Solder Choices with Silver for SNES Recapping?

[erik343]

Hello,

I am refurbishing and recapping my Super Nintendo. I was recommended Kester solder from a friend online for my SNES. I was wondering which solder is best to buy?

I had a choice between:
63% copper/37% lead at 0.010"" (0.25mm) or
62% copper/36% lead/2% silver at 0.015"" (0.40mm)

I was wondering what the advantages of silver are?
Does it make the melting point lower, or does it conduct better?

The problem I have with recapping my Super Nintendo is that some of the parts are very small such as with the SMD Capactitors.
I need to find solder that is the smallest diameter possible in order to avoid globbing and bridging.
The smallest diameter solder does not have the silver in it at all. The solder with silver also might be to large in diameter.

Which solder is better for a small job like with my SNES? Is the added 2% silver even necessary at all? Is the smaller diameter solder better in this case?

This is a link to the Kester solder products I am looking at:
https://www.kester.com/products/product ... cored-wire

Thanks,
Erik W.

[NJRoadfan]

Hello,

I am refurbishing and recapping my Super Nintendo. I was recommended Kester solder from a friend online for my SNES. I was wondering which solder is best to buy?

I had a choice between:
63% copper/37% lead at 0.010"" (0.25mm) or
62% copper/36% lead/2% silver at 0.015"" (0.40mm)

Thats Tin (Sn), not Copper (Cu)! No need for silver. Thinner solder helps with the small stuff. Make sure you have flux on hand as well.

[ASDR]

Generally, 0.5mm is a decent solder diameter.

Regarding the alloy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solder#Solder_alloys

Sn60Pb40 or Sn63Pb37 are the common leaded solder types, just make sure you uses leaded and an eutectic alloy. The silver bearing stuff is what I use and it's supposedly stronger, but I doubt it makes a huge difference.

The diameter of your solder or your tip etc. does not really matter all that much. It's a common mistake to think that for fine pitch work you need like an extremely steady hand and tiny tools etc. What matters is flux and right technique. If you use flux you can drag a huge solder blob over tiny pads or chip legs and it'll just follow the heat of your iron and produce beautifully tinned pads and wetted joints. Removing bridges is easy with nothing more than flux and your iron. I'd recommend you watch a guy like Voultar or Louis Rossmann on YouTube to get an idea for how things should look & work if you're using the right equipment & technique.

Also, if you find yourself doing more SMD work, especially on more modern devices, you should get a hot air station. I think you'll be fine with the SNES, but anything more modern is really hard to hand solder. The pads are simply under the components and really difficult to reach with an iron. That's not an issue on a 1980s PC Engine or with boards made for hand soldering like the various RGB amps around here, but you're not going to have much fun trying to solder back an 0603 SMD cap in a PS2 you accidentally knocked off when the pads barely peek out from under the terminals.

[donluca]

I used Cardas silver solder when I was doing work on some very high end audio equipment, but I wouldn't waste that on a console recapping.

Any Tin/Lead solder will be fine, make sure to get one which has already flux in it which will come in really handy.

[ASDR]

I used Cardas silver solder when I was doing work on some very high end audio equipment, but I wouldn't waste that on a console recapping.

Ag2 solder isn't really expensive. For ten bucks you get enough to recap dozens of consoles. Supposedly it is stronger, has a lower melting point and the joints look shinier, so why not, it's not like it'll be any kind major of economic concern.

[donluca]

It isn't really Ag2 solder: http://www.cardas.com/solder.php

And of course you won't be breaking the bank by using it, but why spend 10x times (or more, I don't remember) when you'll have the exact same results with normal solder?

[ASDR]

It isn't really Ag2 solder: http://www.cardas.com/solder.php

And of course you won't be breaking the bank by using it, but why spend 10x times (or more, I don't remember) when you'll have the exact same results with normal solder?

2 gram of silver cost like a dollar..., that's not 10x for a 100g spool of solder, that's 10%. Of course in the case of Cardas, that's one of those audiophile companies that sell you 1000$ power cables (they sure do open up the soundstage and make cymbals spring to life...). Their solder "contains a proprietary blend of silver, copper, tin & lead.", sure. Who knows what's in there, but it is certainly infused with cosmic rays and blessed by the audio fairy and sold for 10x what it would normally cost. Of course I wouldn't recommend buying that. But if you just buy normal silver bearing solder, which measures up to be a slightly superior alloy, you can buy enough to replace all the capacitors in the house for ten bucks. Unless you're using solder by the kilogram on an assembly-line might as well buy that. Can't hurt, might help, and the price difference for a dozen consoles restored won't buy you a beer. But yeah, Sn63Pb37 will likely do the job as well.