HELP! - my girl is kicking the lead out of the house!

[theOracle]

my beautiful long-term girlfriend (who I want to keep no matter what) has laid down the law, no more recapping motherboards and other electronics using any lead-based solder (I do the recapping inside the house as we have no shop/garage/basement)

so here is what I need to know:

what is the easiest to work with lead-free solder and the best flux to use with it?

I have had great luck with high quality eutectic 63/37 solder and that Radio Shack clear brown rosin flux (p/n 64-022) which works like black magic when slathered all over everything - I love that stuff!

the cost of both solder & flux is the least of my concerns, as the repairs I do are very profitable, just want a replacement solder and flux pair that will not make my easy fun soldering turn into a living hell - lol

I am terrified of this upcoming forced switch to lead-free..........ugh!

ALSO forgot to mention, 99% of the equipment I work on is older from the 1990's so it was all originally built using leaded solder.





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[PeteS in CA]

Re: HELP! - my girl is kicking the lead out of the house!

Well, lead in solder won't do any harm, unless you breath in the fumes 24x7x52. Hasn't harmed me ... I've always been this way ... for nearly 6 decades ...

Wish I could help with more than a bit of lame humor, but I haven't done lead-free work yet and am not familiar with the materials. My present company is in an RoHS exempt field; I was in Component Engineering in my previous employer; before that another exempt company; before that I was in Tech Support. That takes my history back to 1998.

[Topcat]

Re: HELP! - my girl is kicking the lead out of the house!

tell her to stuff it..... she's unenlightened and naive on the subject. I could see her point if you're doing it in the kitchen or living room, it is messy....flux and solder crumbs can be annoying.....but in a basement or garage, go for it. Unless she owns the house and you're just living there, take a stand and be a man!!

[mariushm]

Re: HELP! - my girl is kicking the lead out of the house!

Just take off the label and print another one that says lead free. Or switch the labels between spools. Or change the solder wires between them.

The hard way would be to teach her that lead doesn't evaporate in air and can't hurt her or the kids, the soldering doesn't heat up lead enough to make it airborne.
The flux used with leaded solder is also much safer, as it doesn't have to be so active to do its job. Fluxes for lead free solder have more bad chemicals in them.

Since lead free solder melts at higher temperature, it's expected that much hotter tip will be used to solder therefore the fluxes are designed to do more "work" in a shorter amount of time (since they will be soon burnt out by the solder tip)

[ben7]

Re: HELP! - my girl is kicking the lead out of the house!

Just take off the label and print another one that says lead free. Or switch the labels between spools. Or change the solder wires between them.

This is hilarious!

I haven't had any issues with the lead, but that doesn't mean that my liver has been OK with it. I don't have any in my blood, but my liver must be well functioning

[Pentium4]

Re: HELP! - my girl is kicking the lead out of the house!

Just take off the label and print another one that says lead free. Or switch the labels between spools. Or change the solder wires between them.

Genius idea! Problem solved

[capkid]

Re: HELP! - my girl is kicking the lead out of the house!

Just take off the label and print another one that says lead free. Or switch the labels between spools. Or change the solder wires between them.

[theOracle]

Re: HELP! - my girl is kicking the lead out of the house!

the girl is like a supermodel, and besides, it's time all of us learned to solder lead-free because it will one day be the only choice

and just because lead doesn't come off in the fumes doesn't mean the crumbs don't find their way into the dust of the house and could eventually accidentally contaminate food or water, so she has a good point.

I am dumb enough already, don't need any lead ingestion, and she is worried if we have a baby crawling around on the floor one of these days.

I take it no one here has figured out how to solder lead-free?




~

[mariushm]

Re: HELP! - my girl is kicking the lead out of the house!

The point I was trying to make was that the fumes from the flux coming inside the lead free solders, and the liquid fluxes you might use with lead free solder are more harmful to you compared to the minute chance of actually getting a few atoms of lead in your body.

With some no-clean fluxes I work with, I tend to open the window and even put a fan near me to do some airflow, because they don't smell as nice as the rosin fluxes that are more than suitable to use with leaded solder, and if I get a whiff by accident I can sense the acidity in the back of my throat.

As for babies ingesting granules of solder from the floor... you're telling me you don't vacuum the carpets once a week or something like that?

Also, you would work at a desk, on a wood board or something like that, not just like that on the coffee table or around the house, so any stuff falling on the floor should remain around the work bench, easy to recover. Solder doesn't just fly from your hands around the house.

It's not that we haven't figured how to solder lead free, it's just any point to it.

[Uranium-235]

Re: HELP! - my girl is kicking the lead out of the house!

move out. your girl is too stupid to do some research

[goontron]

Re: HELP! - my girl is kicking the lead out of the house!

move out. your girl is too stupid to do some research

agre100000% my grandma had lead in pipes in her house until 2007 when her old furnaces caught fire, now its all pvc and she alive at 96 years old! so some molecules of lead aren't going to hurt a thing mate! so grow a pair as they say.

[brethin]

Re: HELP! - my girl is kicking the lead out of the house!

the girl is like a supermodel, and besides, it's time all of us learned to solder lead-free because it will one day be the only choice

and just because lead doesn't come off in the fumes doesn't mean the crumbs don't find their way into the dust of the house and could eventually accidentally contaminate food or water, so she has a good point.

I am dumb enough already, don't need any lead ingestion, and she is worried if we have a baby crawling around on the floor one of these days.

I take it no one here has figured out how to solder lead-free?
~

Grow some balls allready. The amount of lead from what you are doing is less than the lead in the water you drink and the outside air you breath unless your in a sealed 10x10 room and are burning solider 24x7hrs. Supermodel = trully feking dumb in this case for sure.

[theOracle]

Re: HELP! - my girl is kicking the lead out of the house!

I could see her point if you're doing it in the kitchen or living room, it is messy....flux and solder crumbs can be annoying.....but in a basement or garage, go for it.

small place, my only work area is in the living room, near the kitchen, already stated earlier that I have no basement or garage at the moment

I am the brains of the family, she doesn't have to be smart, she is just here to look great, be sweet, and be insatiable

I don't have lead in my water, I drink spring water that is tested, then I run that through a two stage charcoal filter that stops over 99% of lead

not interested in a toxic no-clean flux, I like good old rosin flux and I find it easy to clean

so again, should we surmise that no one here at badcaps forum has mastered lead-free and found the ideal lead-free solder formulations and a great rosin flux to go with it?

not really lookin for the responses that "Lead is just fine" or "grow some balls" - what I am looking for is someone who knows what they are talking about when it comes to the state of the art in lead-free! - just because you want a lead-free living space doesn't mean you have no balls - wake up!

some of you guys remind me of the guy long ago that couldn't let go of DOS when Windows came along, or couldn't let go of R-12 when 134a refrigerant came along - it's the future, man, might as well figure it out!

[Sparkey55]

Re: HELP! - my girl is kicking the lead out of the house!

I have always used 60/40 lead tin based solder with liquid or solid flux. And I will continue using it till I die or can not see anymore.

[goontron]

Re: HELP! - my girl is kicking the lead out of the house!

the future is silver bearing solder not "lead free" so grow balls and say non RoHs stays!
remember those old mercury bulb thermostats? i have a new from 2011 condensing furnace and my thermostat is still mercury bulb its very accurate and runs the system fine, so in a word its futureproof like lead solder!
as for "dos" and "windows" what are those? i only know linux and BSD.

[jpyerry]

Re: HELP! - my girl is kicking the lead out of the house!

I think that the main reason that people here are advocating to not move to lead free solder, is that there really is no compelling evidence to throw out the baby with the bathwater. This fear of lead free solder is much akin to most of the green movement, it represents an ignorance by those who seek to do good, but don't truly understand the complexities involved, just consider the recycling movement, it costs more, doesn't help anything, and, contrary to popular belief, is worse for the environment, like recycled paper, most paper comes from trees grown for the express purpose of making paper, so if demand for new paper declines, fewer trees will be grown for paper, so if you really want more trees, waste more paper. This lead free solder debate is no different. The whole reason that the RoHS directive came down was to reduce the amount of lead (and other chemicals) entering land fills and possibly contaminating ground water with large amounts of lead. Okay, fine, get rid of lead from solder, now we have solder that is predominantly tin, silver, and copper. The problem is that this amalgam is less reliable than traditional leaded solder, so scores more devices enter landfills due to premature failures of the solder joints. Just consider the XBox 360 fiasco, which in addition to insufficient cooling solution and inadequate thermal paste, most failed due to poor quality lead-free solder. So, we have many tons more devices in landfills precisely because of poor quality solder. From a medical standpoint, lead poisoning is something one would want to avoid, but that being said, copper and silver toxicity is considerably more dangerous, it is much more safe to have some lead in our drinking water, than it is to have copper or silver at dangerous levels. I've been in the medical community, and I have seen copper and silver overdosages in ICU transfers about 5 times, I have never seen a lead toxicity patient, not once. If you are still unconvinced about the inferiority of lead free solder, consider that the RoHS allows for exemptions to the no lead rule for mission critical devices like medical and aerospace devices, by allowing this exemption, they are acknowledging the inferiority of the lead free solder they are championing.

So, unless you are selling your repaired devices to Europeans, why worry about lead free solder? Is it because your girlfriend is falling victim to a pointless green movement? Why don't you take a moment to explain why the lead free solder movement is folly?

If you are convinced that lead free solder is the way to go, why even bother polling people for opinions? Just buy some Multi-Core or Kester or other top name lead free stuff (for 4 times the price), and just call it a day.

[goontron]

Re: HELP! - my girl is kicking the lead out of the house!

was he polling us or was he notifying us that if we ever came across something he repaired we will have to redo all of its solder joints.

[smason]

Re: HELP! - my girl is kicking the lead out of the house!

I am the brains of the family, she doesn't have to be smart, she is just here to look great, be sweet, and be insatiable

Wow, at least you have your priorities straight.
Personally I'd rather have smart.

Lead-free solder isn't rocket science. Crank the iron heat up a bit, and use a good quality solder, and just do it.

[brethin]

Re: HELP! - my girl is kicking the lead out of the house!

[QUOTE=theOracle;346392]I am the brains of the family, she doesn't have to be smart, she is just here to look great, be sweet, and be insatiable /QUOTE]

Great so between the 2 of you your kids will have a IQ of 75 if they are lucky. And trust me her good looks will soon fade and you will be left with rotten worthless fruit.

[goontron]

Re: HELP! - my girl is kicking the lead out of the house!

I am the brains of the family, she doesn't have to be smart, she is just here to look great, be sweet, and be insatiable

Great so between the 2 of you your kids will have a IQ of 75 if they are lucky. And trust me her good looks will soon fade and you will be left with rotten worthless fruit.

wow abit harsh