Strange solder

[vulcan4d]

Not sure where to put this post, guess this is the best place ^^.

Anyway I'm pretty good at soldering, although I don't have much experience with different types of solder. When I was modding the 2 PS2's listed in my signature I choose the most expensive one at the electronics shop, naturally thinking it was the best. While I was soldering the solder behaved a little strangly. It was as though tiny balls boiled out of the solder and were spat out. At first I didn't think much of it, but then I checked and realized those tiny balls were conductive. It wasn't solder, but it was something from the solder. These balls were clear, as though it was a tiny ball of glue although very hard. I was very carefull but a few times I ended up getting this stuff on my ps2 mainboard. Had to carefully scrape it off. To this day I have no idea what that was and since I'll be modding more PS2's and Xboxes soon I hope someone can tell me ^^.

After the mods I did a few projects using cheaper solder, and those strange balls did not spat out of the solder when I was melting it with my iron. My iron is a 15watt, so I don't see why such a thing would even occurr.

So as I said, I'm goind to do more modding soon meaning I need new and good quality solder. I would like to find out why that solder was behaving the way it did so I can avoid purchasing such crap in the future ^^. Remember folks, most expensive doesn't necessarily mean the best, or even ok for that matter lol.

EDIT: Oh and I forgot to ask, how can you determine a good solder looking at the content percentages: Lead/Tin/Silver???

[legopowa]

That might have been a bad acidic flux. Ideal solder is lead free electronics solder, rosin flux core isn't necessary if you have flux paste, or if you can't find lead free solder, get a 60/40 or 65/35 (tin/lead ratio) kind. It's not expensive, nor does it need to be. Never go by price alone when looking for equipment, it could just be a large markup by a greedy merchant. The flux paste (NON acidic or corrosive, preferrably rosin flux) is probably the most important component, it makes soldering tiny connections effortless. The fumes are cancerous though, so be sure to have good ventilation, whatever you end up using.