Lead-free wire soldering?

Like practically all of the RoHS boondoggle, this is paranoia. Were you intending to use vast baths of melted Pb left constantly in liquid state? You probably should be significantly more worried about the carcinogenic monomers leaching out of the plastics throughout your house or the mercury in your tuna salad. Remember to take short showers, or better still just sponge yourself with water-free antibacterial paste - for many people, their daily radiation dose comes primarily from radon dissolved in the water supply.

You can hand-work with RoHS-compliant solders. It's simply slightly harder to melt and considerably more expensive. These solders are designed for rework, not hand-assembly.

Congratulations, Mr. Carlen. I remember looking into this when I had my first kid, too.

The main (and practically the sole) lead hazard for children is ingestion of lead through the mouth. As long as you do your soldering in a room where the baby is not permitted (most people have their workshop in the basement), you don't have anything to worry about. I would be more concerned with flecks of solder getting on the shop floor and getting tracked upstairs onto the floors of the living areas. I used to use sweeping compound in my work area. Sweeping compound (commercially available from any hardware store) is sawdust shavings treated with a small amount of oil to cause dust and small flecks to adhere and get swept up easily. You also might want to put a little more spit 'n' polish on the lab bench.

Look into the possibility of lead in the interior wall paint, any paint on the baby's crib, and also any china you might have in the cabinets. These are the major sources of lead poisoning for children in the home. At-home test kits are again available at the hardware store.

Besides, doing manual work with lead free is a pain.

Take your time, certainly do your best, but also enjoy the ride. You have no idea how quickly it ends.

To life! Chris

Hello Chris,

Just curious: Do you think the baby would start taking apart your projects? Even if you are a hardcore engineering family like ours that would probably take another 8-10 years.

Where lead free really matters is in soldering copper pipes for drinking water. Other than that, I'd be much more worried about stuff that is in food or in the drinking water. When I measured the chlorine in our tap water I was stunned. 2ppm, about what a pool has. That ain't healthy but we filter it out. That is the kind of worries I'd have.

Regards, Joerg

Why? Do you expect to feed solder to your baby? He'd be hard pressed to chew on it without any teeth! People are all freaked out about lead which is quite irrational. Lead was all through our environment 50 years ago and most, if not all serious sources have been eliminated. They even made tooth paste tubes out of it in the past. Now that might have been a worry, but solder in an electronic device? rediculous! The biggest issue with lead in electronics is the leaching of lead into ground water when the discarded devices go to the land fill but not toxitity for people using solder. Leaded solder works much better than lead free solder at lower temperatures and does not suffer from maladys like tin pest and whisker growth that unleaded solder can exhibit. Bob

I buy water that comes from a RO plant, because Livermore, CA water tastes lowsy.

Yes, I'm concerned about droplets of solder that are likely to escape my efforts to contain, and get on the floor. I live in an apartment so don't have the luxury of a basement workshop.

China?

I was hoping that wasn't the case.

Thanks!

In an apartment, your best bet might be to get a largish parts pan with one side cut off for access, and then set the pan on the stove (burners off, of course) and use the stove hood for ventilation. Careful soldering technique, followed by removing the pan carefully from the stove, and then wiping down the stove and then the pan religiously might work out OK.

The particulates in RMA flux fumes can be an irritant, and might cause breathing problems or allergies for little ones. Depending on your hood fan draw, most to nearly all of the fumes should be pulled outside.

The lead itself in solder doesn't produce significant fumes below 900F, but it's still possible it might be a bit of a problem in a living area, even with a cool iron.

The thing is, the fumes from other fluxes have problems of their own. Most of them are far worse than RMA flux fumes. The bismuth, indium and antimony in lead frees aren't any better for you or the kid than the lead.

It might be better to look into the possibility of renting some space for a workbench in a friend's or relative's basement or garage if you're not comfortable with this. I think I would.

Good luck Chris

Joerg wrote in news:AI0ye.173$6% snipped-for-privacy@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com:

I believe the main worry driving lead-free electronics is about discarding the unwanted PCBs in dumps,instead of recycling them at a higher cost. The lead-soldered PCBs leach out lead.

Well the pan is a good idea, but doing it in the kitchen I think I will avoid. (Hmm, that could be interpreted in various ways.)

Perhaps what is a reasonable approach, and what I have been leaning toward is to use a shallow pan on my workbench. Take care to keep things contained. Keep the place ventilated while soldering. And clean up well afterward.

When I was a kid I got solder everywhere. That is rarely the case now.

On a related note, I was recently tested for blood concentration of heavy metals. I was particularly curious about lead since either at home or at work I have never used a fume extractor. It turns out I had barely detectable Pb, Hg, Cd, Ag, and a moderate amount of As within the normal range but relatively higher in its range than the other metals. Didn't get Tl or Be though.

So who's trying to do me in with the As? I think it came from eating a lot of nuts.

I think that lead is at least a couple orders of magnitude more toxic than Bi, In, or Sb. Tin-antimony solder is in fact the solder that is now approved for potable water plumbing service. It's only 5% Sb though.

Thanks for the input.

Good day!

Just be aware of tin whisker growth that can cause components to short.

I read the problem was too that unwanted electronics tends to get incinerated and hence may polute the atmosphere with lead. not sure how true this is or why they wld do it.

Im not sure what they replace it with now but some of the replacements they were considering were far more toxic than lead.

Also not sure how easy the new non lead components are going to solder with lead solder/or vica versa.

Colin =^.^=

Beware - filtering water also removes fluoride. This is especially dangerous for children. Fluoride's most powerful long-term effect is absorption into the permanent teeth before they displace the deciduous teeth. Filtering the fluoride out of your water will significantly affect your childrens' dental health.

Hello Chris,

Whenever I had to be in Pleasanton I made sure I carried a few bottles with me. Some people made fun when I carried a little cooler into the meeting room. Out here in the foothills east of Sacramento chlorine is the main problem but our filter takes care of it. Even the dogs will only get filtered water.

With a baby I'd be more worried about toys. When I was in my diapers most were made from wood but nowadays it's mostly plastic and who knows where that came from or what is in it.

Regards, Joerg

Hello Chris,

That can present another problem. The fridge is going to be awfully close and it has all the good stuff in there ;-)

Regards, Joerg

Interesting. Thanks for bringing that up. I wonder if a fluoridation argument will now ensue...

I guess pacemakers don't count.

Regards,

Boris Mohar

Got Knock? - see: Viatrack Printed Circuit Designs (among other things)

Why not RO it yourself? Me? I love the taste of the water here (from the not-so-great lake), once the chlorene is dealt with (filter or refrigeration for a half-day). I've been places where I'd rather brush my teeth with Billy-beer though.

Try re-phrasing that as " lead free is a pain - period ".

I just discovered that there a couple of areas that have managed to get exemption from the impending ( in 1 year ) European Directive.

Namely networking equipment, servers and telecoms IIRC.

I think they managed to convince the authorities that going lead free would impact equipment reliability so badly that it wasn't acceptable. Interesting that. No surprise. So it doesn't apply to them since they're considereed 'important' !

Graham

No it can't. Dentifrice is designed to be a topical product. You're not meant to swallow it and the directions specifically tell you to avoid that.

The incidence of caries in permanent teeth is significantly reduced by _absorbed_ fluoride being built into the enamel while the teeth are still below the gumline - i.e. out of reach of toothpaste. So if you filter out the fluoride in your water supply, you must provide your children with a daily supplement tablet as well as brushing with a good fluoride toothpaste.

Once the teeth are fully grown and erupted, ingested fluoride has little or no value at which point fluoride-bearing mouthwashes and toothpaste are the best preventive measure (swallowed supplements will not help an adult).