French Garden

Ref Rick’s world – he has a go at stripping down a Battery soldering iron.

Do these devices run at a temperature to use non leaded solder – or can you use old solder – these days.

I think it runs at around 400°C.
I use it with a spool of solder I got from a local DIY store last year, so I’d imagine it’s lead free.

400C is fine with “real” solder too.

I gave up using poisonous solder for hobby stuff many years ago. I bought a temperature controlled iron from Maplin. Its usual setting is 425 Celsius, but the required setting in general does vary – using a thin bit to solder over a ground plane can require a significantly higher setting.

Solder with lead doesn’t need nearly such a high temperature – reckon on a difference of 50 degrees ish.

so I’d imagine it’s lead free.

I stand corrected. It is lead solder. It’s thicker than the stuff I got from Maplin a long time ago, being about 1mm thick. But it works well for what I need.

It says on the spool that the melting point is 219°C.

I gave up using poisonous solder for hobby stuff many years ago.

I don’t lose sleep over it. I don’t go out of my way to breathe the fumes (isn’t most of the smoke from the flux, anyway?) and I spent a childhood taking apart old transistors with stuff like GaAs inside, not to mention pinging blobs of mercury around the desk (it’s weird playing with a liquid metal). Not to mention many years of breathing the lead spewed out of the arse end of vehicles… It’s a wonder we even survived the 80s… but then mom tells me that when she was young, they used to keep the beaches pristine by driving little tractor thingies across the sand that would spray DDT, including when people were around. Example picture from near New York in 1945.
It’s a wonder they survived, period.

Oh, and at work I have a lot of (unwanted) exposure to sodium hydroxide.

So, on the balance of things, I doubt worrying about the formulation of the solder I use infrequently will any sort of change to my life.

can require a significantly higher setting.

Not just a higher setting, but the ability to crank out more heat.
On the plus side, the battery iron is ready in under thirty seconds (my 25W iron takes about three minutes).
On the negative side, I would not imagine it’s much use for soldering the barrel of BNC connectors, or shield cans, or anything that’s large and metal and radiates heat faster than the iron can provide it.

To put this into context, my 25W iron struggled with the BNC connector on my little STM32 oscilloscope.

So, on the balance of things, I doubt worrying about the formulation of the solder I use infrequently will any sort of change to my life.

My attitude exactly. I’m not poor Courtney (not her real name) soldering stuff eight hours a day, five days a week, year after year.

It’s a wonder we even survived the 80s… but then mom tells me that when she was young, they used to keep the beaches pristine by driving little tractor thingies across the sand that would spray DDT, including when people were around. Example picture from near New York in 1945.
It’s a wonder they survived, period.

Ah, but look at the effect on brain-cell development in Republicans – there’s no way back from this level of degeneration.

On the other hand lead solder with Ersin flux (the originals) wets out more easily than the replacements. Fortunately I still have a reel of it left when the electronics department closed down, and I switched to computer management.

I’ve still not run out of a reel of solder I bought in the late 1960s…with, indeed Ersin flux.

I don’t lose sleep over it. I don’t go out of my way to breathe the fumes (isn’t most of the smoke from the flux, anyway?)

Molten solder, containing lead, does give off lead fumes. The vapour pressure of molten lead is not zero.

Where I used to work, there was a wave soldering machine. It had to be kept in a room that could not exchange air with the rest of the building and had to have its own extraction system. No-one was allowed to be in the room except for the briefest of periods when it was hot.

I think many sighs of relief were to be heard when lead free solder was introduced and wave soldering was decommissioned.

I loved the smell of real solder in the morning.

I’m not an expert (my soldering is always limited to fix stuff more than build stuff), but AFAIK yes both lead fumes and flux fumes are both toxic and can cause all sorts of respiratory issues (asthma can be caused by flux fumes).

Be careful guys!

Now, where was I fixing my Electron… looool :D

I’m not an expert (my soldering is always limited to fix stuff more than build stuff),

There’s a technique with a smooth flowing motion – how it was described at college by observers.

Theoretically we were all going to “have a go” and then learn the proper way from a demo by our lecturer.
I’d been working on circuit boards since I was 6 or 7¹, so I’d had a little bit of practice before that :)
The lecturer decided to get me to demonstrate the technique instead and asked me for a few tips. Bit of an embarrassing day.

Problems with flux fumes, I feel I should point out that if you breathe out in the right way the fumes go somewhere else.

¹ I have a solder splash scar on my upper thigh – the perils of small children, short trousers and molten metal.

Problems with flux fumes, I feel I should point out that if you breathe out in the right way the fumes go somewhere else.

Yup, I have learned few tricks when I worked in computer shops fixing micros and Amstrad PCs back in my teen age… Then went to Uni for Software Engineering and it has been mostly coding since then, so defo cannot claim any expertise.

But I remember the old techs from Amstrad and Olivetti teaching me few tricks and those still serve me well… I brought back to life few micros and a bunch of Podules for old Acorns, a Pegasus 400 for my Electron.

And “the master piece” is I even managed the “sacrilege” of adding an ARMv7 to an Electron via a 2nd hand Tube that was a bit wobbly (so needed some love) and replaced stuff on my Plus 1 (to allow CoProc selection) and now the little best runs at 1.4Ghz and can use ARM BBC BASIC V from which I can code in ARM Assembly on the Electron!!!! as well as running CP/M, PDP 11, bunch of crazy powerful 6502 (different versions) and my beloved 6809!!!! (This is a little step for a man and a big step for an Electron user!!!!) XD

I have a solder splash scar on my upper thigh – the perils of small children, short trousers and molten metal.

So far I have avoided injuries and setting the house on fire, I think this is a pretty good achievement lol

Where I used to work, there was a wave soldering machine. It had to be kept in a room that could not exchange air with the rest of the building and had to have its own extraction system. No-one was allowed to be in the room except for the briefest of periods when it was hot.

There was a wave soldering machine at Microvitec, where I did several short contracts in the late ‘70s and early ’80s. It did have its own extraction system, but it didn’t (then) have its own room – it was in the same room as almost the whole of the operation – apart from a few relatively small offices. (That was where the aforementioned “Courtney” worked.)

I have avoided injuries

Just remember if the soldering iron falls, DO NOT try to catch it.

Unless perhaps, it is falling into your lap… :-@

Don’t. A friend of mine used to use solder pots at Baird’s TV – one got knocked off her bench into her lap. Her company-provided “protective” lab coat was nylon…

I have not seen her scars, but they’re apparently Rather Impressive.

I was too far away at the time – several miles – to hear her screams, but they were apparently Rather Impressive, too.

Just remember if the soldering iron falls, DO NOT try to catch it.

…fear…. O_o

Unless perhaps, it is falling into your lap… :-@

…even more fear… :O

Thanks guys! Just in time for this weekend where I was planning to mod my Spectrum +3… damn loool XD

Let’s hope for the best

Talking of hot lead, how is the coup d’état going France, Rick?

Just don’t use a solder pot, Paolo, and wear cotton overalls not nylon, and you’ll be all right!

Thanks Clive!

If you do not hear from me on Monday then you know I may have done something wrong! :D Joking!