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Subject: Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Lead

From: Daniel Donnelly <KC7VDA@...>
Date: 2014-07-21

OK we all understand that the lead in lead solder poses very little  if any danger to the hobby or small job shop builder.  We have all agreed that the smoke  from the flux is not good to inhale, something the electronics industry has been aware of for the last 25 to 30. 
I have been aware if it and have taken active steps to eliminate the problem for  the past 65 years.  Not because I am a "chrome dome" and did months of research. but because I am an asthmatic and every time after an enjoyable  evening spent building my latest "gee whiz" project, I would spent the next three days to a week laid up.  My stepfather solved the problem for under $15.00, He put a box fan  with a furnace filter on my bench ... end of problem. No expensive fume hood needed.
I have used the same type of filter on every job where I have had to solder or work around others soldering.  
When I was employed as a quality control engineer by San Fernando electric ( At that time they produced Capacitor and Inductors) I specified the same type of filter at every work station, with the result that lost production due to illness dropped dramatically.
I suggest anyone worried about fumes from soldering with either lead or lead free solder do the same, this is a simple, easy (and best of all) cheap solution to the problem.

Dan   



On Sun, Jul 20, 2014 at 12:27 AM, 'Geoff Wood' geoff@... [Homebrew_PCBs] <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
 

 

 

And heaven only knows what is in there. Do use proper ventilation, but primarily for the flux, not for the lead.


Well no. Pretty straight-forward to find out actually…  I use ‘colophony-free’ fluxed solder, which is supposedly less allergy-prone that rosin-fluxed solder.


On the subject of the lead, just where does it come from? The twilight zone? Er, well no. We mine it from the ground. I fail to see why it is so bad to put it back there, with due cautions, of course. Or recycle it:

Not bad to recycle it, or to put it back where it came from.  Not so good to put it in unnatural concentrations. into the WRONG places though, .

geoff