Do you prefer lead or lead-free solder?

I kept buying Kester 44 because that's what was given to me and I wanted the same stuff. I scrub the work with isopropyl and a denture brush. Anything done on a perfboard or vero gets MG Conformal Coating.
 
For the PCB boards, I used to buy the little tubes of solder at Home Depot but decided to save money and switch to this stuff from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075WTX9W...Identifier=buyagain&psc=1&heartDisabled=false

$11 got me one tube at Home Depot whereas this is $9 for a pack of 6. To my surprise, I really like this solder. It melts very easily because of its size (0.6mm). It is possible that I just don’t know what I’m missing with the Kester as I’m new to pedal building and I’ve never tried it. I will say the 0.6mm means I have to feed more of it into whatever I’m working on, and I find I’m constantly breaking into a new tube. I also noticed that it isn’t great for wiring hardware. So, for example, I use different, thicker solder and a separate iron altogether for wiring the mono jacks. I use the lead free stuff from Home Depot for that. I may broaden my horizons and try some of this other stuff though.
 
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Hal Harvey said:
Kester 331 and then Kester 245.

Both 6337.

Kester 331 has water soluble flux. You can literally rinse the board under the faucet at the end the session. I let mine air dry.

Kester 245 once you are doing the final wiring in the enclosure (and also stuff that can’t get wet).
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fuck.
i can't argue with this. #331 for board & #245 for the rest sounds like the perfect solution.

however, struggling to talk myself into dropping aud$200 on a couple rolls of solder.

KreoPensas said:
I kept buying Kester 44 because that's what was given to me and I wanted the same stuff. I scrub the work with isopropyl and a denture brush. Anything done on a perfboard or vero gets MG Conformal Coating.
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how bad is the residue with #44?
keep hearing about how much of nuisance it is.
but then your cleaning method is pretty much exactly what I already do with the cheap stuff i have now (aud$38/200gm)...

kinda just want something that's better than what i'm using now... i'm not a massive volume / pro builder so i really dont need anything particularly awesome.

currently looking at @Nostradoomus 's chipquik suggestion (cos it's available on mouser):

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omg.
this looks like the product for me. and it's only aud$66 (vs. ($100 for kester).
how's the whiff of this stuff @Nostradoomus ? any weird smells?
 
I have no reference to say how bad it is, but it comes off easy. Denture brushes are softer than toothbrushes and have the "chisel" tip.
 
I just bought some lead free.

So far…
It’s like going back to school and learning how to weld and the welder is on the wrong setting … there’s a learning curve.
Hate it.

But, not having to scrub everything down quite so much after using it.
Love it
 
Nostradoomus said:
well I currently have a detached shop with the door open most of the time, my sense of smell is pretty bad and I smoke while I solder so I don't know lol
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ok so i ended up getting the chipquik 63 37 2%

shit works well!
the 63 37 alloy seems to have a bit of a 'stickiness' to it. but no complaints here.

flux fumes? let's just say it's probably a good thing that it smells that rank that it's forcing me to use the exhaust fan every time.

and hilariously (to me) it legit smells like a burning durry, no wonder you couldn't tell
 
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