scheffehcs
Well-known member
Ran out of my own solder at work, went digging and found these old spools. The bottom one has a spotty oxidized look to it. Should I stay away from this stuff? Thanks!
Does solder go bad?
- Thread starter scheffehcs
- Start date
Ran out of my own solder at work, went digging and found these old spools. The bottom one has a spotty oxidized look to it. Should I stay away from this stuff? Thanks!
Paradox916
Well-known member
I had a spool go bad once,… I forgot about it for a while and when I went looking for It again it had stolen my wallet, ran off and pawned my PlayStation for fentanyl… You gotta keep an eye on that $h#%.
scheffehcs
Well-known member
Haha. Thanks guys. Ended up avoiding the crummy looking stuff. The top one is definitely 60/40 rosin core, thick as hell though. Used it for a few joints but it was a bit too unwieldy. First thing I did when I got home from work was to put new solder in my backpack for tomorrow!
Alan W
Well-known member
I just ordered my first replacement pound spool of the main solder I use, SN62. The first spool is down to the last few ounces. I must’ve bought it in the early 80s. Still very shiny, the flux is as active as on the other “special” solders (usually just means it’s .015 diam. or something).
RetiredUnit1
Well-known member
I think the lead oxide vaporizes at melting point, which is a great reason not to use old oxidized solder. I have a Weller soldering air cleaner and only solder with it on and another fan in the room and the whole house A/C filtering fan turned to high (which is like 4000 cfm) with electro-static filters that remove smoke, viruses and cat pee smell just to avoid b b b br bbr brrr brain damage during soldering.....
fig
Village Idiot
That does sound like a great reason. I have the little fan with a carbon-infused sponge to pull some of the fumes away and D-Lead soap to clean up, but more is better.I think the lead oxide vaporizes at melting point, which is a great reason not to use old oxidized solder. I have a Weller soldering air cleaner and only solder with it on and another fan in the room and the whole house A/C filtering fan turned to high (which is like 4000 cfm) with electro-static filters that remove smoke, viruses and cat pee smell just to avoid b b b br bbr brrr brain damage during soldering.....
bowanderror
Well-known member
I was wondering the same thing today. Somebody found some cases of leaded solder from before my work went ROHS and asked me if I wanted them. Now I've got 50lbs of Kester 44 just as I was running low...
fig
Village Idiot
good stuff
Passinwind
Well-known member
A friend of mine who does aerospace grade soldering tech work gets expired spools from his workplace but the oldest he's sent me was dated 2014 IIRC. Lots of different formulations, but that right there in .020 is our favorite. I've been playing with PB62 SN36 AG 02 / 285 lately as well, it seems to work especially well for SMT stuff.
RetiredUnit1
Well-known member
Wow, I love this stuff. I usually use the .031 because turret boards are thirstier than circuit boards.
