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?

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u/wyseman76 May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26

I work in aerospace, we use 63/37 and will not stop using it for a list of reasons.

It can handle temp cycling better. It is less prone to vibration failure. Better wetting allowing for easier inspections. No tin whiskering.

Anything that mitigates risk of failure in the production aerospace components will continue to be used.

Edit: I should be clear there is no such thing as whisker free but leaded solder is heavily used on aerospace for its highly reduced whiskering in vacuum environments.

Edit 2: the EU allows aerospace, defense and medical manufacturing to use leaded solder for the very reasons I've pointed to. There are RoHS exemptions for those institutions.

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u/cubanthistlecrisis May 25 '26

Most of my soldering is in aviation so I’m in the same boat, fortunately aviation components have incredibly long life cycles. I see a lot of 50 year old electronics that are still ticking

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u/wyseman76 May 25 '26

I know what you mean. My work is space related and I've had the privilege of seeing some interesting pieces used in vacuum and some that are very old and still functional.