W
William Sommerwerck
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
As far as I know, no.
63/37 has been "known" to be eutectic for at least 50 years. (I read about
it in "Popular Electronics" as a wee babe.)
The only reason 60/40 was ever manufactured in the first place is that tin
is more expensive than lead, so 63/37 solder costs more. Unless you're
Really Cheap, 63/37 is always preferable. It has slightly greater mechanical
strength, too, though this is rarely a consideration.
J Gordon Holt, who founded "The Stereophile", had his own theories about
soldering. Back in the days when people assembled vacuum-tube equipment from
kits, he recommended simply poking component leads through the lugs, and
soldering them without crimping them. His reasoning was that, if the
component ever needed replacement, you wouldn't have to fiddle with
uncrimping it. (If you've ever unsoldered old equipment, you know what a
tsuris this can be.) The "catch", of course, is that both the lug and the
lead have to be very clean, and you're more likely to get a cold or
incomplete connection. This is a situation where you would /definitely/ want
to use 63/37.
While I'm on the subject... I once asked the late Bob Tucker, * who wrote
the user manuals for Dynaco, why the soldering instructions were, at one
point, obviously in the "wrong" sequence. He explained that Dynaco's
"policy" was that, once a lug had three wires in it, it was to be soldered.
There was otherwise too-great a chance of it being overlooked and remaining
unsoldered, only to cause problems down the line.
* Bob, who passed on in the late '80s, was one of the nicest, most-gracious
people you could ever hope to meet. He was, perhaps surprisingly, also one
of the handsomest men I've ever seen -- by comparison, most actors and
fashion models are plain -- but he didn't seem aware of it.
63/37 has been "known" to be eutectic for at least 50 years. (I read about
it in "Popular Electronics" as a wee babe.)
The only reason 60/40 was ever manufactured in the first place is that tin
is more expensive than lead, so 63/37 solder costs more. Unless you're
Really Cheap, 63/37 is always preferable. It has slightly greater mechanical
strength, too, though this is rarely a consideration.
J Gordon Holt, who founded "The Stereophile", had his own theories about
soldering. Back in the days when people assembled vacuum-tube equipment from
kits, he recommended simply poking component leads through the lugs, and
soldering them without crimping them. His reasoning was that, if the
component ever needed replacement, you wouldn't have to fiddle with
uncrimping it. (If you've ever unsoldered old equipment, you know what a
tsuris this can be.) The "catch", of course, is that both the lug and the
lead have to be very clean, and you're more likely to get a cold or
incomplete connection. This is a situation where you would /definitely/ want
to use 63/37.
While I'm on the subject... I once asked the late Bob Tucker, * who wrote
the user manuals for Dynaco, why the soldering instructions were, at one
point, obviously in the "wrong" sequence. He explained that Dynaco's
"policy" was that, once a lug had three wires in it, it was to be soldered.
There was otherwise too-great a chance of it being overlooked and remaining
unsoldered, only to cause problems down the line.
* Bob, who passed on in the late '80s, was one of the nicest, most-gracious
people you could ever hope to meet. He was, perhaps surprisingly, also one
of the handsomest men I've ever seen -- by comparison, most actors and
fashion models are plain -- but he didn't seem aware of it.
it might have misled you a bit.
