Show us ya joints!

[tuckjohn]

@Pecos

Also switch to leaded solder, nothing at home depo or lowes is any good. I don’t know how they got it so wrong but it just sucks compared to a good any 63/37 leaded solder. It’s not an exaggeration, the harris or weller stuff just doesn’t work well no matter how good your technique is.

@HippyDeathCult

No flux. It was the expensive electrical stuff from home depot with flux core.

Get yourself some electronic solder, you’re going to struggle to get good joints using Home Depot crap. Never seen actual electronics solder at Home Depot tho, curious what your roll looks like.

Consider below;

@tuckjohn

Also… for years I had problems with my soldering iron tips dissolving over time.
I thought it was the cheap irons I was using and just kept getting replacements. I eventually realized it was because of the solder that I had bought at Lowes. All of the home depot/Lowes solder that I’ve seen was/is plumbers solder, which is sold as a thicker diameter (and why I mention this here).
Basically, (most) solder has a core of flux, which is a mix of chemical(s) that break down the thin oxide layer present on most metals which would otherwise prevent the solder from making good contact with the metal (amongst other things). Plumber’s solder is designed for thick copper pipes and thus has much more aggressive flux, while electronics solder has much more gentle flux.
TLDR; it helps to electronics solder for electronics stuff

I use unleaded solder for everything I do, and have never had issues. Slightly more finicky, maybe? But never something that can’t be overcome with better technique.

These are the rolls that I use, pretty much just Amazon specials. They’ve all been great.

Then again, the guy that won esk8con this year @HAIRYMANJACK uses leaded solder, so maybe that’s the secret…