[sdiy] Dumbest Mistakes with Synths Contest Anyone?

[Dave Kendall]

Hi Ingo.

The solder was Maplin's own brand - 99.3% tin, with 0.7% copper.
It just didn't seem to want to flow freely onto the solder terminals of the
3.5mm jacks I was using, either for tinning, or soldering.
I've got a temp controlled solder station, but even maxed out at 425c it
still didn't seem to want to play ball, and often caused the plastic jack
housings to start to melt before the solder flowed properly, and that
temperature seems dangerously high for ICs - I could be wrong there, but it
doesn't seem like a good idea to run the iron that hot if you don't really
need to. 

A lot of what I'm doing these days is on perfboard, where the solder
connection needs to be mechanically strong as well as electrically sound, so
I just don't trust the tin stuff - I've had a few dry or crappy joints show
up, so until the Brussels politicos ban it completely, I'll stick with the
lead/tin stuff ;-)

Oh well. I've got a few reels of lead/tin solder stashed away, and life
seems easier, quicker and better when using that :-)

cheers,

Dave  

on 5/8/06 10:53, Ingo Debus at debus at cityweb.de wrote:

> 
> Am 04.08.2006 um 19:47 schrieb Dave Kendall:
> 
>> Working on some jack sockets a year or two ago, trying to get some
>> of that
>> crappy lead free solder to work, gave the iron a frustrated bang on
>> the
>> bench - a blob flew up and went splat on my eyeball. Hurt like hell.
>> I'd worked for a while years before with an eye team, and
>> remembered that as
>> long as it doesn't penetrate you *should* be OK, so a tiny little
>> bit of my
>> brain was not panicking and trying to be sensible.
>> The rest of me was jumping up and down and yelling, completely and
>> utterly
>> freaked out. There was a little silver solder star right in the
>> middle of
>> the eye. Come to think of it, with hindsight, I would probably have
>> got
>> several points for style in an ABBA convention.
>> 
>> Another good reason not to use lead free solder......
> 
> Ouch! Reminds me to get safety goggles. I wear glasses, but I often
> put them off for soldering work.
> 
> Do you remember what kind of leadfree solder this was? The stuff I
> tried so far just solders fine with my trusty old WTCP soldering iron
> and a 7 tip, like conventional leaded solder.
> 
> Ingo