What solder should I use?

[ramiroelliot]

I currently have 0.6mm lead-free solder with 2% flux, but I was wondering what other people used to build their pedals. I can see that a lot of people prefer leaded solder, but I'm also curious about thickness. Is 0.6mm too thin? Does the thickness matter? I'm doing perf board soldering.

[jimilee]

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[derevaun]

Same here, Kester 44. I use .5mm in order to do the occasional SMD things. It needs to be flowed in fast for bigger joints.

I also use Kester 303 (water soluble) in .8mm for a lot of stuff, mostly because I still have a lot of it. I think I slightly prefer the .5mm but I don't plan to try anything thinner.

[jessenator]

I've also got Kester 44 63/37 at .020 for nearly everything.

[dead_aatish]

I've used 0.6mm lead-free solder before for perf board projects, and I found it worked pretty well for most components. It's not too thin, but if you're soldering things like bigger caps or connectors, a thicker solder, like 0.8mm, might help fill those joints better. Personally, I prefer leaded solder because it flows nicely and makes for cleaner joints, but I get that lead-free is a good choice too.

[dont-tase-me-bro]

I use the same Kester - it's great