Lead Free Solder

[media at mail1.nai.net]

Thanks to everyone who answered mmy "dumbass soldering tool questions."
Out of over a dozen public and private reponses, only one person had a
complaint about Digikey and no one said anything bad about the Weller WTCPT.

Btw, I've started to rewrite the Capacitor FAQ.  Although I'm not finished,
I believe I've already made some significant improvements.  Does anyone
have the URL where the current one is kept??

At 9:42 AM -0400 04/20/98, Steven Curtin wrote:
>Another piece of equipment you should look into is a "fume extractor", made
>by OK I think- it's in the Digi-Key catalog.  I have one and it works
>pretty well.  That and/or at least a $30 respirator.  The fumes from solder
>contain lead and make second-hand smoke seem like incense in comparison.
>I've breathed a lot of solder smoke in my time and am much more careful
>about this, including soldering outside on the porch when the weather's
>nice (catch a few rays that way as well :) ).

This brings up an interesting point.  While the hazards of lead solder
fumes are debatable (lead although very toxic is also very inert), no one
suggests that lead fumes are good for you.  Even with lead free solder I
prefer to have a window open to avoid the fumes from heating insulation.

I generally use silver bearing solder ever since I ran into a computer
repair that required silver solder.  Right now, I have two types of rosin
core silver solder on hand -- one is lead free and the other isn't, they
differ in diameter.  I use the thin one for PCB's and the thick one for
cables.

So my questions are:

1) Are their any disadvantages to using silver bearing solder??

2) Are their any disadvantages to using lead-free solder??

3) Does all lead-free solder contain silver??


I believe this is relevant since probably everyone on this list does some
soldering.

PEACE OUT :)
MARK