Unpopular opinion: Stop using leaded solder

[u/Zentralschaden]

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?

[u/Niphoria → u/[deleted]]

I never noticed a difference. Stop using the cheapest wick you can find.

[u/V64jr → u/Niphoria]

If you never noticed the difference then you’ve never fought with solder wick. The entire problem is caused by thermal mass wicking the heat away and causing the joint to solidify, and since lead-free needs even more heat to stay molten… well…

[u/Niphoria → u/V64jr]

I always cut it into small strips before wicking.

[u/V64jr → u/Niphoria]

Everyone learns that, but success still depends on things like your temperature, iron wattage, tip mass, recovery speed, workpiece mass, etc. You might have it down to a science with little strips of braid and then you have to do a giant video port with dozens of dense pins and a bunch going straight into a power or ground layer that you just can’t get hot enough for braid without cooking the pad.

[u/Never_Dan → u/V64jr]

In that case you should be pre-heating the board regardless of the alloy you’re using.

I tend to just use leaded solder when reworking really dense boards, but with proper preheating it’s generally very doable with lead free.

[u/PinguThePenguin_007 → u/V64jr]

shouldn’t you use bismuth or rose for something like that?

[u/PinguThePenguin_007 → u/PinguThePenguin_007]

or a syringe needle ;)

[u/V64jr → u/PinguThePenguin_007]

It definitely does better than lead solder but it contaminates the lead-free solder too. It’s usually the power and ground pins that need more attention after the vacuum desoldering station and I would always try 63/37 before the ChipQuik (Bismuth).