Old solder vs New solder.

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Has anyone else noticed the guy who asked the question has been strangely absent since then?
 
jamie_s said:
no...
just with general use the tips erode down to nothing
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Normally the tip has a titanium layer to protect it, if that layer is scrubbed of for any reason in any way (a lot of "experts" clean it that way) the tip gets broken. It can be that the tip is not very good.
 
Yes, tips do erode more quickly when using lead-free solder. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that lead free has a higher melting point and most set the iron tip temperature a bit higher. There are tips that are specifically designed for use with lead-free and are a bit more robust, but still erode faster than one might be used to with standard leaded solder.

While leaded solder may still be used for some applications, most commercial equipment (particularly anything that is marketed in the EU) must be lead free or it cannot be sold.
 
Nigel Goodwin said:
As others have mentioned, it's freely available, we won't use un-leaded as it's useless.
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i used to work in a facility that, per company policy, required lead free solder. one day i got a roll of solder that had been sitting in the tool cabinet for a long time, and while reading the label saw a small flash of reflected light from inside the hole through the spool. looking closer at the solder that was the "start" end of the spool that goes through an opening in the spindle, it was covered in tin whiskers, and one of them, the one that had caught my attention, was about a quarter of an inch long. this did not exactly make me want to use this solder. NASA has a website about their metal whisker study (tin isn't the only metal that grows whiskers). what NASA found is that solder containing 2% lead is enough to suppress whisker growth.
 
Yeah. I'm paranoid about lead toxicity and even I always thought that 2% lead ain't that bad to greatly reduce the lead but eliminate whiskering. But it seems that anyone who adds lead to solder wants to make it 40% to also make it easier to melt. Maybe it really screws up the eutectic characteristics?

I'll use lead-free for non-precision applications like when I need a big glob of it on something. But otherwise use leaded.
 
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I have been soldering since I was about 10 years old. Building lot's of Knight kits, Eico kits, Heathkits, and my own stuff. I spend 6 months at a battery firm that made lead-acid batteries. I moved into other ares of electronics, and soldering with lead solder was a daily occurance. I smoked for many of those years and commonly used my mouth as a third hand when soldering. Ate at my workbench.

At about age 50, I got curious, and had the doctor test my lead level. It was well below any level of concern. So IMHO, the hazards of soldering with lead containing solder are overblown.
 
My understanding is that blood tests for lead only show for recent lead exposure. Once the lead is in the blood long enough, if exposure stops, then the blood lead level also drops because the lead gets absorbed into the fat, tissues and bones rather than remain in the blood. Anyways, my lead paranoia is part of my general OCD'ness.
 
Yeah, I read that acute exposure has a blood half life of around 30 days, but chronic exposure closer to a year.
 

As I've mentioned here before, a few years back I was one of the test subjects in a soldering survey by the Health & Safety Executive, which was done to see if service engineers needed fume extraction (the result was not needed). So I asked about the lead issues, to be told there were NO lead issues with using lead solder, and the tests were about the fumes from the flux, which apparently can trigger attacks in asthma sufferers.

So they are NO hazards of soldering using leaded solder, but that was never the concern - lead solder has been banned because of the lead ending up in landfill, not for hazards in manufacturing.
 
RigidCollision said:
I have a load of old lead solder, what a joy to use! I often wonder what I’m indgesting as the plume of flux smoke wafts past.
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Well, if you read Nigel's post, directly above your post, you would see that you ARE NOT inhaling lead fumes. And if you stick to plain rosin flux, the fumes come from tree sap. If instead, you a more "high tech" flux, like water soluble, you may get some nasty fumes that burn eyes and throat (my experience).
 
My antique solder still works good flux is not dried out. I have an old roll with no flux so I dip it in flux when I use it. Been busy with holidays I have not tried to buy new solder yet.
 
Nigel Goodwin said:
lead solder has been banned because of the lead ending up in landfill, not for hazards in manufacturing.
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they tried to close shooting ranges in the USA a few years back for the same reason, but the science just couldn't support that. most lead compounds are insoluble in water, and lead itself doesn't form compounds easily. lead doesn't leach into the ground as easily as is portrayed in the media. lead has one characteristic that limits the amount of lead that can interact with the environment. lead forms a surface layer of oxide which prevents further corrosion of the metal (as do other metals like aluminum).
 
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