# Avoiding solder

**URL:** <https://forum.psaudio.com/t/avoiding-solder/23970>\
**Category:** Everything Else\
**Created:** [June 2, 2021, 6:04am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/avoiding-solder/23970 "2021-06-02T06:04:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Arenith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.psaudio.com/arenith/32/62875_2.png) [@Arenith](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/Arenith)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 6:04am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/avoiding-solder/23970/1 "2021-06-02T06:04:20Z")

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Are there actually handheld ultrasonic cold-welding tools? Or are they industrial machines?  
I’d like to avoid using solder because it’s always a bottleneck.

For example, if I was to build a point-to-point wired tube amp, how could I avoid using solder? I want a signal path with no bottlenecks, especially when it comes to tubes.

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**Author:** ![netspecht-2](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.psaudio.com/netspecht-2/32/132_2.png) [@netspecht-2](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/netspecht-2)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 3:17pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/avoiding-solder/23970/2 "2021-06-02T15:17:12Z")

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Simple question. WHY?

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**Author:** ![jazznut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jazznut](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/jazznut)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 11:08pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/avoiding-solder/23970/3 "2021-06-02T23:08:21Z")

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Don’t know but I know cables…cold or laser welded for good reason.  
Not sure if this is also easily possible for all electronic parts.

If you google you find cold welding equipment for 300-400$.

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**Author:** ![Arenith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.psaudio.com/arenith/32/62875_2.png) [@Arenith](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/Arenith)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 2:59am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/avoiding-solder/23970/4 "2021-06-04T02:59:40Z")

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Even the best solder alloy has terrible resistivity. Under 20% IACS.

Of course, we want as close to possible to metal-metal joints, not metal-solder-metal and when soldering while we can take care to get most of the contacts meeting flat and using a minimal amount of solder for the mandatory adhesion, it’s still a bottleneck. The idea of having blobs of tin between silver wiring isn’t appealing.  
Cold-welding creates a straight contact with no additional poor conductors necessary.