[sdiy] Health Hazard from Solder Fumes

[Curtin, Steven D (Steven)]

Two things I do to keep exposure to fumes to a minimum:

1)  Use a fume venting fan, OK makes a benchtop fume absorber which is a
little fan with a filter in it.  You can order it from Digi-Key for $100.
2)  Place and crimp all as many parts as possible, especially the parts in a
board, before turning on the soldering iron.

The solderless breadboards are very handy.  You can check out a circuit
first using these and then solder a breadboard.  

Does anyone know if the lead from the solder smoke sticks to walls?  If so
this could turn your whole working space into a child hazard.  

I also use lead-free solder although it still has flux- it's a little more
difficult to get a nice shiny solder joint but seems well worth the trouble.
In my experience you have to keep heat on it more consistently and then
slowly pull the soldering iron away from the solder when you're done.

Steve C

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Steven Curtin  
Agere Systems (formerly
Lucent Technologies Microelectronics)
ph: (732)949-4404   fax: (732)949-6711
http://curtin.emf.org
sdcurtin at agere.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------

> On Mon, 05 Mar 2001 18:16:13 -0500, Mike I. wrote:
> >Here's a link to some recent information concerning the risks
> >associated
> >with soldering... probably worth reading:
> >
> >http://www.bbc-safety.co.uk/HSE/solderfume&you.htm
> >
> >This link was given on one of the tube amp/fx sites today.
> >Mike
> 
> On that note, I've only just recently gotten into using wishboards or 
> breadboards for building electronic circuits. These are quite groovy 
> in that it is very much like building Lego, just pushing in the 
> resistors, caps, trimmers and IC's without having to use a drop of 
> solder. In fact, you can even wire up your switches and pots by using 
> crimping tools.
> 
>