In addition to this temperature advantage, Lead possesses excellent wetting abilities. The same job with lead-free would require more power from your soldering iron and the higher heat needed poses a greater risk of damaging your workpiece and shortening the life of your tip. Melting TempĪs mentioned earlier, leaded solder has the advantage of a lower melting point than lead-free alloys. There are four valid reasons I can think of to still use leaded solder. So we now have alternatives to lead solder that don’t pose any sort of risk, so why use leaded solder at all? Why Use Lead Solder? Especially those made for mass consumption. The majority of consumer electronic devices produced today are now constructed with lead-free solders. Some regions such as the European Union, China, and California have banned the sale of leaded alloys to non-commercial consumers or maybe even entirely. When you see devices listed as ROHS compliant, this means they were produced with lead-free solder. The first lead-free alloys were actually developed in the 1990s by a man named Iver Anderson and following his efforts came the lead-free initiatives we know today such as ROHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive) which seeks to limit environmental exposure of lead. So with all of this equipment contaminating our landfills, it only made sense to seek alternative alloys. It’s staggering when compared to decades past when devices were made to be easily serviceable and last forever. If you think about how quickly new electronic devices are being released today, you can begin to imagine how many old devices are being thrown away or recycled every day. We were causing a lot of environmental damage by allowing our landfills to be contaminated with lead-filled products. The main concern in pioneering these alloys though was not what happens while using it, but what happens after. Well as we have come to realize, there are definite dangers of ingesting lead whether it’s lead paint, leaded gasoline or leaded solder. So now you may be asking, if lead solder is so functionally superior and not really a health risk under ideal conditions. Which is a temperature low enough for a soldering iron to handle, where higher temperatures would require a torch. In other words, tin melts at 450F/232C and lead melts at 621F/327C but when they are combined into an alloy of 63% Tin and 37% Lead, the melting point drops way down to 361F/183C. When searching for the best solution, chemists discovered that the alloy of tin mixed with lead resulted in a much lower melting temp than the metals alone. The reason that soldering is so synonymous with lead is because it has been used in the formulation of solder since the beginning of time. This way the exposure is minimized and makes for a much safer environment to solder. The fume extractor solves this by creating a stronger suction to pull them in the opposite direction. When you’re looking over the workpiece and you breathe in, the fumes will naturally run directly into your nostrils. It is important to solder in a well-ventilated area and we recommend using a fume extractor to direct any fumes away from your face. But make no mistake, you really don’t want to be breathing these fumes in whether or not you like the scent. Rosin-core flux is the most organic type and actually doesn’t smell too bad. When heated on your iron tip, the flux starts to smoke, and that’s the fumes you’re seeing. This is what allows the solder to actually adhere to the workpiece and make a strong connection. Well inside your solder wire, there is a core running throughout with a chemical called flux. So what are these fumes composed of if not lead? The melting point of both lead and tin are much higher than temperatures used for regular soft soldering. The good news is that soldering fumes do NOT contain lead. So what about the fumes? That’s what I’m most worried about.
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