Altronics solder - any good?

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Brilliant. I have learnt so much from these posts on solder than I ever knew before. I never knew there was so much involved, that I never before thought of.

Thank you for all this info.

Reply to
kreed
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Have had to do that plenty of times :) Any case where you can't bring the work to you ends up like this.

Reply to
kreed

Brilliant. I have learnt so much from these posts on solder than I ever knew before. I never knew there was so much involved, that I never before thought of.

Thank you for all this info.

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Moving off topic a little, the below is an interesting post I've lifted from rec.crafts.metalworking about one guys experience with soldering aluminium or aluminum as the yanks call it:

I've used "aluminum solder" in the past that was worthless. A few years ago I bought some aluminum solder at the local hardware store. that looks like the sticks were poured in a thin stream onto a plate where it cooled into an approximately half round cross section. It came in a plastic tube with, I think, the Forney brand name. Anyway, the stuff just sat around with my other welding and brazing rods until a couple weeks ago when a customer needed some aluminum joined with a low temperature (compared to welding) process.

As an experiment I first soldered together two pieces of 6061 1/2" x 1/2" x

1/8" angle. After soldering the pieces at 90 degrees to each other I clamped one piece in the vise and tried bending the other piece. I was able to bend the angle over 90 degrees without the joint failing! I am most impressed with the stuff.

This is the method I used: Cleaned both pieces very well so they were grease free. Used a toothbrush sized stainless wire brush to remove oxide layer. Heated the metal until the solder started to flow and then used the brush again through the molten solder to remove any remaining or newly formed oxide layer. This second brushing allowed the solder to completely wet the aluminum. After tinning (aluminuming?) both pieces I pressed them together and heated until the solder flowed and continued holding until the solder solidified.

Long explanation for a quick job. After the aluminum is wetted the solder is workable enough with a hot pointed flame that it can be built up into large fillets or to fill large holes. If you can fill holes with plumbing solder, either the old leaded kind or the newer silver and/or antinomy bearing kind, then you can use the aluminum solder for the same thing too. Eric

Reply to
Dennis

"Dennis"

(snip)

** The exact same product was sold here as " Lumiweld" - I bought some sticks back in the early 1990s.

Not strictly a normal solder, but an alloy that mixes ( at the right temp) with pure aluminium and many aluminium alloys to form a new alloy with a lower melting point.

I used it with thin aluminium tubes ( model 2 stroke mufflers) and thicker aluminium headers.

You need a good heat source or maybe two - ie hand held gas torch and gas stove burner.

Get the preparations and temp right and it works like a charm.

Can even be used to " solder " stainless to stainless.

.... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

I don't take 500g rolls up anywhere - I save the doohicky packs the desoldering braid comes in, and wind about 25-40 turns of solder into it, and use that as a solder dispenser - (about 3-5m of solder) Others I know use an old 35mm film canister with solder coiled inside. I know at my workplace, dropping a 500gm solder roll would not be acceptable, and dropping a much lighter container would be preferable if anything was to be dropped.

Reply to
Des Bromilow

I usually use an old reel thats probably only got 100g on it. Don't use a huge amount of solder in the field and this all saves weight.

Reply to
kreed

I use the shell of an old marker pen.

I wind a few layers of solder on the shaft of a phillips screwdriver then pack it inside with the start of the inner layer leading out the where the nib was. maybe 50-100g of solder.

--
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Reply to
Jasen Betts

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