El Capitan said:
Well I just got another reel of 60/40. I just don't trust the non-lead stuff.
I figure I'll stick to breathing in some weird fumes
The thing to keep in mind about solder in general is that the worst problems are always as a result of long term inhalation of the flux smoke/fumes. Yes holding leaded solder in your mouth is certainly not advisable, but lengthy exposure to the flux fumes can cause hyper sensitivity on the respiratory side of things and potentially cancer from the solvents contained in the flux. The most annoying part of all is that as much as the lead-free solder may not contain lead, (well duh :P) as it doesn't natively ‘wet’ (flow and stick) as nicely the manufacturers are forced to add more ‘active’ (concentrated, corrosive) fluxes and more of it to boot. This of course potentially intensifies the risks if respiratory issues.
It is also very fussy on wetting temperature and the only realistic way to use it effectively is to have a good quality iron with fine temp adjustment and very responsive tip temp regulation and compensation. I bought one of the Weller WSD81 stations at the time the ROHS initiative came about as they are designed to work optimally with lead-free solder (though of course they're a dream to use with leaded too) and I can certainly vouch for it's ease of use with the new solders out there.
And as MKL explained the sole issue in phasing out leaded solder is that old discarded electronics tend to end up in land fill and as they oxidise and break down the lead leeches into ground water causing problems for all of us.
But hey, as most of us that dabble with consolizing and super-gun development tend to recycle parts from old projects (well I do at least
) or just keep em for posterity, we account for barely a speck of the overall issue. So I say use what ever suits you best, but keep in mind the risks of long term exposure to flux fumes.
