Low heat solder strips. Anybody ever hear of them?

Ten years ago or so I got a pack of low heat solder strips from Radio Shack. They were silver strips about 1/4" by 1" and came in a plastic bag of 25 or so.

I liked to use them because I didn't have a decent soldering iron. With these strips, I only needed to wrap them around whatever I wanted to solder together, then put a heat source near the strips. I could even use a lit match and they would melt right into the wiring. When they cooled, they were just as solid as a regularly soldered connection.

A while back I went into the local RS looking for the same product, and the people behind the counter looked at me like I was hallucinating. They told me that there had never been such a product and I must have imagined it.

Has anybody else ever used these? Do you know where I can get them?

Yea I heard of them before. Its one of those novelty items that were a big fail. Anyone who know how to proper solder know why so let me explain.

The trick to soldering is to heat the metal of the connection THEN add solder and it will flow around the connection and bond the metals atomically.

Using a solder strip will 9 times out of ten cause a cold solder joint because you're melting the solder before the metal below is hot enough to bond with it.

Your're heating the solder and hoping it will get hot enough to heat the metal below and make a perminant bond.

Most techs realise thats not the way you solder and you take a chance on unrelyable cold solder joints and damaging the components through overheating trying to get the crap to flow.

You cant heat the metal wiith a lighter first either. The lighter gives off black carbon and would prevent a good bond. Electronics solder has flux which cleans the metal for a good bond. It removed dirst and oxidation. My advice is spend $10 for a soldering iron and do the job right. Bandaids in electronics is always a fail.

If you want to use your lighter method. Just use regular rosin core electronics silder and wrap it around the connection. It would do the exact same thing as the flat stuff.

I still have a bunch of 'em. I prefer to use a soldering iron or gun. But there are times that these are good to use.

I remember seeing those things too. I don't think I ever tried them, and I remember thinking that an open flame, (I think they advertised that you could just hold a match under them), would have to put some deposits on the joint. If they're still around, I would guess you might be more likely to find them at a hobby shop type place, than an electronics supplier.

The reason you received that reaction at Rat Shack is because the strips were discontinued when the twits who work there were still piddling their diapers. I have no faith at all in RS employees. Even their managers (LOL title) know nothing beyond selling things from reading the basic descriptions you can read on the item price/description cards. Rarely will you find anyone at a RS store who gives a damn. They stopped carrying most electronics parts years ago, then all but completely closed down their web sales. I used to buy my resistors by the hundreds for $1/100 from them, along with other similar parts, but they stopped selling all that kinda stuff. Mouser and similar places took their crown away.

I agree with WRGKMC on those strips. Sure, they have some uses, but I would never use something like that on anything I consider critical. To me, any solder joint on a guitar is critical, and I consider those strips as cold solder joints that will fail. The question is, when and where. I'd be pissed even if I was at home jamming out when a connection came loose.

It's worth so much more to learn to solder. I don't have steady hands, but for some reason, when I'm soldering, my hands are still enough to perform surgery. Many of us save old wiring. That really comes in handy to learn soldering. Get yourself one of those cheap "helping hands" things with the two alligator clips and small magnifying glass. I even keep a spare one of those in a box in my bedroom closet. Use it to hold a wire. Twist the ends. Heat it with the soldering iron (do not even think about using a soldering gun that puts out hundreds of watts), then hold the solder to it. There are tons of how-to videos online. Practice, practice, and then practice some more. Even if you don't learn to love the craft, knowing how to do a good, solid, solder joint will pay off in the long run.

I'm in agreement with Kat on this one. Learn to solder. Rat Shack does still carry some stuff. They've switched all or most of their soldering irons to Weller brand, so it's a good place to get those as well as solder, the aforementioned helping hands tool, heat shrink and other related stuff. They also carry a good line of mini switches. Another thing they stock is the green "chicklets" caps in .022 and .047. I find these are just fine for tone caps. One thing I use religiously is their tip tinner and cleaner. It comes in a small can and works well. Keeping the tip tinned is crucial to good soldering. And when your iron is hot enough it will easily melt the tinner/cleaner paste. Judging from that last sentence, you can tell I use it every time I solder. How do I know that keeping your tip tinned is crucial?

Yes- I remember that stuff- I thought it was just about as good. Don't remember ever having a problem with it....

In fact- that is what I was looking for right now online- I wanted to find where they sold it.... Apparently, no where...

Bummer.

LOL.

A typical Radio Shack employee could tell you with a straight face that there has never been such a product that you bought there ten years ago, even though he's only been there six years.

"Ten years is a long time, but so is six. Six feels like ten years when you work in a place like this and so it must be approximately long enough to know what was there and not there ten years ago!"

And of course, he will not remember it if he had been there ten years and is in fact the same guy who sold it to you.

"Prior to the most distant day that I remember working in this store, everything was exactly the same as on that day.  I do not remember that product being here on the most distant day in my memory. Therefore, it wasn't here on the day before that, and by inductification, it was never here."