Posted by Angel on November 04, 2002 at 18:20:40:
In Reply to: RESIDUE posted by Susan Murphy on November 04, 2002 at 07:59:03:
Clean your soldered pieces with straight household ammonia and hot water. This makes solder seams shine like silver. Use at LEAST 60/40 or 63/37 solder because 50/50 is always much duller. I can't help you with unleaded solder because I HATE the trash and if they ever do manage to take leaded solder off the market, I'll find something else to do with my time.
: Sometimes my lead or unleaded solder has a dull residue, appearing gray instead of that nice shiny look. Driving me nuts! Even after I clean & polish, that part is never as shiny as the sections that came out fine right after soldering. These are on pieces that I do not want to patina, so it matters. Any help would be appreciated. I use Kem-O-Pro finishing compound, it's good, but doesn't solve the problem. I'd like to eliminate it from the start, not try to correct it. Thanks so much.