copper cleaner and solder

[Michael Haseltine <haseltine@breaker.dakotacom.net>]

Oh Knowledgeable EVListers,

On occasion, it's been mentioned to use copper cleaner on high 
voltage cables, and I'm in the need of some but don't know what to 
look for.

I had some flux that I used the first time around that I'd gotten 
years ago for soldering crome-plated copper/brass plumbing fixtures 
(before the no-lead-in-plumbing-solder days). It was water-clear and 
-thin and a little did very well at cleaning the wires before I 
crimped them in the lugs. However, yesterday I had occasion to take 
one of the old connections apart because the wire needed to be 
shortened slightly, and I discovered that first of all the cripper I 
made did a beautiful job! It was as close to a solid piece of copper 
as I could discern. Secondly, that the flux I'd used didn't wash out 
with water as well as I'd thought, and each individual wire within 
the 2/0 cable was coated in colorful corrosion in a way that made me 
think the interwire contact wasn't as good as visual inspection of 
the solid mass would have me believe. As a side note, I've never 
found any of my connections even the slightest bit warm, much less 
hot.

This time I've been considering soldering the new connections I have 
to make, so I have two questions. One is for soldering, what kind of 
solder and what kind of flux (details please)? Someone has mentioned 
silver solder, but is that the kind I find in the hardware store that 
seems to be general purpose solder with some silver content, or is it 
the kind I see in the welding supply store or a jewelry store that's 
much thinner gauge (and whose composition I don't know). Is silver 
solder important, and why? I can guess at higher melting point and 
better conductivity, but are these significant?

Secondly, if I just crimp them again, what kind of cleaner could I 
use that would wash off well enough to not continue to work at the 
copper wires after it's crimped up?

Thanks in advance!
-- 
Michael Haseltine -- Tucson, Arizona
Subvert the dominant paradigm, drive electric!