Kids and soldering irons

I started at 13

Did a few kits but most of them were a bloody mess with bad solder joints but practice did make things better.

Despite bad eyesight and the fact things take longer for me to do I still occasionally do a small project here and there when I can.

But like other people have said why is lead used in solder?

Why haven't they come up with something else?

Reply to
Kate Fights, I Cry
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They have , but some are a lot more toxic than lead. You won't get lead poisoning but other possibly worse health effects. I prefer to risk the lead poisoning.

Also lead free has a higher melting point.

Same with non rosin flux , lot more likely to cause asthma the ones with halogens

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Similar to replacing lead in petrol. The replacements are a lot more toxic and cause cancer but don't cause lead poisoning.

A few manufacturers are starting to use conductive adhesives especially in Europe with the tougher environmental and safety regs. More non-repairable equipment.

Also helping with the push for distributed passives. PCB has the passive components built-in as part of the pcb. Only for massive runs.

Alex

Reply to
Alex Gibson

not to mention the shock from the price ...

Reply to
budgie

Seriously there is an alloy with identical crystal structure to tin/lead in the way it solidifies etc, but it's 40% platinum. It's not marketed as solder though more of a lab curiosity and it has a nasty tendency to shatter like glass with mechanical shock.

Reply to
Mark Harriss

Guys, Many thanks to all who responded to this thread. It's provided me with all I needed to know, plus a good deal more. This is a really good ng.

Reply to
bruce varley

I think most of us who replied are glad to see a kid learn to build stuff, and acquire useful skills instead of just watchin tv and gameboying etc.

And it is great to see a kid being given support and encouragement - goodonyamate

David

bruce varley wrote:

Reply to
quietguy

If you're going to use a sponge to clean the tip teach the kid to keep it damp, not soaking wet. The sudden cooling of a wet sponge will cause hairline cracks in the iron plating and the tip will fail faster. A dry sponge will smoke and stink up the room.

--
Former professional electron wrangler.

Michael A. Terrell
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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

10 is plenty old enough if he has a responsible attitude. You'd better point out to him also that it's important to keep the iron in a non-flamable stand and to make sure it's switched off and unplugged when not in use. I left mine plugged into a (switched-off) power adapter when I was young and the iron was just lying on some old cardboard. Some silly adult decided to plug something else into the power adapter and turned it on - luckily it just charred the cardboard and the house didn't burn down.

Also get him a decent iron with a stand and sponge, that way he can learn about the difficulties of soldering without being confused by the difficulties of a crap iron. Get at least a second hand Weller TCP or at the very minimum an Antex. The irons in the hardware shops (including Weller) that have tips shaped like screwdrivers are really only usable as screwdrivers, if that.

Reply to
Chris Jones

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