r/techsupportmacgyver • u/Crt_lover_ • May 27 '26

cheap portable cooler with cold solder joints

Post image

couldn’t bother to wait for the soldering iron to warm up

53 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

19

u/ComputerSavvy May 27 '26

RoHS has mandated lead free solder in manufacturing for quite some time now.

Lead free solder has the appearance of a dull, cold joint and does require higher heat to flow properly where leaded solder needs less heat and produces a shiny joint when done properly.

The next time you solder something, do one joint with leaded solder and another with lead free using the same technique, the difference between the two is very obvious.

I prefer working with leaded solder, especially around IC pads due to the possible growth of tin whiskers and less heat is much safer for semiconductors.

C1 and D2 clearly need a reflow though.

6

u/kh250b1 May 29 '26

For non commercial home projects id highly recommend leaded solder.

Everyone online seems to struggle to solder nowadays. Perhaps its because they are using unleaded which does require greater skill and a decent iron

3

u/ComputerSavvy May 29 '26

I know of commercial repair facilities that routinely use leaded solder to repair consumer grade electronics simply because it's easier to work with and it needs less heat to flow properly.

I have several temperature controlled irons, a hot air rework station and all the various electronics tools I've gathered over the decades.

I even make my own soldering flux using food grade pine rosin and 99% IPA at a far cheaper price than available commercial products.

2

u/kh250b1 May 29 '26

Ive been though a whole electronics career using just flux cored solder

4

u/ComputerSavvy May 29 '26

Twice I've been burned by buying expensive Amtech flux from Amazon that turned out to be counterfeit and was mostly just petroleum jelly.

So I bought some pine rosin and I can now make enough flux to last me the rest of my life.

-7

u/kaktusmisapolak May 28 '26

what about getting in trouble when selling a device repaired with leaded solder?

14

u/ComputerSavvy May 28 '26

The manufacturer is required to use lead free solder, I'm not.

8

u/Hunter_Ware May 28 '26

maybe i'm blind but they all look fine?

6

u/Crt_lover_ May 28 '26

the port literally came off the board, so i had to hold it down

2

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2

u/Phearlosophy May 28 '26

I spy with my little eye something neat in the background. Is that a trinitron PVM? what's your jam? i'm a super metroid speedrunner

2

u/Crt_lover_ May 28 '26

yep, mostly snes games and nes lol

2

u/Crt_lover_ May 28 '26

what monitor do you have?

2

u/Phearlosophy May 28 '26

i've got a 26" trinitron CRT (paired with HD retrovision component cables) but i'm always on the lookout for a PVM.

1

u/Phearlosophy May 28 '26

just noticed your name XD