where to buy good solder?
Jie Qi
bunnie
The cheap type usually sold everywhere in the market (mine says Xia Hai,
blue label) is a 60/40 blend (at best), from what I can tell, which is
not eutectic. When it cools, some of the lead or tin precipitates out
early, and if you watch it under a microscope on a slow-cooling sample
the surface roughens as the crystals form.
There's a couple things I'd try:
- First, try asking for a eutectic blend. I think in Chinese it's "gong
jing" (共晶); it should be 63/37. If the vendor doesn't know what
eutectic blends are that's a bad sign.
- Or, just on a hunch, try asking for lead-free solder. These are going
to be more expensive, and probably have better blends; most vendors keep
that in a separate stock, sometimes behind the counter because they
contain silver and are thus much more expensive. I forgot what the term
is, I just say 不要铅 (bu yao qian - don't want lead) and they shout
something back at me which I assume means lead-free solder and then I
read the alloy content on the label which is in English to confirm :)
- Also, most small tool shops sell a pretty good flux formulation which
you can add. It's made in Japan, sold in little white tins with red and
black lettering, "goot" brand BS-10 "hobby use soldering paste". This
usually solves my problems and is my current work-around. It's a gel
formulation, so I can slather it on with a cotton swab or apply it
precisely by dipping my tweezer tips in it. When applied precisely it's
targeted enough that it won't bleed onto paper when soldering copper tape.
Finally, In the International LED building, there's a guy near the
entrance, maybe about 3-4 rows back on the left when you enter from the
southern entrance (closest toward SEG/Shennan). All he sells is solder.
I bought bar stock from him once, he indicated he had several grades of
stock. The bar stock was fine for my crude dip soldering experiments,
but I also saw he had lots of spools. Hopefully since he specializes in
selling solder he may be able to sell you something better...
-b.
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Akiba
Hi Jie.
Hope Shenzhen is treatin’ you well.
Bunnie already gave a good explanation on the types of solders. You may also want to check your soldering iron temperature. There are a couple of issues that could cause solder to be difficult to work with:
- The solder has a high melting temperature. This is true for lead free solders that generally have higher melting points than lead-based solder.
- Temperature on the dial may not read accurately.
- Soldering iron tip is too fine. Even if the soldering iron is at the right temperature, if the tip is too fine, you won’t get a good transfer of heat from the iron to whatever you’re soldering. In soldering, surface area is everything.
- You’re trying to solder something to a huge piece of copper. This is especially true in your case where you solder to copper tape a lot. If you’re soldering to a huge chunk of copper, then it’s going to absorb a lot of heat and wick heat away faster than the iron can replenish it. That usually means you’re going to need to use a higher temperature and/or a fatter tip to solder properly.
- Finally, you need flux. Most solders these days are flux core, or at least I haven’t seen many that are pure solder. If by some chance you got solid solder wire, then you pretty much just need to go tell them you want a flux core solder. I usually like to use lead solder for my rework, but the world is increasingly lead free so one day, I’m going to have to start using that lead-free abomination.
Well, those are my tips. Basically, I’m saying question the operator before you question the solder. Ha ha ha.
Akiba
FreakLabs Open Source Wireless
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bunnie
-b.
On 06/12/2013 07:04 PM, Zach 'Hoeken' Smith wrote:
> On the 3rd floor of the Duhui electronics city building is a bunch of
> places that sell solder. It's also a great place for all sorts of other
> 'tool' stuff like every tape imaginable, all sorts of chemicals,
> brushes, solder tips, silkscreen machines, etc. my goto sit for that
> sort of thing.
>
> On Wednesday, June 12, 2013, Jie Qi wrote:
>
> Hello hive,
>
> Anyone have wisdom on where in HQB to get good rosin core solder?
> The only solder I've been able to find here is like clay when it
> melts...
>
> --Jie
>
> PS: happy Dragon Boat Festival!
>
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