OT: The smell of soldering

Never made me feel nauseous, but it was unpleasant enough to make you jerk away from it. ...Jim Thompson

There is nothing better than the smell of rosin core flux. How wonderful it is.

I guess I am hooked.

Well coffee does it for me :-)

Selenium as a trace element is essential, but the recommended adult dose is

Higher doses - above about 800 microgram per day - are toxic, but you have to be very anti-social to absorb that much without anybody noticing. It isn't as bad as tellurium, but "selenium breath" is decidedly noticeable.

That must be what Trump has. Or... one can only wish such is the case.

On Sunday, 29 November 2015 03:05:26 UTC+11, DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno wr ote:

ul

The asbestos industry took a long time to realise that inhaling asbestos fi bres wasn't good for the lungs. It takes a while for asbestos exposure to g ive you mesothelioma - a couple of decades - and until enough people had be en exposed the risk wasn't entirely obvious.

I've got a small lump of scar tissue inside one lung that's a direct conseq uence of working - briefly - with asbestos when I was a graduate student, a few years before the penny dropped. My first realisation that asbestos was dangerous was from reading an article in the New Yorker around 1970, a few years later.

True, but lots of stuff can predispose you to lung cancer or chronic bronch itis.

I used to get nose bleeds from a soldering session.

These days it doesn't affect me and often wonder if the resin has changed.

Yep, like the smell also :-)

Owen

I could swear there was some kind of specially "scented" solder in the

Actually I reckon there is. Try some Multicore 511 Crystal solder. I love the smell of it.

The no-clean fluxes I've tried are not so nice and tend to give rise to a burning feeling when inhaled.

Might have been Multicore 511 Crystal.

It smells great.

rful

fibres wasn't good for the lungs. It takes a while for asbestos exposure to give you mesothelioma - a couple of decades - and until enough people had been exposed the risk wasn't entirely obvious.

equence of working - briefly - with asbestos when I was a graduate student, a few years before the penny dropped. My first realisation that asbestos w as dangerous was from reading an article in the New Yorker around 1970, a f ew years later.

chitis.

Zeolite is another big one definitely linked to mesothelioma and used in a lot of applications like aircraft air purification and OBOGS (onboard oxyge n generation systems use to eliminate requirement for liquid oxygen). Then nitric oxides in smog mixed with a vapor secretion byproduct of transp iration in some trees forms a particulate product that /could/ cause mesoth elioma (still under study).

This brings back memories from 80s when I hang around at a repair shop learning stuff. The guy there was a head of the time, he used always used filters while soldering. I think he used the Marlboro brand. Have not heard about his lungs, though.

-- mikko

Hah, Way back when I was a cook at a nice restaurant. They had this big tub of rosin, (heated) that was used for the baked potatoes. (Rosin cam in 50 lb bags.. I'd add a few chunks every day.) They would cook fast, and when they came out I'd wrap 'em in paper. The only down side was that you couldn't eat the skins. Maybe we can market rosin baked products for all the old EE's? :^)

George H.

Woudn't mercury transfer the heat even better?

--sp

On Mon, 30 Nov 2015 10:35:57 -0500, Spehro Pefhany Gave us:

Only good if you are serving Silicon based "greys" from the other side of the galaxy.

That's what one of the kitchens down at the skunk works had before they all croaked.

(snip)

Wow, thanks for the post-Zombie-Apocalypse survival tip. ;>)

Seriously, I learn something new every day.

Mark L. Fergerson

Instructions: Zombies, insects, visiting relatives, and nosey kids are known to detest the smell of rosin smog when used as a repellent.

Drivel: I was reflowing some BGA chips on a computah motherboard and needed some flux UNDER the BGA chips. Flux paste is too thick, so I diluted it in alcohol until it would sorta flow, and injected some under the BGA chip. Amazingly, it worked and the computah was returned to its rightful owner. About 6 months later, it came back for some other problem. When I used an air hose to blow the dust out of the machine, I notice a rather interesting dust pattern remained around BGA chips, that looked rather like a small explosion, inscribed in dust stuck to the motherboard by sticky rosin residue. Oops. I gave the motherboard an alcohol bath.

On Tue, 01 Dec 2015 09:28:51 -0800, Jeff Liebermann Gave us:

The vehicle in most non-water based fluxes (and also not no-clean) is IPA.

A bit more OT:

Apparently, in an unlucky chain of events, ONE bad soldering joint (RoHS?) can bring down a plane...

joe

On Wed, 2 Dec 2015 10:15:02 +0000, Joe Hey Gave us:

'Tin whiskers' have also been attributed as the root cause of a couple of satellite/deep space observation vehicle failures.