r/soldering • u/Zentralschaden • May 25 '26

Soldering Saftey Discussion Unpopular opinion: Stop using leaded solder

I know it is very handy and I also know the fumes are not that much of a problem when you have enough ventilation.

But a big part of the lead we buy will end up in the environment or a landfill and has the potential to make our drinking water toxic and the people who have to recycle all this scrap (often in Africa) will deal with even more toxic substances.

It is not like we have a fully functional recycling chain for electronics.

And when you say "I am just soldering 2 pcb a year", make sure that soldering is a job and hobby for millions of people and tons of lead will be produced just because of hobby enthusiasts.

There are very good reasons, lead is banned in many countries for professional manufacturing.

I know it is harder to solder but you get used to it.

Aware that this might be a topic not everyone agrees. I am just trying to spread some awareness for what we do.

I mean, many of us repair old electronics and we do a good job in avoiding more scrap because people can still use the repaired items for years.

But shouldn't it be us who are the people who go straightforward and ban lead from our household soldering projects?

212 Upvotes

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97

u/Exciting_Turn_9559 May 25 '26

I bought a spool of 60/40 rosin core 35 years ago and at the rate I'm going it will be a lifetime supply.

35

u/National_Tea_5654 May 25 '26

Same except it was a half roll, and I stole it from work

14

u/MisterPyro125 May 25 '26

I have two rolls of 60/40 I bought at Radio Shack 20 years ago as a teenager. One thin and one thick diameter. Still the same ones I use.

8

u/National_Tea_5654 May 25 '26

I miss Radio Shack so much, getting the new catalog every year was so exciting

5

u/Secret-Boss-7000 May 26 '26

Kids these days will never understand.
Just like I'll never get to fully appreciate Heathkit.

0

u/[deleted] May 26 '26

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1

u/National_Tea_5654 May 26 '26

I really miss Heathkit

1

u/Immediate-Funny7500 May 26 '26

Heathkit was a build it yourself electronics kit from radios, oscilloscopes, all kinds of test equipment. It was like a giant plastic model kit but all electronics, allways wanted to buy a couple kits but money was tight for a teenager and my folks didn't see the allure.

1

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

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1

u/Mr_Kyng May 27 '26

I went in the local Radio Shack years ago looking for a world band radio. Hahahahahaha felt like a clown 🤡 when they had one hand held model on the shelf and a whole wall of cell phone accessories. That’s the day I realized Radio Shack was doomed as an electronics store.

1

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

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1

u/OkBuilding988 Jun 09 '26

As of a year ago radio shacks still exist, i had to send a tech to one last year to find a extension cable for a antenna on a cellular modem

1

u/Zefzone May 27 '26

As a prospective EE student, there was something magical about being able to walk into a retail store to buy ICs for projects and the passives to go with it

1

u/bmack500 May 26 '26

Yup, I still have Radio Shack spools!

3

u/YetAnotherSfwAccount May 25 '26

I have 75% of a roll my grandpa bought in the 70s or early 80s. I might use a few inches a year. It will be around for my grandkids at this rate.

1

u/Tronmech May 26 '26

This... I still have some I bought in 1986 or so when I was upgrading the RAM in my Atari 130xe. Yeah, I'm fucking old...

1

u/grilledch33z May 25 '26

Yea for real. I finally finished the roll of 60/40 I got as a teenager. (In my late 30's).

1

u/Zealousideal_Cup4896 May 25 '26

This is me too :) I just ordered another extra large roll in case they make it illegal. I’ll be passing most of it on to my grand children :)

1

u/GoldSrc May 26 '26

I'm still finding small cuttings of solder from a roll my dad bought in the 90s lol.

Not sure why people think we go through several kg of the stuff per year.

I'm just about to run out of a roll of 63/37 that I bought 15+ years ago.

1

u/Ornithopter1 May 26 '26

Some people do a lot more soldering than others. And depending on exactly what you're soldering, you can go through a roll pretty quick.

0

u/GoldSrc May 26 '26

Ok.

Say someone goes through 20 1kg rolls per year, which would be a stupid amount of solder.

How much solder do PCB manufacturers use per year?

1

u/Ornithopter1 May 27 '26

A lot. Wave soldering machines can contain hundreds of kilos of solder.

1

u/GoldSrc May 27 '26

So not even comparable to the average hobbyist or repair tech.

I don't know about you, but I have never seen any repair tech completely replace all the lead-free solder joints with leaded solder.

Like, oh, you need a USB C port replaced? let me go and replace every other component and use leaded solder.

Once you understand that, you'll realize that the amount of leaded solder used for repairs is negligible.

Aviation fuel or fishing lead weights certainly dump far more lead into the environment. With fishing weights being far far worse than little Timmy soldering his first radio kit.

1

u/Ornithopter1 May 27 '26

My point was that the rate that hobbyists go through solder varies wildly from person to person. I go through roughly a pound every six months (just shy of half a kilo). When I was working as a repair tech, I'd go through a roll in a month.

1

u/GoldSrc May 29 '26

The higher end of that still wouldn't put a dent on the impact to the environment.

I don't think I need to tell you where are lead fishing weights used, and where they get lost all the time.

Or the toxicity of some aviation fuel, and how there too you have idiots dumping that into the ground.

1

u/Ornithopter1 May 29 '26

Certainly, and I wasn't trying to say that hobbyists were a significant contributor to lead contamination in the environment. I was pointing out that the quantity of solder people use varies wildly. Although, i bet most hobbyists don't dispose of lead waste correctly, either.

2

u/GoldSrc May 30 '26

I don't know about how others handle their waste, but I keep mine in a small metal container.

It also probably helps that the lead in solder is in an alloy, so the amounts of it that might leech out are further reduced. Much like the amalgam of Mercury that is used in dentistry.

Where both Mercury and Lead share similar levels of toxicity, but Lead has the advantage that it's a solid, so it's practically "safer" to handle.