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Solder for labtop

I

itomwisp

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 13, 2009
Messages
302
Hello,

I have friend with a broken power port/jack? on his labtop. He got a replacement part, and needs to re solder the replacement part onto the motherboard. What solder would be the best to use in that situation?
Anything i need to look out for?
 
Lead free solder is going to hold up a lot better than the cheap lead containing stuff.

Using soldering paste will help a ton with adhesion and clean/strong solder joints as well. I use the stuff meant for plumbing as it is a lot easier to work with than the junky liquid stuff they say to use.
 
I wouldn't call leaded solder the "cheap stuff", it's actually better for your purpose. When it comes to electronics, eutectic solder is generally preferred (63/37). Lead free will require significantly more heat to work with, and will be a less durable joint.
 
jthomas said:
I wouldn't call leaded solder the "cheap stuff", it's actually better for your purpose. When it comes to electronics, eutectic solder is generally preferred (63/37). Lead free will require significantly more heat to work with, and will be a less durable joint.
Click to expand...

I am not sure I agree with this.

Out of all the solder joints I have had to redo, I am pretty sure that they used solder that had lead in them. Resolder them with lead free (contains silver) and have never had a recurring problem.

Lead is soft and tends to crack pretty easily, especially on joints that heat and cool repeatedly.

I usually melt the solder onto the tip of the soldering iron instead of heating up the joint to the point of melting the solder.

I've been doing it this way for years.
 
It's ok, the military, space travel, aerospace, and medical industries all agree with me. They've been doing this for years as well. That is why they all got exempted from lead-free solder regulations in the ROHS directive. They hate the stuff. Not just because of tin whiskers, but because there are long term durability concerns as well.

Certain types of lead-free do have marginally better thermal stress characteristics, but his power jack isn't going to be cycling hundreds of degrees.

I stand by what I said, good Kester 44 in 63/37 or 60/40 will be superior to Oatey plumbers solder in an electronics application.
 
heh.. I don't use plumbers solder except when sweating pipes together.

And what are these "tin whiskers" you speak of? Are you talking about the sharp points that sometimes happen? Pretty sure I have only ever had that happen when I was soldering super small smd resistors when overclocking slot-a Athlon processors.

I have never once had to go back and re repair anything that I have repaired with the solder I use.

Maybe I will have to try some newer lead based solder once i run out of the stuff I have.
 
No worries, just bustin' your balls a little. I just reference the plumbers stuff because usually that's what people are using when they say silver-bearing. Silver in electronic solder is less common and for a different purpose, it prevents leeching of silver contacts.

The whiskers I was talking about are a well documented problem with high tin solders, they'll sometimes grow crystalline whiskers that can short stuff out. More of a problem with fine pitch stuff and tight spacing, NASA has a bunch of good papers about it.

Admittedly it would probably never be a problem for the OP, and most hobbyist purposes can be done adequately with either type. But definitely try some out, it is much more forgiving and easy to work with, all other concerns aside.
 
Note also that brand of solder somewhat matters. Stick to Kester and MG Chemicals. Chemtronics has a good flux as well but I am not sure about solder - I would lean towards it being good as well, but I've never tried it. Make sure to either use no-clean solder or otherwise make sure to clean it up.

Quality solder should be fine, leaded or not. Leaded is a bit better, really, but is less eco-friendly. I use silver solder for almost everything these days with no issues.
 
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