How to solder tin? Find the right solder

Do you know how to solder tin? If you still don't know how to solder and want to learn, in this blog we tell you some tricks that can help you find the right solder.

What is tin and what is it used for?

Before starting to explain how to solder with tin, it is important to know what this chemical element is, tin or Sn has atomic number 50 within the groups of the periodic table, it is a silvery-white metal, it is very ductile and malleable.

Tin is used to line food, beverage and aerosol cans, but also for soft soldering using soldering irons, it is essential that in addition to a good quality of tin, you have a welding machine, a support for the welding machine so that it is work more comfortable.

Finally, you will need cleaning sponges or cottons, since they are very useful when soldering, when you carry out this procedure, the tip of the soldering iron it gets dirty, passing the tip over the sponge or cotton, the soldering iron is easily cleaned to continue being used.

As you can see, you do not need many materials, if you do not have experience, read on to find out everything related to soldering with tin. Do you have everything you need to do your soldering job?

Tips for soldering with tin

Next, we will list some tips so that your welding is of the best quality and resistance:

Have all the elements at hand

Both the soldering iron with the support, the tin and the material that you are going to solder must have them in an orderly manner so that you do not have any inconvenience when you start soldering.

You may feel that this advice does not make much sense, but, for example, if you start working with the soldering iron and stop to clean the tip and you do not have the elements in order, your solder may not be of the best quality.

Or, for example, if you need to modify something with both hands and at the moment of supporting the soldering iron you cannot find the support, you are probably at a crossroads, because you must turn off the soldering iron so that it does not heat up on any surface that could cause an accident. That is why we must be cautious even with the simplest acts such as soldering with tin.

Fix well the elements that you are going to weld

When soldering with tin, you must bear in mind that the pieces can move for many reasons, which is why we recommend that you especially fix the elements before you are going to solder. With this you will avoid repeating the process twice and have a suitable type of welding.

Be careful with the quality of the tin

Tin for soldering is not pure tin itself, but rather an alloy between this material and lead, with a percentage between approximately 60% tin and 40% lead, this composition must be of very good quality because with this we achieve that the melting temperature do not increase.

The quality of the tin and the result are directly proportional, unlike the quality of the solder, the tin is crucial for a good solder, so we will not emphasize the solder too much, but we do recommend getting a good brand of base material for tin.

Prepare the parts to be welded well

At this point, the parts to be welded must be clean and dry. In any type of welding, external agents can affect the final quality, so make sure that both your pieces and the welder are perfectly clean.

Heat the soldering iron to the right temperature

Since tin is used only for soft soldering, as mentioned previously, the tin should not reach a high melting temperature. The ideal temperature should range between 350 to 450 degrees depending on the size of the pieces you are going to weld.

If you are going to solder a cable, which is the most common, the appropriate temperature will be 250 degrees. Attention! You have to weld on a material other than fabric, this can cause accidents.

Make sure the soldering iron does not touch the tin

We recommend that you only bring the soldering iron close to the pieces you want to join and when the pieces are at a suitable temperature, bring the tin close to them and you can get a sheath thanks to the heat of the pieces to be soldered and the tin will be fixed. This will increase the quality of the solder, don't worry, although it may sound like hard work, once you have a good technique, soldering with tin will be too easy for you.

Tin before soldering

Keep in mind the terms that we are using so that you do not get confused when starting this procedure. Tinning means impregnating the pieces to be soldered separately with tin, so when you apply heat to the pieces you should only put a minimum amount of tin on them and the melting will be done quickly and homogeneously.

Rehearse the position of the welder

When using the welder, it must be inclined, the more inclined you have the welder at the time of performing the entire procedure, the greater the surface of the tip that will be in contact with the surface to be welded, in such a way that it is the most effective.

Try that the pieces to be joined are still

It is very important that the pieces to be welded remain completely still during the process. If they are small pieces, it is best to hold them with tweezers to avoid releasing or moving them when they heat up. If they are large pieces, the most ideal is that you have support systems. or third hand.

Be patient with the drying

A very common mistake when we are just starting to solder, is to blow so that the solder dries before, but this should not happen because the solder will dry too quickly, and it will become brittle and can break easily.

If the tin dries quickly, the solder will be opaque and cause the effects mentioned above, the idea is that we be patient and wait for the process to follow its normal course, the solder should be shiny.

Now that we have taken all these tips into account, we are going to leave you with a more graphic example, applying them in a soldering process with tin:

If you are new to soldering, we recommend starting by soldering two wires, as it is the easiest way to learn how to use this material. The first thing you should do is strip the ends of the cables, once the cables have been stripped, clean them and twist them to form a joint between them.

Once you have finished screwing, what we proceed to do is put the soldering iron under the wire so that the copper of the cables is heated, later, we proceed to pass the tin over the cables, as we already explained, the Tin does not necessarily have to touch the soldering iron, but when in contact with the heat, the tin melts automatically.

If you want more information, we leave you the following video:

If you want to know more about how to solder, contact Perez Precision Works and request more information. In our company we have everything you need for any type of welding.