What is your favorite or in your opinion the best solder to buy? Thanks.
Definitely be buying good old regular solder that isn’t “lead free.” The new “LEAD FREE SOLDER” basically bites. You cannot effectively use it on (new) motherboards. It either rolls right off where you want the solder to adhere, or it takes way too much heat and time to heat to a melting point. So, thank the good Lord that some folks still stock regular leaded solder! I got mine from ebay, but you can get it a lot of places on the internet. If you goto your local hardware store and/or even they may or may not know how to help you out. I find it best to utilize the internet for finding out where to buy stuff online, or who might keep it on the shelves in town.
Uh, no, that’s very wrong.
You do NOT need solder with lead in it for it to be good.
You just need to buy something of good quality, not cheap out on some crappy solder.
Lead solder is very unhealthy to use and has been removed from almost all places, at least in north america it has.
Get some high quality silver solder with NO LEAD and a good soldering iron and you will have 0 issues when soldering anything.
60/40 is best, i agree leaded is definitely the way forward, lower melting point and nice shiny joints and just flows better.
For me the added AG in this solder paste made it very good too, so if you can find a reel of solder with 2% AG then bonus but not necessary
I buy Sn62 Pb36 Ag2 with no clean flux core
Or Sn60 Pb39 Cu1, Pb38 Cu2
Lead free solder sucks in devices that suffer big temperature differences and shock
Solder iron with an advanced handle design is better than old types
http://www.kullik.com/images/stories/Sonder/Bleifrei_Handlten_11-09.pdf
0.8mm Stannol Sn60/Pb40 with flux core. :+1:
I use Sn63/Pb37 solder paste for reflowing LEDs
There certainly are some good lead-free alternatives. But the lead-free movement complicates matters and NASA (and ESA, aerospace, military) does not agree with it.
They have several documents on the subject, just some examples:
https://nepp.nasa.gov/whisker./reference/tech_papers/2011-kostic-Pb-free.pdf
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20100042600.pdf
Difficult to beat good old 63/37. But use a eutectic type, whatever you select.
Side note: For personal health, the fumes from the flux contained in the solder are more detrimental to health than any of the metals. Do not buy mystery solder and use good ventilation when soldering.
‘eutectic’?
Basically it turns from a liquid to a solid at a single temperature when cooling down, as opposed to a ‘muddy’ phase in between. It gives nice shiny, and very solid, joints. Less risk of a ‘dry’ joint.
This is why 63/37 is much nicer to use than 60/40.
This is the solder i use. It’s a bit pricey, but you’ll end up with enough to last you just about the rest of forever! It works extremely well and I’ve never had any issues with it.
I highly recommend Kester SN63 (63% tin, 37% lead). I’ve been using it professionally, and as a hobbyist for many years in various gauges.
Also the thickness is important for soldering
I got 1, 0.5 and 0.35mm
The smaller the tip and solder joint you do the thinner the solder
O okay.
I just don’t move anything before it’s solid. 
And the ‘muddy phase’ of my solder is just a very short time.
(well, usually, it depends on a few things)
lead free solder are definitely safe to use but they are a pain when they don’t protect your solder tip well.
i’d go with leaded if you can get them. easier to work with.
but stay safe from the fumes and always wash your hands
Sorry, that’s BS, almost all RC cars use lead free silver solder, and I have been using it for years with great success.
It perfectly handles over 150 degrees C that the motors can reach, and the shock of crashing at 80+ MPH.
If your solder is not handling temperature and shock well then that means you either have really bad solder or you are not soldering your pieces together correctly.
The solder I buy is like $10+ for a tiny 15g tube, and the only times it has not worked well is when my soldering iron didn’t heat up the 10awg wire enough for the solder on all sides of the cable to melt and stick.
Does lead free solder need special flux?
Or will the normal stuff work as flux too?
Interesting topic as I just got some solder tin in the mail from China, that is leaded.
This and this they say it is 20 grams but that is with the container included 
the actuall weight is 11 grams.
Yet for 99 cents a tube it is cheaper than the 17 grams of leaded solder I can get in the shops over here for 3.95 euro.
Also bought a small spool here which is really cheap but that is because you get very little of it, like 2 windings of wire.
It looks way more but that is because the inner diameter of the spool is pretty thick and also hollow :person_facepalming:
So even though you get ripped off it is a better deal than buying locally.
The tubes are 63/37 and 60/40 and the spool is flux 2.0%, yet I see no difference when using it yet.
Would be nice to find an all round nice solder tin on a big spool though, maybe even on Ebay?? anyone??
Having tried a number of different solders over the years my favorite so far is Kester 63/37. The type is kind of a personal preference thing, lead free can be more annoying to use due to it’s higher melting temp. The most important part is to buy good quality solder, I’ve tried cheap Chinese stuff and it’s just not worth it. Get some Kester, MG, Multicore, something like that.
Buzzing Bulb
You can find good solder on TME (www.tme.eu)
Standard Multicore 60/40 is the best.
I’ve used it for over 50 years and it gets the job done every time.