I think you may have conflated two different issues here, when
comparing 60/40 and 63/37. One is the question of manufacture, one is
the question of distribution channel (hobby/retail vs. industrial).

I didn't conflate the issues, as the latter hadn't been raised when I first
brought up the point.


So... based on this evidence, it looks to me as if Kester does not
necessarily have a major price skew between the two alloys, at least
not in the gauges typically used for PC board assembly.

It does in the case of the MCM catalog, at least for the gauge I looked at.
Other companies show similar huge disparities. It makes little sense, when
the ones you (and Smitty) cited are so close.


FYI, when one of the earlier posters said he'd checked solder prices
"from his supplier", I don't think he stated a brand at all... and yet
your reply seems to have assumed that he was *not* referring to
Kester. If you did assume that (and I'm only sorta assuming that you
assumed it :-) it might have misled you a bit.

I wasn't mislead. Given the differenc in price, it was obvious it wasn't
Kester.