Solder pots....good or bad?

[Possum]

...

OK, I got a small solder pot off ebay for $35, and a lifetime supply of bar solder for $24. I got the bong inhaler attachment to breathe the fumes most effectively. Will let ya know how it works out. I don't plan on letting it sit there fuming all the time every day, just turn it on, tin a whole bunch of leads and put it away afterwards. Well, may throw a few buds on it before I turn it off....

[David Schwab]

OK, I got a small solder pot off ebay for $35, and a lifetime supply of bar solder for $24. I got the bong inhaler attachment to breathe the fumes most effectively. Will let ya know how it works out. I don't plan on letting it sit there fuming all the time every day, just turn it on, tin a whole bunch of leads and put it away afterwards. Well, may throw a few buds on it before I turn it off....

That's a great idea though. I'd like an easy way to cut and strip those leads.

[Joe Gwinn]

OK, I got a small solder pot off ebay for $35, and a lifetime supply of bar solder for $24. I got the bong inhaler attachment to breathe the fumes most effectively. Will let ya know how it works out. I don't plan on letting it sit there fuming all the time every day, just turn it on, tin a whole bunch of leads and put it away afterwards. Well, may throw a few buds on it before I turn it off....

The big issue is to keep the solder in the pot clean. Wipe the dross off periodically. Use flux. Etc.

Solder-pot manufacturers will have a lot to say on the care and feeding. But eventually one accumulates too much dirt (other metals, oxides, etc) and the tinning no longer works right. Then you replace the solder and start over.

[Possum]

...

I bought 3 lbs of Kester bar solder should last a long long time. Is dross just junk that forms on the top? probably just a stainless steel spoon would skim that off

[soundmasterg]

Have your dog lick it off......it won't hurt...honest!

Greg

[Seth Leigh]

I've never used a solder pot, but I've used something that was essentially the same thing on a slightly larger scale - a lead bullet casting furnace, with a capacity of maybe 10 lbs or so (that's still not a huge volume). I would use ingots I'd cast from melted down wheelweight alloy, ie: the lead alloy from the weights used to balance car wheels. It was a nearly perfect bullet alloy.

Anyhow, to clean the lead I'd drop smallish chunks (size of the tip of my pinky or so) of wax onto the molten wax. It would start smoking like crazy, and with a cigarette lighter or a match I'd ignite the smoke, and then the lead would have this burning wax floating on top of it. With a gloved hand I'd use a stainless steel spoon and stir that burning wax down into the lead fairly vigorously.

Somehow, and I don't really know the mechanics of it, but that wax in the lead would pick up all sorts of contaminents and dirt and whatnot and float it to the surface of the lead, where I'd skim it off the top with a spoon.

The lead would then start off looking perfectly clean and metallic and shiny, and over time a haze would build up on the surface, I usually just left that, because I was pouring lead off the bottom of the pot for my bullets, not the top surface, so it didn't really matter.

But fluxing the lead with wax like this really cleaned up the metal nicely.

[Possum]

...

I LIKE THIS! Cranked it up, its really small, of course some smoke from first time heating up. Cut a steel flat rod to skim the top off. Cut a few humbucker leads, stripped 'em, a quick dunk in flux then into the solder pot and we're done, perfect tinning. This will save me hours of trying to solder lead ends for buckers. I'm sold....
Do you really need to flux the pot? When I dip the fluxed lead in it burns right off, thats where the smoke comes from, can't see dumping some rosin in this thing it would smoke the whole room up....

[Joe Gwinn]

I bought 3 lbs of Kester bar solder should last a long long time. Is dross just junk that forms on the top? Probably just a stainless steel spoon would skim that off.

Yes, dross is the stuff that forms on the top. Almost anything will work to clear it off, so long as it doesn't dissolve or melt into the solder.

[Seth Leigh]

I should point out that there are two meanings of the word "flux" that usually don't come up in the same context, but in this one they do, and it might be confusing to some.

There's the flux that is used to facilitate the wicking of solder into the wires that are being tinned. That's one meaning of the word.

Then there's the flux that is used to clean molten lead. That's the bits of wax or other substances that lead casters will mix into their lead to bring the impurities to the surface so they can be skimmed off. I've also read of things such as sawdust being used to flux lead, though I've only ever used wax. This is a very different meaning of the word flux, and it has nothing to do with facilitating the wicking of solder into a bundle of fine wires, or a wire joint.

[Possum]

...

I stripped and tinned 80 leads tonite in short order. The room did get a bit rosin smelling, maybe I'll get one of those fans with the filter in it. But this is a big time saver for me...

[soundmasterg]

I stripped and tinned 80 leads tonite in short order. The room did get a bit rosin smelling, maybe I'll get one of those fans with the filter in it. But this is a big time saver for me...

Yah I bet!

I want to get one for my amp work but haven't got the scratch yet.

Greg

[Possum]

...

they are only $35, $15 shipping. Can't get much cheaper than that, though they do have ones for $25 too that would probably work. The solder is low temp melt around 375 degrees I think, the solder was $24 for 3lbs which is alot of solder!

[soundmasterg]

Yah but I'm out of work right now and money is really tight.......

Greg

[David Schwab]

Yah but I'm out of work right now and money is really tight.......

Yeah, me too... oh wait... I'm a pickup maker! (seems to be the same thing lately)



Things will pick up (no pun intended).

[tedmich]

solder pots also handy when someone tries to storm the castle walls....


Lead free solder is crap IMO, word is SWATCH had to S-can several million watches due to tin whisker shorts.

my idea of hell: Cold Heat Soldering Iron + RoHS solder