Recently, I purchased two different roles of solder from Fasttech. I felt like I should warn you guys so that you do not make the same mistake. Telecore Plus 0.6mm Solder 0.3mm Solder Wire
After having a lot of difficulty using this solder, with and without external flux, I decided to do a series of comparison tests against “domestic” (U.S. manufactured) solder, of both 60/40 and 63/37 variety. This solder absolutely does not perform or look like other similar solder I have used. It does not flow well, and joints are always dull/crystallized looking when compared to my other 63/37 solder when used on the same pieces under the same conditions. After you flow the solder, it is almost impossible to rework or remove. I am disappointed in this solder and am only going to use it to join twisted wires and in other “non-critical” applications.
I guess as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. I wasn’t expecting anything “world class”, but this really is deceptive and quite frankly almost unusable.
Really thanks for sharing. I was considering of buying a soldering iron soon (either on fasttech or brick and mortar) and purchase the solder wire on fasttech.
you just saved me wait time, time to figure what was going wrong when soldering and the frustration while using that sub par product!
I will try and post some pictures tonight to show you what I mean, but they cannot begin to express the frustration I experienced when trying to use this solder.
I guess the solder paste is just as bad as their normal solder.
Bad solder can make a simple task quite painful, not worth the trouble in my opinion. Doesn’t always have to be Stannol (don’t know about premium solder brands overseas ), but some decent quality solder can save much trouble (and is the key to tricky soldering maneuvers ;-)).
I can see how the high price for a 250g spool is repellant at first, but it will last for quite some years. (And maybe even a 100g one will do if you can find one.)
I am confident more than one frustrating soldering experience shared in this forum is the fault of bad quality material.
From what I’ve read on site, Kester and Chip Quick solder paste are very good. I just purchased one called Multicore, that I haven’t heard anyone mention. I took a chance on it from a reliable dealer. It’s melting temp. (179°C) is lower than both Kester and Chip Quick. I believe it is distributed by Loctite. I have only reflowed a couple LEDs with it, and it seems very good. Goes from grey, to nice shiny silver. It is priced along the lines of the quality pastes, a few dollars more.
I tried that mechanics paste from FT. I don’t know what temp it melts at, (someone said it’s not much different than reg. solder), but I tried it in a frying pan to fuse two copper rounds together. It never turns silver, just stays flat grey in color.
There are others, but I stick with the four above. They all make excellent Wire Solder and Paste. My personal preference is Alpha, but they are all very comparable.
I’m glad you mentioned Multicore. I was hesitant at first, because the tube is labeled as “solder cream”. I had never heard of it, but took a chance after reading the specs.
I was planning to order some solder paste from Fastech but now I may have to look locally.
I found this product in a local electronics store but was interested to read the description that says it must be refrigerated and has a shelf life of six months at 4°C.
Yes, 6 months is the normal shelf life for solder paste if refrigerated.
It might be useful some time after that, but as the flux degrades it gets less and less fun and will be useless eventually.
I also bought some of that Telecore solder months ago when I misplaced my better role. I also don’t seem to have any better luck with it, guess I’ll also stop using it now that you’ve pointed this out. Much appreciate the head’s up on this.
Is it possible, that those “bad” solders are just the normal Lead-free Eco-solder?
I know some electronics nowadays are hard to unsolder because of this new solder type but old 63/37 wirks very well.
