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Lead/Tin 50/50

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K

KSIS

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I have a small pin hole leak in my over folw tank and would like to rapir it. I spoke to a few people and they recommend the old Lead/Tin 50/50 rather than the modern Tin/Antimony type.
Anyone klnow where I could source it?
 
Why not just the current generation of solder from the home center? A pin hole leak won't be under a lot of pressure or stress. The "regular" plumbing in the hardware section will be suitable for hot water applications under higher pressure than a radiator or overflow tank.
 
dklawson said:
Why not just the current generation of solder from the home center?
Click to expand...
My experience with the lead-free sold at Home Depot (there are actually many different types of lead-free solder with different characteristics) has been that it is much harder to get a good joint with the lead-free stuff, especially on older metal. Of course you need to clean to bare metal either way, but with both acid and rosin core lead/tin solder, that seems to be sufficient. The lead-free stuff seems to require more thorough cleaning followed by washing with solvent, etc. even when used with the special flux that is sold with it. The lead-free solder also requires more heat (which is more apt to cause oxidation that will inhibit the solder sticking) and doesn't "wick" nearly as well as lead/tin solder does.
 
I still see 60/40 solder in the Home Depot type places. That is what Randall refers to as "eutectic"...well, theoreticly 63/37. (I had to look up eutectic solder) :laugh:
 
Thanks for the explanation Randall. I have seen exactly what you describe, particularly that with the "new" solders more heat is required. However, I still have pretty good luck using "No-Korode" flux with the new solders. Resin doesn't seem to work very well and I save the little bit of acid flux I have left for those times I need to solder steel.
 
My experience with the newer solders lie in the fact that the melt temp is very very close to the flux burn temp.

Once the flux is burnt, you gotta start over.

If you can sneak up to the melt temp and get your soldering done, the newer stuff works quite well.

But if you are in an area where you need to heat quickly in order to solder before someplace else melts, it gets very difficult to get a clean job due to the fact that the flux burns from the amount of heat it takes to bring the temp up in a hurry.

FWIW
 
Not sure (i think 60/40) on the solder but At my friends shop he used
TinTasTic on the radiators before he soldered any leaks. also used a sand blaster to prep the area.

Don
 
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