Lead free solder

[Structo]

Yes, the vessels the blue bloods (middle ages) used to drink from were made of pewter which contained lead.

When an acidic liquid, such as wine, was put in the cups, lead would leach out into the wine.

[rp]

Yes, the vessels the blue bloods (middle ages) used to drink from were made of pewter which contained lead.
When an acidic liquid, such as wine, was put in the cups, lead would leach out into the wine.

hmm, bet that's how they discovered it was a tasty sweetener.

[cbass]

Here we are talking about how the romans went down cause of lead poisining And now people are putting chemical sweetners in there food and claiming its better for you than sugar.

Hvae you ever seen the suits they have to were in those artificial sweetner factorys.You would think they were handling toxic waste.

[Reeltarded]

Have you seen the inside of a sugar refinery? The one here blew up a few years ago. Very much like a multiline fully enclosed ancient sawmill. You have to wear a respirator or you'd be down in 30 seconds. When the sugar filled the air to stoichiometric confection... err perfection.


B O O M

[boots]

I've never used lead free solder. I like the eutectic stuff (63/37) - it's supposed to have a lower melting point than 60/40 and helps reduce cold solder joints.

I used to chew on solder when I was building Heathkits back in the 70's. And look at me now - I'm normal. HA! I can't think straight, but that's probably due to my advanced age, or all the drugs I chewed on back then, or well, who knows?

Seriously, if you avoid breathing big hits of solder smoke, and wash your hands after handling it, you should be fine.

I handled mercury too, back in HS, but only a little bit....

[DonMoose]

Hvae you ever seen the suits they have to were in those artificial sweetner factorys.You would think they were handling toxic waste.

They are - it's about dosage. Even too much water can hurt you.

[rp]

The big risk is to forming systems, I think nervous, so to fetuses foremost, next kids the younger the higher the risk, and lessening as you get older. In adults IIRC the risk is to the circulatory system more than to the nervous, and relatively minor, or at least hard to pin down. Just 'cause it doesn't mess adults much you shouldn't extrapolate to all humans, so be careful.

Not sure, but maybe best to not pet your pregnant cat or dog with dirty hands either.

[Phil_S]

I don't do a whole lot of amp building. I'm an amateur. I don't do repairs. So I'm not at it on a regular basis like some people FWIW, I don't like the idea of handling lead so I use tin/silver solder. Sears are Radio Shack sell it in small tubes for about $4. Home despot has Bernzomatic brand that is too thick and not quite as nice. I don't experience problems with building. I think the melting point is higher, so undoing something tends to be more difficult.

I've used the leaded stuff. I'm not sure it matters as much as people say. However, if you are working in an old amp that was built with leaded solder, I think it is best not to introduce the silver. I'm not sure of the wisdom of mixing the metals like that.

[cbass]

Have you seen the inside of a sugar refinery? The one here blew up a few years ago. Very much like a multiline fully enclosed ancient sawmill. You have to wear a respirator or you'd be down in 30 seconds. When the sugar filled the air to stoichiometric confection... err perfection.


B O O M

Yea well any dust will boom.I try not to eat sugar anyway.Honey won't explode and its free

I'm just saying aspertain or what ever the hell you call it should not be consumed and there are people belivin that its healthy cause it says diet on it and sugar free.ITS also physicaly addictive

[guitardude57]

Henkel Corp has a lead free product that is called Multicore 381.
Of course Kester carries a similar type too.
It has a rosin core, and leaves very little residue.

I was trained in Solder-ability years ago by Ralph Woodgate, using leadfree stuff. I have no issues with it, and it works well. You just don't want to mix the solder types. Use one, or the other.

In the manufacturing environment I was in, they used solid core for repair/rework... you used a squeeze bottle of clear flux to get the "flow" happening.

After the repair was made, you got to play in the Chloroethane vapor tank to clean the flux from the board. Fun stuff there.
The fumes were lovely...

[boots]

I worked in a repair facility in the 90's, and did a lot of reflowing of SMT stuff under a binocular scope. We used the clear liquid flux, and it was the greatest flux I've ever used. With it, you can do textbook perfect soldering, and without it, gooood luck.

Does anybody know where to get that good liquid flux? The company I worked for got it in bulk, I think. I haven't found where you can buy it in smaller quantities.

[guitardude57]

It absolutely worked great for me.
I trained people, and they got the soldering thing down quick, and well.

Do a search under smt, wave solder flux.
Same stuff that was on the waveline, went into the bottles.

Ya still got to clean the stuff. It isn't bad-bad... but there is a residue.

The vapor cleaner is somewhat similar to dry cleaning solution, at the dry cleaners. But that stuff turns white, and then you have to find something to clean that.... no good.

[Reeltarded]

Yea well any dust will boom.

Not ice dust! Ahhh!

[Blackburn]

Ran out of solder a few days ago and haven't really needed any til today, so I went down to THE radioshack and got some, with lead. Both lead free and leaded tout a label saying they BOTH CAN cause cancer.

What struck my curiosity was 'crystal flux solder'. Not terribly expensive and the flux is clear, so no brown shit blobs. I didn't buy any but maybe this is the key to D tone everyone is after... With crystal lettuce of course!

[Cantplay]

Another very interesting solder is Tix solder.

Its a very low melting point(275F) and surprisingly strong mechanical bond. Under 2% lead.

I've used it for watch repairs, and its priced accordingly.

http://www.esslinger.com/tixsolder.aspx

They also make a very interesting product 'anti-flux' that repels solder from an area you don't want it to flow to.

John