Solder

141 products

Whether you are a sheet metal fabricator, electronics assembler or hobbyist, we have just the right solder products to make the best joints. From tin/lead to lead-free solders, our selection of products include solder bar, solder wire, solder paste, brazing rods, Babbitt metal and special low-temperature alloys.

StellarTechnical.com maintains one of the largest stocks of soldering materials, such as lead-free solder, in the United States.

Have a technical question or need help deciding the best solder to use ?  Give us a call or contact us by email to get answers to your questions.

Questions about Solder

Do I need lead or lead-free solder?

You need lead-free solder if what you're building has to meet RoHS, or if your customer specifies it. Otherwise tin-lead still does the job and melts lower: 63/37 melts at 361°F, where lead-free SAC305 melts at 423 to 430°F. Lead-free wire, bar and paste each have their own category. For the rules behind it, see what RoHS covers and why lead-free is used.

What is solder made of?

Solder is a metal alloy, usually tin mixed with lead, or in lead-free solder with silver, copper, antimony or bismuth. Most of our wire solder also has flux in its core. Our guide to what solder is made of goes through the common alloys.

Should I use wire, bar or paste, and what diameter?

Wire is for hand soldering with an iron, bar is melted in a solder pot or wave machine, and paste is printed onto circuit boards and reflowed in an oven. Our wire runs from .010 to .125 inch in diameter, and the thinnest one that does the job keeps you from building up too much solder on the joint. Our article on the right solder wire diameter for the job goes into more detail. We also carry bar solder, and paste in tin-lead and lead-free versions.

Do you make solder, and can I buy it in bulk?

We're a distributor rather than a manufacturer, and the solder here comes from makers including MacDermid Alpha, with brazing alloys from Lucas-Milhaupt. Stellar Select is Stellar's own private label brand, and we own the formulation. For bulk, bar solder comes in 50 lb cases and wire on spools of up to 25 lb. Repeat orders can run on a blanket purchase order or a stocking agreement, and a RapidQuote request gets you pricing and a lead time within 24 business hours.