Lead Free Solder

[Phostenix]

What the heck are "tin whiskers"?

NASA Goddard Tin Whisker Homepage

[Chuck H]

Hmmm... What IS lead free solder good for???

Well I suppose it could be tied in in big bundles so the hippies and tree huggers could use it to beat their DEAD HORSE.

[Rick Erickson]

Lead free bullets - much healthier than the lead ones.

[jrfrond]

Unless someone is holding a gun to your head, or you work for an ISO-rated manufacturer, do NOT use RoHs (lead-free) solder on ANYTHING!!! It just plain sucks. Even the electronics industry knows this, which is why it is not spec'ed for critical apps like avionics, military and medical electronics.

Here's a link to an article I wrote a couple of years ago, which goes into further (and scary) detail:

http://www.300guitars.com/articles/n...-to-musicians/

[Chuck H]

Excellent tutorial and, I think, a good assesment of the bigger picture. But lead free solder IS an unavoidable inevitability for we who aren't building air planes. I do think there will eventually be advances in RoHS compliant solder or maybe the nature of how we make our electrical connections that will make it acceptible... Eventually. Until then I'm using lead solder and sleeping like a baby.

[überfuzz]

I'm sitting here in Europa with lead free solder. I think it's allowed to sell lead solder, but I also think it's supposed to be phased out here in the long run. I came to use lead free solder by chance. I think it's hunky dory.

[tube power]

A topic within my topic...

I have a pinhole in the cover plate of the water-pump on my truck.
At first I was going to try "Mighty Putty" but then
I was thinking of patching it with a drop of solder.

If you were to attempt it, would you use the lead free, works fine on copper plumbing.
(The cover is of course, some grade of steel.)
Or would you go with the lead solder?
Anyone?

[Sock Puppet]

Couldn't you put a rivet in that?

[Chuck H]

Hard to say how well it will solder because the surface temp your soldering to needs to be hot enough to allow integration of the solder. If it's a thick plate you may have trouble. If its no thicker than an amp chassis one of your guns should do it. I'd go with lead just because of the lower melting point. Emminently more possible to get the substrate your going to solder to that temperature.

[52 Bill]

Propane torch and a brazing rod?

[tube power]

Propane torch and a brazing rod?

Good idea.

[melvin]

I've not used lead-free solder yet. What's so sucky about it?

[Chuck H]

Higher melting temp=components get hotter during assembly. Soldering on big parts is very difficult. Only flux that doesn't burn (or wet well) can be used.

Brittle, grainy structure=more likelyhood of cracking under stress or a cold joint. Negates identifying cold joints by appearance since all the joints look like a cold joint.

Poor flow=harder to re-wet joints and more likelyhood of cold joints.

Tin whiskers=possible micro shorts on close spaces electrical connections.

Smells bad=smells bad

Just my observations. There may be more.

[Enzo]

Nah, those are enough. It doesn;t solder very well, or hold up as well, and it grows its own shorts in close quarters. That should be enough reasons to hate it.

[melvin]

Thanks for the description. Now that I know, I'm sure I've come across a few repairs on devices manufactured with the stuff. Not pleasant.