Lead free solder is terrible

[soggybag]

I bought some lead free solder over a year ago. It had sat around while my old spool from RS took it's time running running out. I finally tried the lead free the other day and man is it bad. It doesn't melt the same, seems to take a slightly higher temperature. I doesn't flow well at all. All of the joints look cold.

[theehman]

It does take a higher temp.  Your iron may not be able to handle it.

[WhenBoredomPeaks]

I was about to open a thread about leadfree solder.

I hate it, i have to heat my crappy 10$ iron for 5 mins, then the solder finally melts but 20 sec later it makes little "explosions" when i touch the end of the soldering iron with the solder.

I takes so much heat for my solder to get liquid that i think i should socket electrolites too because i gonna kill them with the heat.

A few days ago, one leg or socket of a 8pin DIP IC socket became loose and elevated about 1mm from the others because its leg became so hot while the solder still wouldn't flow.

[wavley]

I agree and I have really nice irons, so it's not the iron, just doesn't flow as well.  We use silver solder here at the observatory and it STILL flows better.

When I worked at the repair shop we used to repair amps for Disney, giant Crown Macros every now and then one would have a blown output transistor, we started replacing them with lead free ones and they just kept coming back, always the lead free one blown, different brands, different positions in the amp.  Some things should just have lead in them, like paint chips

[earthtonesaudio]

Yes it is terrible.  Not only is it harder to work with and more toxic to work with, but it reduces reliability, which means more electronics will be dumped in landfills where their (many) other toxic ingredients are free to leach into the environment, which is the exact thing RoHS was supposed to prevent.  A better way to address the problem would be to make it more attractive to both consumers and producers to recycle their unwanted electronics in a responsible way.  A side benefit to this would be less incentive for "recycling" programs to ship their stuff to third world countries where people burn piles of electronics junk to release the salable copper and precious metals while harming their health and our environment in the process.

[soggybag]

Yes it is terrible.  Not only is it harder to work with and more toxic to work with, but it reduces reliability, which means more electronics will be dumped in landfills where their (many) other toxic ingredients are free to leach into the environment, which is the exact thing RoHS was supposed to prevent.  A better way to address the problem would be to make it more attractive to both consumers and producers to recycle their unwanted electronics in a responsible way.  A side benefit to this would be less incentive for "recycling" programs to ship their stuff to third world countries where people burn piles of electronics junk to release the salable copper and precious metals while harming their health and our environment in the process.

Why aren't the member of this board running the country, nay, the World!

I have a nice temperature controlled iron so it's not the iron.

I have a spool of that really thin silver solder you get at RS. I really love that. The thin wire lets you put on just a little, and you can fit it into small places. I have switched to that for most things. But, have been using the lead free stuff for big clumsy connections like wires going to jacks. Figure at this rate it should be gone in 10 years. Though, I will have to head over to RS and get a spool of the standard stuff.

[jacobyjd]

I love the whole 'LEAD IS EVIL!!!1!!' mentality...sure, it's poisonous--as are many other metals.

...but it's an element--an essential part of the earth. Get used to it.

Earthtones makes a great point with the reliability issue as well.

[Ripthorn]

I think it is funny how society can sort of decide what is "really bad" (haven't heard anyone screaming about mercury thermometers or sphygagmometers (sp?) recently, much less a world wide initiative).  Anyway, I have used lead free solder and, while it doesn't look as pretty or flow quite as nice, I haven't had any problems with it really.  Must just be the stuff I tried.

[amptramp]

This reminds me of the lead-free plumbers' solder that I saw once - it claimed to be 95% tin and 5% antimony.  Antimony is an element similar to arsenic but with about one ninth of the toxicity.  So this stuff was still waaaaaaay more toxic than tin-lead solder.  But it was lead free!  That's the bureaucratic mentality for you.

[frank_p]

I read in a toxicological journal that 0,8% of total world deaths are caused by lead (55 000 000 deaths a year I think).  But most poisonings are due to environmental contamination.  Inhalation and ingestion are pathways.  Some have argued that inorganic forms of lead are not assimilable by the body and the tin-lead compound does not leach: this is simply not true: all standardised tests show it.  Now to say that electronic soldering is dangerous is exaggeration.  But keep in mind that the minimal limit for exposition have simply disappeared (any amount of lead can cause damage).  The folder on the lead case is not totally clear and scientifics are still studying and battling in the whole question.  Just take the precautions but don't get paranoid about it.  I know a guy who got some shotgun balls in the head and still wear them and he is relatively sane   .

[trixdropd]

I use the thin radio shack silver solder and cook it with 420c heat and I get great joints everytime... I haven't overheated any parts yat.

[wavley]

I love silver solder, and I use the thin stuff all the time, the thick stuff is great also, but it does take more heat.

[sovtek50]

You'll definitely need a lead-free solder station with a higher thermal recovery performance. Otherwise it's really a drag. I bought a good but relatively cheap Aoyue and it works fine.

[wavley]

We aren't allowed to use lead free solder when we build anything for NASA because they say it is unreliable and in zero gravity it grows crystalline fingers that short things out.  Of course NASA people are very picky.  I have a very nice Hakko at home and a Weller WD2 here at work, it's not the stations.  Lead free will flow fine but it takes more finesse shall we say, and a good station.

[trixdropd]

You'll definitely need a lead-free solder station with a higher thermal recovery performance. Otherwise it's really a drag. I bought a good but relatively cheap Aoyue and it works fine.

Yep, I have a 50$ aoyue soldering station and it rocks!!

[Paul Marossy]

I can't stand the lead free solder, I won't use it.

[solderman]

I have no problem with lead free solder. I've been using it for over a year now. It needs a bit higher temp but my cheap soldering station fixes that. True it does not get those shiny joins and you might think that they are bad and it does not float as easy but that's just something one gets use to after a while.
BTW
Dental fillings and thermometers etc. that contains organic mercury (that leads to infertility) is forbidden to sell in the EU since 10 years or so. The digital photo technique has lowered the toxic waste of silver (that kills fish) in the sewer from the photo developing industry with 90%.
This forum has 14252 members. Say that each member use 0.2 Kg solder a year. That's toxic lead fumes from 2850 kg only from this forum.
Remember what PCB and DDT did??
Don't want to contaminate the environment for my children at the kitchen table. Better safe than sorry. 

[Electric Warrior]

but there's hardly any lead in the fumes.
and yes, you should not solder at the kitchen table.

[earthtonesaudio]

I have no problem with lead free solder. I've been using it for over a year now. It needs a bit higher temp but my cheap soldering station fixes that. True it does not get those shiny joins and you might think that they are bad and it does not float as easy but that's just something one gets use to after a while.
BTW
Dental fillings and thermometers etc. that contains organic mercury (that leads to infertility) is forbidden to sell in the EU since 10 years or so. The digital photo technique has lowered the toxic waste of silver (that kills fish) in the sewer from the photo developing industry with 90%.
This forum has 14252 members. Say that each member use 0.2 Kg solder a year. That's toxic lead fumes from 2850 kg only from this forum.
Remember what PCB and DDT did??
Don't want to contaminate the environment for my children at the kitchen table. Better safe than sorry. 

Those are all great points, except the part about lead fumes.  My understanding is that the lead in solder does not become airborne at soldering temperatures.  The fumes you experience come from the flux burning.  Incidentally, in lead free solder the flux is more active and the fumes are more toxic. 
There is a real hazard when something containing leaded solder is dumped into the environment, as rainwater can leach the lead out of the solder joints and into the water supply.  However, the attempt to curtail environmental pollution by banning hazardous chemicals one at a time does nothing for the root cause of the problem: people who don't think twice about dumping their old junk into the environment. 
Even if we banned everything that you know is hazardous today, people would still throw stuff in landfills, and years from now we might realize that some of the things we currently think are harmless are in fact toxic, or become toxic when combined with other harmless things.
My point is not to suggest that we should do nothing, rather that our efforts would be better spent addressing the bigger problem.  Making it more inconvenient (or illegal) for people to improperly dispose of unwanted electronics would address the toxicity problem, but at the same time it would address the more epidemic problem of not thinking (or caring) what happens to things that get "thrown away."
Banning leaded solder is like making a law against talking on your cell phone when driving.  Yes, the intentions are good, and yes, it will probably help prevent accidents, but the big problem that no one seems to want to talk about is that there are just too damn many people driving individual cars!

[solderman]

Oppps
stompbox buildning seems to be a dangerous hobby. 
Besides getting tinnitus and being electrified the soldering part looks really dangerous. I thing I'll have to start knitting after reading this
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg248.pdf
http://www.le.ac.uk/eg/safety/risk/solder/Risk_Assessment_For_Soldering.doc