[Solved] Best solder to use. Leaded and Unleaded

Good quality solder (brand is somewhat important) examples of good brands MG chemicals, Kester, MultiCore. 37/63 leaded for general purpose. I do need to do some specialty soldering from time to time examples Tektronix ceramic strips that need a high silver content that I can only find in lead free. 

Zen

Mr C went into a lot of detail about which solder to buy in a past video.

You might look at Video 102:   More Soldering Tips And Tricks To Make Circuit Board Building Easy!

I only have one roll of solder. Leaded, fairly small diameter. Don’t know the specifics of it right now. It works great for everything, circuit boards, point to point, and everything in between.

Thanks for all 3 of you for your comments and I will check out video 102 Larry.

63 37 lead or 60 40 there and a good flux for the work your doing

Tom 

@tomswork Thanks, Tom. No particular Brand?

I use mg chemical and steri flux but there are many good brands

Tom

I would ones choice of solder would be what you want to solder.
What temperature are you wanting to work at.

I use 63/37 or 60/40 lead, but have used lead free.

For brand, I have Kester and MG chemicals flux.

I’ve used Kester and MG Chemicals multicore with flux for years and have had very good results.

Dave Smith

Lester makes great solder. I use leaded solder… it seems like lead free solder joints happen to crack often in factory built electronics more than leaded. 
mG chemicals 835 is the flux I use… it may have been Mr Carlson who had recommended it in the first place

Kester *

A big thanks to everyone who has responded to this. I only posed the question, as I have used some poor quality ones in the past. They left me with dull solder joints and I much prefer to see them shiny ones. As for flux, I already use MG Chemicals; both the 835 and the 8341 work brilliantly. I just like to check if anyone has come across something new which works great. So, thanks once again.

@brian-wood 

The dull solder joint is many times a ‘cold solder joint’ and as such does not make a good connection. These are easily caused by movement during the cooling time. 63/37 solder helps to alleviate the problem because it solidifies faster and doesn’t go through as many phases as it cools. I use 63/37 or 62/35/3 for all of my lead-based soldering.

I use a tin/silver alloy for my lead free and Tektronics work.

Hope that helps a little.

Scotty