Tag: solder

DIY Chip Quik style desoldering alloy (#P37)

And finally closure on the fake China solder wire topic back from WHL #68 / WHL #68F1. I bought a bunch of Bismuth metal in early June (1KG Bismuth Metal Ingot 99.99% Pure Crystal Fr Making Crystals/Fishing Lures – 20.03€ including shipping, before the “no more VAT free imports” EU legislation went into effect) and with the high lead content solder from the other review, I should be able to make some low-melting point solder.

First of all, the Bismuth was delivered in a big chunk as advertised, which I did not expect. They are somehow able to split that crystallized cake precisely into pieces of slightly below 1kg and then add in small bits to make exactly 1000g (at 2 cents a gram, they clearly do not give away free stuff). […]


250g-500g 1/0.5mm Lötzinn Lötdraht Löt mit Flussmittel Lötkolben Lötstation DHL (WHL #68F1)

(Follow-up post to the solder test of WHL #68)
While we’re at it – I couldn’t resist testing the flux percentage. Which also resulted in having large samples for a visual comparison. Contrary to my expectations, the lead-free solder wasn’t the one that stood out…

First things first. New batch, same naming scheme as before. Since I already measured weight per meter, I just picked one sample length from a (new) lead-free U1.0 wire and cut the others to expected length. 100cm of that stuff is 5.42(196)g, for comparison. […]


250g-500g 1/0.5mm Lötzinn Lötdraht Löt mit Flussmittel Lötkolben Lötstation DHL (WHL #68)

(Updated, see note at the bottom)
A fancy German item description for today, as I got it second-hand after even a soldering novice noticed this is total BS. “250g-500g 1/0.5mm Solder Solder Wire Solder with Flux Soldering Iron Soldering Station DHL” would be the closest translation. It’s solder – fake Wan Hung Lo leaded solder. Sold on eBay (probably all over the world), not even super cheap at 14€ a roll (250g, large diameter).

It is labelled “JINHU SOLDER CORE WIRE”, Type CF-10 Model B-1, comes in diameters of 0.3/0.4/0.5/0.6/0.8/1.0/1.2/1.5/2.0/2.3 (not necessarily true) with 2.0% flux (probably also not true), and proudly states “MADE IN CHINA”. […]