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I am thinking about using this stuff instead of the cardas stuff I use. One question--is it as easy to work with as cardas solder? That stuff flows beautifully compared to Rad.shack. I would be curious to hear if anyone felt it sounded better than cardas, but mainly my reason for trying it is to avoid the expopsure to lead vapors. thanks for any help fellas. phil
I'm not sure about the relative merits of the different solders, but the lead is not being vaporized, only melted. The smoke is from the flux getting burned off. If you don't like sniffing the fumes, just get a little box fan, like from a computer power supply, and blow the smoke away from you while you work. Put some guards on both sides of the fan; some of them are pretty powerful.
Not directly in response to your post, Phil, but I read in an earlier post about making interconnects from various solders and comparing the sound. Indeed it would be nice if we could test different contendors and agree upon the best sounding stuff (and then make comments about user-friendliness). Perhaps some of the AEs/EEs or others with the resources might be interested in such a test...best of luck,
Colin
Hi there,I did something slightly different. I made up several Interconnects (all for customers) using different Solders but otherwise identical.
I tried "Wondersolder" (not sure which Vintage or anything - got it from a friend who had it for years), WBT, common silverbearing Solder (4% likely similar to radishack stuff) , this Quad whatever stuff with copper and silver in it and Multicore Leadfree Solder (also 4% Silvercontent if my info is correct).
The Multicore stuff is not very easy to solder as it has a very high melting point, but it sounded best by a long stretch. The "coomon garden" silverbearing solder was undistinguishable from the "Wondersolder" and the WBT sounded worse that this.
The Kester 60/36/2/2 PB/SN/CU/AG Stuff sounded nice but not close to the Leadfree solder, but better than the others.
Another thing to rember is that Solder having lead in it will eventually remove the plating of noble metals (Gold, Silver or whatever) on parts that have this plating....
So, to me at least Solder with lead in it is out.
Ciao Thorsten
Wonder, Cardas, ect., may not be the best sounding solder in the world, most likely due to the lead, but they do sound great and the Cardas saved my A** when I was constructing the Welborne mono attenuators. I had to put two resistor leads in one small eyelet. I could not see the bottom lead!The Cardas flowed so well, that I was able to make very nice looking joints, which would have otherwise been impossible for me to do. These controls sound great! I do not know of any lead free 4% silver solder that melts as quickly and flows as smoothly.
nt
Interesting ...
I know that Audionote made their PCBs with stanard and their silver solder, otherwise identical. But unlikely an interconnect the PCB has hundreds of points so he effect should be more audible.
According to them, the sound was much improved.Lukasz
Hi again,Yes, with equipment the difference is much more notable. Simply sucking off the standard solder from a PCB from all significant (signal-path) Solder-Joints and resoldering them with leadfree silverbearing solder brings notable improvements.
As (for mod's) I usally also change the components involved anyway, it is easy to include when I mod something.
Ciao Thorsten
Hi. I bought a pretty nifty butane/nitrous hand-held brazing torch today. It has a very small, intense flame. Anyway, it came with 3 45% silver brazing rods about the thickness of angelhair pasta. I was thinking about using the rod to braze some silver wire to RCA jacks. Obviously I'd need some 3-piece jacks so as not to melt the teflon spacer. I have no idea what the other 55% of the brazing rod is, but this setup is really easy to use. Any experience with this stuff?thanks,
Colin
nt
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