Not fakes they're just not very good.
 
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penberth3 said:
Don't be fooled by the old names, you haven't really bought 'Antex' everything is Chinese now. Not fakes they're just not very good.
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Many discrete components have magnetic iron wires these days, not tinned copper. If you have tried soldering steel/iron you will know that the rosin flux in cored solder wire is not much good for this. Buy a tub of laco plumbers flux for such jobs, its a world of difference and not corrosive like Baker's fluid.
 
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Boater Sam said:
Many discrete components have magnetic iron wires these days, not tinned copper. If you have tried soldering steel/iron you will know that the rosin flux in cored solder wire is not much good for this. Buy a tub of laco plumbers flux for such jobs, its a world of difference and not corrosive like Baker's fluid.
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Ah yes I did wonder about that. Thought it was just poor quality copper.
 
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