Seriously? silver solder?

[Xnerd]

I was just randomly reading the forums, and found where people are saying Silver (lead free) solder such as Otely Safe Flow solder that I used is not technically silver solder....
I have read that it is mostly a concern for the application of the product not so much for distilling contaminants.

All of these years I have been using this same type of solder thinking that It was appropriate for distilling... IS IT?
I have read so many mixed opinions that I have no clue anymore.

If I have to tear apart this still and rebuild it, I will be OUT of the game.

Anyone with an opinion please chime in!

[bellybuster]

If its lead free, should be good to go as far as I'm concerned.

[midcarolina]

It is lead free......and thats what matters, it does not contain silver but that is not necessary for copper to copper and is unnecessary as far as safety is concerned...........

Your good........

[Dan P.]

Silver solder and soft solder are two different things. I don't know if silver solder contains lead, but it would seem less likely to because it is a high temperature solder (somewhere between soft solder and braze in temperature). Soft solder is used for plumbing and roofing. It comes in lead free (expensive and safe) or the regular kind (cheap, but poisonous).
Lead free soft solder is what I use, and what I advise you to use. It is readily available and requires only a plumbers torch to use.

[hidalgo]

Read the side of the roll, it will say lead free. If it doesn't then I might consider a tear down. I know at my local hardware store the rolls (leaded and lead free) sit side by side. You have to pay attention to what you get for this application.

[Xnerd]

thanks everyone

Yes it is lead and cadmium free.
On another thread some of the negative opinions were a little vague and got me to worry.
I have been using this same solder on my rigs for 4 years or so and I really got paranoid.


I have some time to kill while malting some corn, I still need to finish this head with a few tweaks, but I am already thinking about building a tall reflux column to interchange with this one.
the flange is set up so that I can just pop in different still heads. Last night I found a bunch of sheet copper that I had thought got lost in my move so Im geeked about it!

Would Inch and a half copper be big enough for a reflux column on a 30 gallon rig? if not ima go by some three inch!

[ahandyman59]

The oatey solder contains around 5% silver, but is mostly tin, copper and bismuth and contains no lead or cadmium whatsoever. It is technically NOT silver solder. Silver Solder per se is pretty expensive. The most important indicator of whether you are using actual Silver Solder or not is the solder's tensile strength. Regular Solder (and silver bearing solder) has tensile strength of around 9000. True Silver Solder has a tensile strength of 14000+! Silver Solder is much more expensive, as well as much stronger. Silver solder and Silver bearing solder are two totally different things!

ahandyman59

[midcarolina]

IMHO....... prolly the best all around solder is stay brite #8.........Low flow temp. 535* stronger bond than silver brazing....and will bond just about any ferrous or non ferrous material.......

Down side it aint cheap!

[Catpower]

It's 95-5 as we call it in the trade, 95% tin and 5% antimony

[BabyBear]

I called the company who manufactures the solder i use and requested an MSDS sheet. You would be surprised at what is actually in things. Lead, cadmium, antimony etc...