lead free solder q?

[technogeek]

Anybody use it?

I tried it back in the 90's, and it was crap. Or at least it seemed like crap to me... There was no wetting action, and all the joints appeared "dull", making cold joint detection impossible.

I would imagine (hope!) it's improved a lot since then. I'm tempted to give it a try again for health reasons. Any suggestions, recommendations, or just general thoughts on the subject?

 

[HarveyH42]

Never heard anything good about lead-free solder. Haven't tried it, and not looking forward to it. Personally, I think the lead poisoning thing is blown way out of proportion. I've been soldering for about 30 years, and molding miniature figurines (lead-tin alloy, well mostly lead...) for almost 20 years, no major health issues and mostly sane. You have to ingest (eat) lead to get poisoned. Just wash your hands before handling food.

Anyway, there are a few tutorials on lead-free soldering around the web, think it was instructiables.com where I last saw one. Been meaning to read through one sometime to see just how much of a hassle it really is, and how to deal with it.

 

[technogeek]

I'm concerned about youngin's putting PCB's in their mouths too.

I passed a lead test a few years back, and I'm not really a stickler about washing my hands after soldering some boards. Now, would someone get sick if they start licking boards? Probably not. But easily eliminated unnecessary risks are the ones to target.

 

[Souper man]

I had to convince my parents that the fumes from the solder wasnt lead. I never use any safety protection and breathe in the fumes (not on purpose). Kids at my school think im a psycopath because of the lead in solder, and think that im going to blow up that school almost every day. Thankfully for them, I am also mostly sane, but not as much as I use to be...

 

[dknguyen]

My OCD acts up most when I'm working with lead. I'll scrub the tools, everything the tools touched, and everything that those things touched. I'll also scrub anything my hands touch and anything those things touch too.

And even I have moved back to leaded solder. What takes me a few minutes with leaded solder might take me hours with lead-free. ANd any mistakes that happen with lead-free are almost impossible to correct. I wear a respirator anyways, but I figure that 5 hours of lead-free fumes isn't better than a few minutes of leaded fumes.

I've had more than a few PCBs destroyed because the lead-free mistakes could not be fixed before traces have been lifted.

The lead-free stuff works pretty good though IF it melts and if you don't make any mistakes...never add more lead-free solder so you can remove it en masse later to fix a mistake. Doesn't work with lead free.

 

[Sceadwian]

Harvey, the problem isn't with the handleing and use of the products, it's with the disposal, that's what the entire EU ROHS and ELV intitiatives are about, preventing those substances from being introduced into ground water via land fills at the extreme end of their life. The hobbyist really shouldn't concern themselves too much with it. All the hobbyist in the world don't even scratch the surface of what a single large company produces in a year. The directives are good for mass production, totally irrlevent to the hobbyist.

 

[things]

why would they put the pcb in their mouth?????

 

[Styx]

cant stand the stuff
1) takes higher temp to melt
2) doesn't flow as well
3) friggen stuff grows staligtites and shorts pins after a few years!!!

nuff said

 

[dknguyen]

why would they put the pcb in their mouth?????

Well this guy at work did stick a soldered wire end into his mouth to prove a point when I pointed out he was eating a peach at the work bench.

 

[Souper man]

cant stand the stuff
1) takes higher temp to melt
2) doesn't flow as well
3) friggen stuff grows staligtites and shorts pins after a few years!!!

nuff said

Those staligtites are called tin whiskers. Without the presence of Lead, tin will form a crystalline structures, which can wreak havoc on any kind of tightknit groups of solder. It can cause short circuits and fry your stuff. What would you rather spend: $5 for some 60/40 tin lead alloy or $30M on re-designing a missile guidance system (US military had problems with tin whiskers)? The choice is yours.

 

[dknguyen]

You only need 3% lead though. I'd be much more comfortable with that than 40% lead, but all that extra lead is for low melting temp and eutectic I think. Can you actually see the whiskers? I thought they were microscopic and only bridged really intricate dense PCBs.

 

[Dr.EM]

I've pretty much always used lead free solder and not had any issues. I'm now using the stuff with some silver content but the usual tin/copper works fine too. Smallest joins are standard 2.54mm spacing on stripboard, solder flows nicely and is shiny afterwards. 18W Antex iron. Haven't had anything I have soldered with it for more than a few years mind, so perhaps everything will ceace working in due course

Used the old leaded stuff recently as it's larger diameter was more suitable for some bigger joins on a power amp I constructed. Also used to mount large electrolytics and high gauge wire in the same project. I admit, it's a little easier to work with and seems to end up shinier (could easily see yourself in the larger joins ). This particular solder has unpleasant flux which turns black after a while though, really should get some cleaner on it.

 

[dknguyen]

I use my remaining leadfree solder now on giant current-carrying things like tabs that get hot and aren't really on a PCB so they are more likely to touch other things. It's also where I can easily apply heat with a giant iron and not be afraid of damaging anything by applying too much heat.

 

[technogeek]

Well this guy at work did stick a soldered wire end into his mouth to prove a point when I pointed out he was eating a peach at the work bench.

I'm sure I've done that on accident