Lead-free solder redux

[Rich Grise]

I was just looking for low-melting stuff for the "bend waveguide" thread,
and stumbled on this:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/114/3532

Where, if you scroll down below the bismuth, there's indium. They mention
that the "#35 wire comes in a 105-ft. spool of 1/16" dia. wire. It's
great for low-temperature soldering."

And it's got no lead or cadmium! Hooray!

But there are two drawbacks - it's like $400./pound, and it melts at 260F!
(easy for on the bench, but I wouldn't use it under the hood of a car!)

Cheers!
Rich

 

[IanM]

I was just looking for low-melting stuff for the "bend waveguide" thread,
and stumbled on this:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/114/3532

Where, if you scroll down below the bismuth, there's indium. They mention
that the "#35 wire comes in a 105-ft. spool of 1/16" dia. wire. It's
great for low-temperature soldering."

And it's got no lead or cadmium! Hooray!

But there are two drawbacks - it's like $400./pound, and it melts at 260F!
(easy for on the bench, but I wouldn't use it under the hood of a car!)

Cheers!
Rich

Isn't that the stuff that wets glass and ceramics?

 

[Rich Grise]

Isn't that the stuff that wets glass and ceramics?

I donn't know - why don't you investigate that, and give us all a report?


Thanks!
Rich

 

[[email protected]]

Isn't that the stuff that wets glass and ceramics?

don't know about ceramic but I have read somewhere that i can solder
to glass and is used to make e.g. vakuum tight connections betwen
metal and glass.

it's called fields metal

-Lasse

 

[przemek klosowski]

Where, if you scroll down below the bismuth, there's indium. They
mention that the "#35 wire comes in a 105-ft. spool of 1/16" dia.
wire. It's great for low-temperature soldering."

And it's got no lead or cadmium! Hooray!

But there are two drawbacks - it's like $400./pound, and it melts at
260F! (easy for on the bench, but I wouldn't use it under the hood of a
car!)

Another drawback is that Indium is very soft: you can squeeze it with
your fingers. I used Indium wire for gaskets: you just cut 2 pi r plus
epsilon, overlap the ends, and squeeze tight.