Low melting silver solder

[roweenie]

I noticed that Ferree's stocks a type of silver solder that has a much lower melting point than the traditional kind.

Anybody have any experience with using it? Does it make as strong a bond, and will it be likely to come loose when making a soft solder connection?

[chhite]

We've been using a 96/4 "lead-free" soft solder from SRA Solder with great results. Tensile strength of the bond is higher than 50/50 and with the small gauge wire (0.032"), it doesn't take a lot of heat to get things moving. I haven't tried Ferree's product.

[roweenie]

Thanks for that info, but I'm looking for info specific to "hard" soldering (brazing with silver solder, that is).

I should get some of that 96/4 solder and give it a spin - I've been concerned lately about working around the lead in 60/40 (plumbing solder has been 95/5 {tin/antimony} for many years now).

[roweenie]

My opinion: It's crap. If you have to unsolder any tin/lead soft solder near it the stuff comes off BEFORE the 70/30 stuff. NOT a good thing. It is quick and easy to use, but it needs to ONLY be used on parts that can be worked on off the horn, or parts that can be removed from the horn before you hit anything nearby with a torch. My soft solder melts at about 360º and the roll of this Ferree's stuff melts at something like 320º, and this is very bad. Perhaps I got a bad batch. Or perhaps it is crap. I don't really know. However, I used about a half a foot of it and gave it away to a friend. Back to more traditional materials for me.

Thanks for that info - I thought it was too good to be true...

[roweenie]

Advice noted and accepted - thank you!

[Dan Schultz]

The small brazing stuff that Allied sells will melt with a Presto-Lite torch (air/acetylene) as long as the substrate isn't too heavy.

Works great for putting together busted linkage parts.

For most other stuff where I need something harder than 30/70... I use Sta-Brite solder. It's ten times tougher than regular tin lead stuff.