Where does everyone get their Acid Free Solder?
Joe Gozzo
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
On line at radio shack
Stephen G posted:On line at radio shack
Thanks Stephen,
Only see rosin core there
Joe
Rosin core is acid free.
I bought mine at Home Depot. They have tiny .040 for electronics & thicker stuff for track etc.
Tom
John H posted:Rosin core is acid free.
Just want to bump this response. 
Don't use flux.
TrainLarry posted:
Rosin core to solder power leads to track. Will not use Flux
Joe
George S posted:John H posted:Rosin core is acid free.
Just want to bump this response.
Thanks George, always appreciate your input. Your wealth of tinplate knowledge and keeping me in the right direction are appreciated.
Joe Gozzo
If you want to do electrical work, Rosin Core solder is what you're looking for. If you use solid solder, you need to use added flux, why not just bring it with the roll of solder, makes the job easier. 
I get mine at Amazon, they seem to have pretty good prices.
Kester 24-6337-0027 Solder Roll, Core Size 66, 63/37 Alloy, 0.031" Diameter
For PCB work, I use smaller stuff.
As Gunrunnerjohn said, you want ROSIN CORE SOLDER for electrical work. You DO NOT NEED FLUX.
In another life I used to repair CB radios and other electronic equipment. I estimate that in the 70s I repaired more than 5,000 CB radios. I made tens of thousands of solder joints in the process of doing those repairs. I used Rosin Core solder and never, ever used any additional flux. It simply is NOT needed. The flux is in the core of the solder.
gunrunnerjohn posted:If you want to do electrical work, Rosin Core solder is what you're looking for. If you use solid solder, you need to use added flux, why not just bring it with the roll of solder, makes the job easier.
I get mine at Amazon, they seem to have pretty good prices.
Kester 24-6337-0027 Solder Roll, Core Size 66, 63/37 Alloy, 0.031" Diameter
For PCB work, I use smaller stuff.
Thanks John,
Looks like good stuff! I wkIll give it a try.
Joe Gozzo
Rich Melvin posted:As Gunrunnerjohn said, you want ROSIN CORE SOLDER for electrical work. You DO NOT NEED FLUX.
In another life I used to repair CB radios and other electronic equipment. I estimate that in the 70s I repaired more than 5,000 CB radios. I made tens of thousands of solder joints in the process of doing those repairs. I used Rosin Core solder and never, ever used any additional flux. It simply is NOT needed. The flux is in the core of the solder.
Only those who don’t know how to solder use extra flux. I see it all the time when ever we take on interns right out of tech school. Once they get the hang of soldering the flux never gets used.
Flux isn’t for electrical work with rosin core solder. Flux is for plumbing work and jewelry making. It can be used in brazing as well. If you have a solid core solder, you need flux as John said. It’s not normally used for electrical work anymore.
Joe, make sure you clean the rails with alcohol before you try to solder to them. Kirk says there’s a lot of machine oil on USA Track. That could give you some trouble if you don’t clean it off. Sometimes you need to clean the bottom of the rail with an abrasive pad, but that may not be necessary.
Let is know how it goes.
George
A can of flux is still useful to have around if there is excessive corrosion, contamination(greases/paint/etc) or certain alloyed/plated metals; etc..(I know of some real nightmare boards in coin-op. I would travel to handle them myself)
Sometimes you can get an iron into where you cant move a wirebrush around.
Not necessarily something you bump into everyday in Og, but I can't say I haven't had to use to clean hobby items better when the rosin core failed on vintage equipment.
My local ACE hardware has it. Look for 60/40 Rosin Flux Core Electrical Repair Solder. They have a small tube on a card with a picture of a printed circuit board so there is no mistaking it. There is a similar package that says Plumbing Repair Solder - you don't want this. The brand is Alpha.
60/40 means 60% tin / 40% lead. The electronics industry has moved to lead free solder to avoid pumping high quantities of lead into the environment. However lead free requires higher temperatures and different flux. For small volume home use it is OK to continue to use tin/lead - just don't suck on it and wash your hands after use.
The one thing for which I find flux very useful is tinning wire when repairing prewar motors. I'll strip a half inch of insulation on an old wire and often they won't solder well. I have a four ounce bottle of Oatey liquid flux with a dispenser top. I wet the wire by sticking it in the hole in the dispenser top. Then I touch it briefly with a tinned iron and it's tinned perfectly.
An example of where this is very useful is rewirng an E-unit. There can be three to four wires on the hot terminal. With several tinned wires, I'll wrap them around the terminal and each other to have a mechanical joint and then a brief touch of the iron and all is connected. If I don't pre-tin the wires, often one or two of them will come loose. I've had too many prewar wires that wouldn't easily take solder. But using this pre-tin method I never have a problem.
in the hole
penn station posted:My local ACE hardware has it. Look for 60/40 Rosin Flux Core Electrical Repair Solder.
Truthfully, I prefer the 63/37 for a very important reason. That blend is an eutectic blend, that means that it goes direct from a liquid to a solid at one temperature. The 60/40 blend slowly turns solid over a few degrees, if you move the connection during that time, you end up with a cold solder joint. Using 63/37 solder makes it easier to avoid that issue as the transition is much quicker as it cools. Another bonus is the 63/37 solder has a lightly lower melting temperature, nice when you're doing delicate circuit work.
George S posted:Flux isn’t for electrical work with rosin core solder. Flux is for plumbing work and jewelry making. It can be used in brazing as well. If you have a solid core solder, you need flux as John said. It’s not normally used for electrical work anymore.
Joe, make sure you clean the rails with alcohol before you try to solder to them. Kirk says there’s a lot of machine oil on USA Track. That could give you some trouble if you don’t clean it off. Sometimes you need to clean the bottom of the rail with an abrasive pad, but that may not be necessary.
Let is know how it goes.
George
George,
You just answered my question before I asked it.
Dave
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Truthfully, I prefer the 63/37 for a very important reason. That blend is an eutectic blend, that means that it goes direct from a liquid to a solid at one temperature. The 60/40 blend slowly turns solid over a few degrees, if you move the connection during that time, you end up with a cold solder joint. Using 63/37 solder makes it easier to avoid that issue as the transition is much quicker as it cools. Another bonus is the 63/37 solder has a lightly lower melting temperature, nice when you're doing delicate circuit work.
John, my 63/37 arrived. I will be practicing on a few pieces of scrap track.
Joe Gozzo
I don’t know but I do a lot of soldering on old train and other things and I find often that a noncorrosive electric rosin flux makes it flow and stick better. I use rosin core electrical solder but a little extra rosin on the wire to tin or on an old solder joint makes it work better. It is noncorrosive so I do not see a downside as I am not using enough for a big mess. As the saying goes to each his own
I have always been impressed with the sodering done by Lionel on post war locomotives and tenders, that being said I wonder how lionel got to soder the wires with no slack at all. esp on the motors which sometimes prevent me from cleaning the armature. What ratio did Lionel use? Lionel soder melts at various temp. I have had to use the 140 sodering gun sometimes to unsoder the E units from the collector wires.... sometimes all it would take a hit with a 25 watt and its done sodering fabric covered wire must be extreamly difficult when Lionel did it. one other thing impressed me is the top of the main frame motor which has tapped threads for the screw to hold the boiler down, I got one locomotive which was missing the tapped hole and tried to drill on the round bar like lionel did, no matter how I tried I failed and I used a dremeal drill press. the bit kept slipping off no matter what I did. I had to make a flat spot using a grinder then drill for the tap. I got a less than professional result.
@dogdoc posted:I don’t know but I do a lot of soldering on old train and other things and I find often that a noncorrosive electric rosin flux makes it flow and stick better. I use rosin core electrical solder but a little extra rosin on the wire to tin or on an old solder joint makes it work better.
Nothing wrong with using extra flux, it cleans right up with various solvents. However, failure to clean the pieces to be soldered is the #1 problem most people face when soldering. Flux helps, but if you've ever done any significant plumbing work with copper, you'll know how important having the parts really clean is. A number of times I've seen people struggle to solder a single copper pipe joint, many attempts and many failures. Of the many hundreds of copper pipe connections I've made, I can remember two I had to go back and rework, and one was a clear flaw in an elbow that I just didn't see. With clean joints and clean wire, I never even think about adding flux to the 63/37 Kester Rosin Core Solder that I use for my work.
@DougB posted:I have always been impressed with the sodering done by Lionel on post war locomotives and tenders, that being said I wonder how lionel got to soder the wires with no slack at all. esp on the motors which sometimes prevent me from cleaning the armature.
Simple, they put it all together, stretched the wire tight, and then soldered it. 
It frequently bugs me that there is so little slack on many Pulmore motor brush plates that I have to unsolder a wire to get them off. Obviously, future maintenance was not a priority. 
@DougB posted:I got one locomotive which was missing the tapped hole and tried to drill on the round bar like lionel did, no matter how I tried I failed and I used a dremeal drill press. the bit kept slipping off no matter what I did. I had to make a flat spot using a grinder then drill for the tap. I got a less than professional result.
In a case like that, I first use a tiny drill in a pin vise to make a small centered pilot hole, then use that to guide the power drill to make the hole.
Did you know your flux in your solder has expiration date? I didn't know that until some Airline inspector auditing my lab told us about it, then proceeded to write us up over the violation. 
All my work solder has a expiration date on them and we have to replace every roll every two years. I just bring it home where I have more than I'll ever use in a lifetime.
I wouldn't worry about the solder you have at home. I've never noticed a difference in how well new solder vs old solder works.
Yep, I do know it "expires". However, lately, I've been going through the pound rolls much faster than they can expire, so I'm all good.
John
i do not solder near as much as you so some of my issues are likely me😀 am I correct that the rosin deoxidizes the surfaces to be soldered? Hence making a better joint. I have noticed the old wire in antique toy trains is **** to tin.i suspect due to oxidation so I I dip that in rosin flux and it will tin. I do need to try your eutectic solder. I also cast bullets so I am very familiar with that.
@superwarp1 posted:Did you know your flux in your solder has expiration date? I didn't know that until some Airline inspector auditing my lab told us about it, then proceeded to write us up over the violation.
I wouldn't worry about the solder you have at home. I've never noticed a difference in how well new solder vs old solder works.
I can’t help myself Gary, I gotta know....which snobby nosed airline was it that wrote you up?
Tom
The roll of rosin core solder in my tool box is at least 10 years old. Still works just fine.
@FlyPlanes-PlayTrains posted:I can’t help myself Gary, I gotta know....which snobby nosed airline was it that wrote you up?
Tom
It's more dependent on the inspector. Some are easy going, some not. I will say they are not doing their job unless they find something, keeps us all safe when we fly. But with that said we had one that questioned one of my techs over how he was measuring a harness he was building and how he knew if it was built to to the correct length? We now have calibrated tape measures. Sometimes common sense just goes out the window.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Yep, I do know it "expires". However, lately, I've been going through the pound rolls much faster than they can expire, so I'm all good.
:You breathing in all those fumes explains a lot. LMAO
@dogdoc posted:John
i do not solder near as much as you so some of my issues are likely me😀 am I correct that the rosin deoxidizes the surfaces to be soldered? Hence making a better joint. I have noticed the old wire in antique toy trains is **** to tin.i suspect due to oxidation so I I dip that in rosin flux and it will tin. I do need to try your eutectic solder. I also cast bullets so I am very familiar with that.
Correct, the Rosin flux is there to prevent oxidation when heating, but it doesn't remove oxidation that's already there, that's something you need to do in advance. If you have a heavily oxidized wire, rosin flux won't solve your problem, It'll doubtless help a little, but the real solution is to get the wire clean or use new wire.
I run across older wire that is heavily oxidized all the time, and I use Scotchbrite to "polish" the ends so I can see clean metal, then dip that in the rosin flux for good measure and then solder the connection.
Clean and soldering go hand in hand, if it's not clean, it's going to be harder to impossible to get a good solder joint.
I’m trying to solder 20 awg feeders to code148 2 rail atlas flex track and suspect that cleaning the rail is my first problem. I did find kester-63-37-031-diameter-21awg-solder-wire at https://www.markertek.com. But am unsure what iron is appropriate. My 70w Weller station seems underpowered based on this discussion. But my ancient ~240w gun seems very unwieldy. Is 100w sufficient? Do I need temperature control? Can anyone recommend a pencil or station that’s available now?
For soldering track, I use my 100/140W Weller gun, it works great for trackwork. The 70W iron may be marginal for O-gauge sized solid rail, but it should be able to do the job. Cleaning it is first. I typically use my Dremel with a cutoff wheel. I run it slow and just scuff the track with the wheel, that exposes a fresh and clean surface to solder to.
