Lead free solder woes

[mhku]

I'm having trouble soldering cable to these connectors with lead free solder.

What's the optimum temperature setting for the iron with lead free solder or any tips to do it?

Thanks

 

[gsteigwiler]

Hi MHKU
Info taken from a wiki on solder, hope it helps

The two most common alloys are 60/40 Sn/Pb which melts at 370 °F or 188 °C and 63/37 Sn/Pb used principally in electrical work

Most lead-free replacements for conventional Sn60/Pb40 and Sn63/Pb37 solder have melting points from 5–20 °C higher[citation needed], though solders with much lower melting points are available

I dont have any tips ( sorry ) or hints as I have never used it, still got plenty of the old stuff

Regards gsteigwiler

 

[HB13DISH]

I'm having trouble soldering cable to these connectors with lead free solder.

What's the optimum temperature setting for the iron with lead free solder or any tips to do it?

Thanks

The best thing to do is to check the parts specification and what is the manufacturer's soldering temperature recommendation (Temperature Profile)
This is usually given for mass production soldering equipments.
In your case, you are doing a manual soldering so the specification would be different, and not given.
But you would need between 25-40 degrees centigrade higher than the leaded solder. Just be careful the plastic doesn't deform with excessive heating,

 

[Llew]

Lead-free solder normally melts at around 220C, tin/lead at around 185C, but of course it'll depend on what you're soldering, and the type of bit you're using for the job in hand.

Don't use the stuff myself, but I imagine you would allow 40/50C extra (if you have a temperature-controlled iron with temperature readout display)

Llew

 

[mhku]

Cheers for the replies. I couldn't even tin the bloody cable with lead-free

Will try again next week. And I'll try to find the little bit of leaded I still have somewhere...