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In article writes:

The 2% silver solder I use for everything is great (even though it
comes from radio shack) and I haven't found any reason not to use it.

Folks, I need education here. I am confused about reference to silver
solder - my experience thereof is as a high melting temperature (~600°C)
alloy of silver and something else used by jewellers and plumbers and the
like to make high shear strength joints in close fitting non-ferrous
metals.

That's something different, usually an alloy of silver and coppyer.

What they're talking about here is "silver-bearing" tin/lead solder.
Mostly it makes the joints look more shiny, and might be marginally
stronger when joining certain metals, and, as Scott has pointed out,
not in others. The difference is probably negligable though, since
you're supposed to make a good mechanical joint before you apply
solder. It's unlikely that a joint soldered with silver-bearing solder
would hold or pull apart under real world strain (such as yanking out
a patch cable by the wire as opposed to putting it in a laboratory
stress measurement setup) any differently than one with ordinary
tin-lead solder.

There are some things for which you want some silver in the solder.
Remember that soldering is a chemical process - you're creating a
solution at the joint, and when it cools, you have an alloy. If you're
soldering to a silver contact such as the ceramic terminal strips used
in Tektronix oscilloscopes in the high impedance tube days, ordinary
tin-lead solder will dissolve that silver layer deposited on the
ceramic and weaken or destroy the terminal strip. Those scopes always
had a little spool of silver-bearing solder of the proper alloy
mounted inside so that it would be handy for making repairs.

And then there's the lead-free solder that a lot of health and
environment conscious manufacturers are using now. There may even be
state laws that require it. You can get that at Radio Shack too. As I
recall, it has bismuth (or is it antimony?) rather than lead, probalby
just as hazardous in the landfills, but at least handling it or
breathing the fumes all day won't give you lead poisoning. Give 'em a
little time and they'll figure out that it's hazardous to your health
too.

--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )