General electrical questions

[lincpimp]

I have a couple of questions...

1st, what kind of solder do the members here use? I alsways used 60/40 up until recently when I lost my last roll and found some really thin silver bearing solder. I think this works alot better than the 60/40, coupled with the flux described below it makes very short work of even thick wires and big bullets.

2nd, what kind/brand of flux? I was using radioshak brand "non spill paste" rosin soldering flux. But I had to solder some stuff at the house and forgot to bring it. Dug around and found some flux I had used to do copper pipe soldering (water pipe). alpha fry brand, comes in a small round tin with a brush. This stuff works ALOT better than the radio shak stuff. Huge difference. Makes my 40watt iron work as well as the big 80 watt when it comes to doing bullets, deans and thick wire. Just seems to flow the solder better, maybe by virtue of cleaning the wires better?

3rd, how would I clean the warious power plugs, bullets, etc. I have some dirty deans, and a few bullets too. I can vaguely remember someone suggesting q-tips and some sort of liquid, maybe alcohol? I am guessing I could use electric contact cleaner in the spray can, but would prefer a non aerosol as I do not want it in the air where I work (closed a/c-ed area!).

Also thinking a cleaning sticky would be cool, let members throw in their tips and tricks. Maybe have a mod make up a form style layout and organize it so it reads well? Jsut an idea.

Thanks for the help guys, hope everyone is doing well!