There was me thinking that the Relife solder was 80% tin and 20% lead, I checked the spec, its 80% lead, 20% tin. I would call it a lead alloy solder not a tin alloy solder. It's a high melting point solder, about 310C, the 183C is the temperature when it has solidified again.
63% tin, 37% lead resin core .028 inch Ersin is fantabulous. 63/37 is supposed to be the only combination that sets up, solidifys with less temperature change. 60/40 sets slower which means I have to be steady for a greater time.
I've been using Kester 44 and have a huge role that will last me the rest of my life. It came out of Collins Radio in Cedar Rapids decades ago. I have tried modern solder but none can compare to the old tin/lead formulas for ease of use.
That's interesting. I stumbled on a huge roll of that in a miscellaneous box of stuff at a garage sale. I read some things on the internet that stated that "old solder" did not work well. Being metals, I never really bought it. I found it 20 years ago, and it was old when I got it. It works just great. There is a lot of bad information on the internet.
I was under the impression that 60/40 solder is close to the eutectic mixture ratio for lead and tin, meaning that it is already close to the lowest melting temperature for this mixture of metals. A Google search gives the eutectic mixture as 62% lead and 38% tin. Difficult to see how any other ratio of just these two metals can claim to have a lower melting temperature.
How about testing Silver bearing solder? I find it better when holding wires by hand. When you take the heat away, the solder hardens instantly, giving you a better joint. This, of course, requires the use of a much hotter iron temperature.
Thanks, good stuff to know. Not much of an solder guy, but I do a fair amount of MIG welding and the quality of the welding wire you use makes a huge difference. Seems to be the same here.
We all have our warm, cozy soldering safe spaces that we revert to. LOL Mine is Kester 245 (Sn63pb37) in various diameters with Kester 186 liquid flux as needed.
Some of the new LF solders are good but they're apparently a lot harder on tips, especially with the extra heat. That's what turns me off. Luckily here in Australia there's no restrictions on leaded stuff.
A little late hear. That low melt solder appears to be a removal alloy for SMD. Similar to Chip Quik. Heat it at 350-400 c. It will stay molten for a bit, to allow you to remove flat packs, etc.
I'm so glad I decided to listen to you. I've been really disappointed with how my solder joints looks especially after soldering binding posts/banana jacks to my HP Server Power Supplies I put in series for my LiIon/Lipo/LiFeP04 charger. No matter what I did the solder would always end up looking dull and sometimes even crusty. I had been buying Maiyum on Amazon. Its rated very well and while I knew it wasn't Kester or MG Chemicals I figured those two weren't worth the money. I buy a 100g roll of solder every 4 months and just was too cheap to shell out $30 on a big roll of the good stuff. Until a couple weeks ago when I saw 2 18gram tubes for $2.99. 2 left in stock. I got 72 grams of MG Chemicals 63/37 for half the price I'd pay for 100 grams of that Chinese junk. Now I've been resoldering a few of my bench toys because I absolutely cannot stand looking at the McDonalds equivalent of solder now that I have Flemings on my bench. Beautiful shiny solder joints that stay perfectly round. My only complaint would be the specific solder I chose is a little heavy on the flux but I have 99% iso if I need to do a bit of cleaning. Thank you, thank you, thank you! MGCHEM4LIFE
I am looking at a roll of MG Chemicals no Clean, 63/37 1/2lb for £20. Do you think that's good is it worth the money? Kester is going to cost a hell of a lot more.
~183C-ish is a normal melting temperature for leaded solder. The MG Chemicals solder used first in this video has a melting point of 361 ~ 376°F (183 ~ 191°C) because it is not eutectic. The same low temp test should have been done to all 3 solders. I would have liked to see how the MG Chemicals one did a 183C. Have you tested the actual temperature of the tip? I have used other Relife products and they are really good. Though, I have never tried any Relife solders. I don´t think I would use solder containing that much lead. MG Chemicals appears to make good products but I don't remember ever trying any. Maybe you can do the test again and include some Kester solder. That would be nice.
They talk about solder wettability, so my thinking is, if something is a liquid it is wet. If it is solid it may be dry, cured, set, frozen or any number of adjectives.
It would be worth comparing the properties of the lead free solders. As the properties are well documented in their data sheets, the real test is how well they work in the real world given their price. There are some low temperature mixtures, but they tend to be expensive. I have a soldering iron dedicated to lead free soldering, I have to say it does not get much use, as the stuff is so horrible, particularly with SMD parts. The most common lead free solder is a tin copper silver mix, which has a very high melting point, compared to lead/tin solder. It is reported that of the lead free solders, a mix of tin, bismuth and silver gives a lower melting point than lead/tin, so it would be interesting to see this being used.
May not be scientific but i found this to be an objective test. Extremely low melting point of that solder sounds like a marketing gimmick (?) i wouldn't even trust any solder that melts at that temperature, if it's even possible!
For an "Apple vs Apple" test, all parameters (temperature and time) should be the same except the solder under test. To test the "claims" of a manufacturer, you did well. Thanks for the review Paul; I still prefer Kester or MG Chemicals. ☮
So, one of the top selling brands of solder on amazon is Maiyum, it's 63/37 SnPb and it says it's rosin core, but it is just as bad as the lead free stuff you use in this video. I knew the MG stuff would be good, their flux pens have a good formulation as well. For me I loove Kester solder, I thought I'd try the Maiyum stuff and I guess it would be okay for prototyping or boards you didn't really care too much about, but I was curious if you would try it.
thanks for this video learned a lot about temp and different solders. i have several rolls of different solders, some thicker in diameter than others, never quite know what solder to use for what application.solder mainly 14-18 gauge wire ends to each other with a third hand radio shack device.any way i can grossly decide which to use and what temp to use on soldier gun, which is a Tenma? john
Nice video. I wonder if the 183C temp was referring to the temp the circuit board could get to before the solder let go. Although that would be a smoking hot board at that point!
Really like evaluation type videos such as this one. I bought a large bag of 555 timers from our friends across the Pacific last year and have found that many of them don't work, but some work fine. Maybe you could purchase something from Ebay like this (large quantity for a few dollars) and determine if all the components actually function. I'm assuming that higher priced, smaller quantity bundles of the same components all work well.
im always finding problems with solder. some works great on circuit boards but not at joining wires together. and some are the other way around. so i might try your 1st solder you showed there (your go to solder) coz it gets messy when a solder's not doing what you want it to do. even it it says it 60/40 tin/lead. you just can't trust the Chinese market. i get all my stuff off BangGood. find very satisfactory. but solder can be a problem. or maybe it could be the flux im using either. so i need some pen dispensing flux for small circuit board job/smd replacements. so il try that solder you use and report back.
Wasn't there supposed to be some sort of benefit to using the lead-free stuff that had less to do with the lead and more to do with long-term corrosion prevention, and is that reason still valid? I've been driving myself nuts using lead-free from day one. Now at least I can see I'm getting the expected results. I never thought I'd have to set my iron to 400. The cheap tips I have practically oxidize before my eyes around 300.
I still use my old nice 500g roll of 60/40 tin/lead for hobby. it's also nice for smd stuff (0,5mm dia) I may check also some solder from mouser and check how these real lead free stuff is. Edit: not going to test. wtf is these solder prices. I think I bought that old solder with 50mk and it's around 9e (13e if you take account inflation from 1990) and now I can see 500g of solder is 160e in mouser or 100g around 12e in amazon
Great video, it could be fantastic if you tested real low temperature solder. It is hard to find genuine low temperature solder that in fact work, as you can see. :-)
Lead free ? No thanks ! I got a stash of 60/40 that will see me out ! I can understand lead free in manufacturing where the workers are exposed all day long and 5 or more days a week but us home hobby guys wouldn’t cop that sort of exposure .
There was me thinking that the Relife solder was 80% tin and 20% lead, I checked the spec, its 80% lead, 20% tin. I would call it a lead alloy solder not a tin alloy solder. It's a high melting point solder, about 310C, the 183C is the temperature when it has solidified again.
63% tin, 37% lead resin core .028 inch Ersin is fantabulous. 63/37 is supposed to be the only combination that sets up, solidifys with less temperature change. 60/40 sets slower which means I have to be steady for a greater time.
I've been using Kester 44 and have a huge role that will last me the rest of my life. It came out of Collins Radio in Cedar Rapids decades ago.
I have tried modern solder but none can compare to the old tin/lead formulas for ease of use.
I've been using Kester SAC solder (lead-free, 3% silver, and no need to clean flux afterwards).
It's really made me improve my soldering skill, lol.
That's interesting. I stumbled on a huge roll of that in a miscellaneous box of stuff at a garage sale. I read some things on the internet that stated that "old solder" did not work well. Being metals, I never really bought it. I found it 20 years ago, and it was old when I got it. It works just great. There is a lot of bad information on the internet.
I was under the impression that 60/40 solder is close to the eutectic mixture ratio for lead and tin, meaning that it is already close to the lowest melting temperature for this mixture of metals.
A Google search gives the eutectic mixture as 62% lead and 38% tin. Difficult to see how any other ratio of just these two metals can claim to have a lower melting temperature.
Pretty much what I was wondering.
Good observation.
How about testing Silver bearing solder? I find it better when holding wires by hand. When you take the heat away, the solder hardens instantly, giving you a better joint. This, of course, requires the use of a much hotter iron temperature.
Thanks, good stuff to know. Not much of an solder guy, but I do a fair amount of MIG welding and the quality of the welding wire you use makes a huge difference. Seems to be the same here.
We all have our warm, cozy soldering safe spaces that we revert to. LOL Mine is Kester 245 (Sn63pb37) in various diameters with Kester 186 liquid flux as needed.
I use Alpha 63/37 .016 gauge solder that I discovered in 1973 and I like it better than Kester or Multicore.
Nothing beats good old leaded solder. I burn mine really hot @380 get in and get out.
Based.
Go with what you know. Always trust your intuition and experience. Nice job !
No surprise that you chose your usual brand of solder..."Ya gotta dance with what brung ya", Paul!
I had a friend make a kit using Lead-free solder and none of the joints flowed. Touching with an iron the Lead-free fell off. Used 63/37 worked great
Some of the new LF solders are good but they're apparently a lot harder on tips, especially with the extra heat. That's what turns me off. Luckily here in Australia there's no restrictions on leaded stuff.
A little late hear. That low melt solder appears to be a removal alloy for SMD. Similar to Chip Quik. Heat it at 350-400 c. It will stay molten for a bit, to allow you to remove flat packs, etc.
I'm so glad I decided to listen to you. I've been really disappointed with how my solder joints looks especially after soldering binding posts/banana jacks to my HP Server Power Supplies I put in series for my LiIon/Lipo/LiFeP04 charger. No matter what I did the solder would always end up looking dull and sometimes even crusty. I had been buying Maiyum on Amazon. Its rated very well and while I knew it wasn't Kester or MG Chemicals I figured those two weren't worth the money. I buy a 100g roll of solder every 4 months and just was too cheap to shell out $30 on a big roll of the good stuff.
Until a couple weeks ago when I saw 2 18gram tubes for $2.99. 2 left in stock. I got 72 grams of MG Chemicals 63/37 for half the price I'd pay for 100 grams of that Chinese junk. Now I've been resoldering a few of my bench toys because I absolutely cannot stand looking at the McDonalds equivalent of solder now that I have Flemings on my bench. Beautiful shiny solder joints that stay perfectly round. My only complaint would be the specific solder I chose is a little heavy on the flux but I have 99% iso if I need to do a bit of cleaning.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! MGCHEM4LIFE
I am looking at a roll of MG Chemicals no Clean, 63/37 1/2lb for £20. Do you think that's good is it worth the money? Kester is going to cost a hell of a lot more.
~183C-ish is a normal melting temperature for leaded solder. The MG Chemicals solder used first in this video has a melting point of 361 ~ 376°F (183 ~ 191°C) because it is not eutectic. The same low temp test should have been done to all 3 solders. I would have liked to see how the MG Chemicals one did a 183C. Have you tested the actual temperature of the tip?
I have used other Relife products and they are really good. Though, I have never tried any Relife solders. I don´t think I would use solder containing that much lead. MG Chemicals appears to make good products but I don't remember ever trying any.
Maybe you can do the test again and include some Kester solder. That would be nice.
They talk about solder wettability, so my thinking is, if something is a liquid it is wet. If it is solid it may be dry, cured, set, frozen or any number of adjectives.
I have always been a fan of Kester 44 SN60PB40 for many years... ouch I mean decades. Thanks for posting.
Next favorite?
It would be worth comparing the properties of the lead free solders.
As the properties are well documented in their data sheets, the real test is how well they work in the real world given their price. There are some low temperature mixtures, but they tend to be expensive.
I have a soldering iron dedicated to lead free soldering, I have to say it does not get much use, as the stuff is so horrible, particularly with SMD parts. The most common lead free solder is a tin copper silver mix, which has a very high melting point, compared to lead/tin solder.
It is reported that of the lead free solders, a mix of tin, bismuth and silver gives a lower melting point than lead/tin, so it would be interesting to see this being used.
6040 at least I got one guess right 😁👍I love these cool little tests cool video.
May not be scientific but i found this to be an objective test. Extremely low melting point of that solder sounds like a marketing gimmick (?) i wouldn't even trust any solder that melts at that temperature, if it's even possible!
For an "Apple vs Apple" test, all parameters (temperature and time) should be the same except the solder under test. To test the "claims" of a manufacturer, you did well. Thanks for the review Paul; I still prefer Kester or MG Chemicals. ☮
Hard to find good solder anymore. Do you have a video on solder wick?
I guess I should probably upgrade. I will look into once I use up the rolls of cheap no name stuff I have already purchased.
So, one of the top selling brands of solder on amazon is Maiyum, it's 63/37 SnPb and it says it's rosin core, but it is just as bad as the lead free stuff you use in this video. I knew the MG stuff would be good, their flux pens have a good formulation as well. For me I loove Kester solder, I thought I'd try the Maiyum stuff and I guess it would be okay for prototyping or boards you didn't really care too much about, but I was curious if you would try it.
thanks for this video
learned a lot about temp and different solders.
i have several rolls of different solders, some thicker in diameter than others, never quite know what solder to use for what application.solder mainly 14-18 gauge wire ends to each other with a third hand radio shack device.any way i can grossly decide which to use and what temp to use on soldier gun, which is a Tenma?
john
Nice video. I wonder if the 183C temp was referring to the temp the circuit board could get to before the solder let go. Although that would be a smoking hot board at that point!
The MG is by far the best solder I’ve ever used. I swear by it.
Thank you...knowledge is good. Experience better. Dan
for me its either multicore or Kester either way I actually tend to prefer the multicore but imo they are the best 2 brands out there
Really like evaluation type videos such as this one. I bought a large bag of 555 timers from our friends across the Pacific last year and have found that many of them don't work, but some work fine. Maybe you could purchase something from Ebay like this (large quantity for a few dollars) and determine if all the components actually function. I'm assuming that higher priced, smaller quantity bundles of the same components all work well.
Ok sounds like fun!
I'm confused are you saying that only the 60/40 is the only solder that will 100% be Solidified? What is wrong with the 80/20 and lead free solder?
You didn't re-flux the pads. That makes a big difference.
I never go pass 190, as I use leaded so them figure look like F not C as 350 is about 180C so would explain why it just started to melt at that temp
I think the S wore off the low Melt solder.
im always finding problems with solder. some works great on circuit boards but not at joining wires together. and some are the other way around. so i might try your 1st solder you showed there (your go to solder) coz it gets messy when a solder's not doing what you want it to do. even it it says it 60/40 tin/lead. you just can't trust the Chinese market. i get all my stuff off BangGood. find very satisfactory. but solder can be a problem. or maybe it could be the flux im using either. so i need some pen dispensing flux for small circuit board job/smd replacements. so il try that solder you use and report back.
I am new for this is useful thanks for sharing this video
What’s a good paste flux brand?
Kester
Excellent video thanks for sharing your videos. Artie 🇺🇸
Hey Paul, sodder vs solder.
Pronounced soul’der…
If your house sells, is it sod or sold?
Wasn't there supposed to be some sort of benefit to using the lead-free stuff that had less to do with the lead and more to do with long-term corrosion prevention, and is that reason still valid?
I've been driving myself nuts using lead-free from day one. Now at least I can see I'm getting the expected results. I never thought I'd have to set my iron to 400. The cheap tips I have practically oxidize before my eyes around 300.
If you can get ahold of 60/40 tin-lead, try it. You won't regret it.
Do you have any underlying medical conditions due to using PB solders for so many years?
Congestive heart failure, but I doubt it's from lead.
My wife and I worked in the electronic industry for 40+ years and have no issues from using leaded solder. We did use good fume extractors.
I'm no doctor, but my guess is that unless you greatly overheat the solder, the flux fumes will get you long before the lead will.
I still use my old nice 500g roll of 60/40 tin/lead for hobby. it's also nice for smd stuff (0,5mm dia)
I may check also some solder from mouser and check how these real lead free stuff is.
Edit: not going to test. wtf is these solder prices. I think I bought that old solder with 50mk and it's around 9e (13e if you take account inflation from 1990) and now I can see 500g of solder is 160e in mouser or 100g around 12e in amazon
No Kester or Multicore?
Great video, it could be fantastic if you tested real low temperature solder. It is hard to find genuine low temperature solder that in fact work, as you can see. :-)
Yeah, this was not low temp
I bought a small sample of Kester.....I didnt like it. The cheaper solder was better.maybe it wasn't really Kester solder because it was repackaged.
Probably a fake. Real Jester is world clasd
I do seriously believe you got confused between Celsius and Fahrenheit here. 183 c =360 F. Whaddaya think?
Probably right
Lead free ? No thanks !
I got a stash of 60/40 that will see me out !
I can understand lead free in manufacturing where the workers are exposed all day long and 5 or more days a week but us home hobby guys wouldn’t cop that sort of exposure .
I got the same results....
183 C? Lol - more like 381.
RL440
🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡