Original poster: "Mark Broker" <mbroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
I got some Radio Shack 64-025 and gave it a try. It is not bad at all! It is higher temp, non-eutectic, little more brittle, has a higher wetting angle, and does not flow quite as well. But those are fairly minor things only someone odd would notice right off. It is perfectly usable for most stuff!! One would have to watch out for the higher temp on sensitive parts but other than that no much difference! I guess I won't have to by a lifetime supply of Kester 44 RA ;-)) The silver might have a problem with surface mount caps and things like that which are really sensitive to migration and them little wiskers, but for most hobbyist stuff it is not a big deal. Hopefully this, or better stuff, will appear in reasonable 1 pound spool sizes soon since RS is sort of expensive ;-))
I didn't solder much for the longest time before using that RS stuff. I had read numerous complaints about how difficult silver, lead-free solder is to use, but experienced none of the headaches myself. I guess it isn't just me, then! Perhaps I'm not so odd afterall? :o) Oh wait... :b
It also seems to make a much stronger and more rigid joint than any lead solder I've used. But I'm not certain if that's necessarily an advantage or not. I wonder if RS has some 1 pound spools somewhere if called? Certainly they have a supplier for their 1/2 oz blister packs that would likely have larger spools available?
So it looks like Tesla coiling will be able to survive the Lead Free thing :-))) I suppose the race is on to make the first "lead free"Tesla coil :o)) I guess we should now add the following abbreviations :O)))))
I vividly remember reading early 2000 to use lead-free, preferably silver-bearing, solder for all power connections in a TC (basically the MMC), but I don't recall if that was on this list or on someone's website. Therefore, my first TC in spring 2000 was constructed entirely using lead-free plumber's solder (plus plumber's flux - that was messy and un-fun). I built The Geek Group's MMCs in Jan, 2001 using this RS solder. My current, nearly finished TC is completely soldered using the RS solder. I don't think I got the leadfree caps, though, so I can't claim to be the first for a totally lead-free TC.
Best regards! Mark Broker