On 19/07/2014 02:25, Brad Thompson
brad.thompson@... [Homebrew_PCBs] wrote:
> Hello--
>
> At a recycling center where I volunteered, a manufacturer dropped off
> several gaylords full of electronic scrap,
Several gaylords? Sounds like a different way to do it :-)
I've been using unleaded solder for a while now, after the initial
problems (basically due to having a cheap crappy soldering iron, and
bits that would dissolve, and probably the earlier unleaded solder alloy
just wasn't the same as it is now) I've been soldering with the stuff
for years now. I no longer have problems with crumbling soldering iron
bits, I can get it to flow nicely, and I've assembled hundreds of boards
with the stuff with the same soldering iron bit and it seems to be
working now just as well as the old lead solder.
The only problem I have with unleaded soldering is unleaded solder
paste. I used to reflow all my SMD stuff with a hot air gun but this
just doesn't seem to work right now (certainly temperature related) so I
just hand solder SMD stuff now (and now I've had to do it for a while,
I'm getting much better results by hand soldering SMD than I used to get
with leaded solder paste and reflow)