| Electronics > Beginners |
| Lead free solder |
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| fixit7:
After looking up what ROHS meant, I started looking at lead free solders. How much harder are they to use? If you use it, what do you recommend? |
| GreyWoolfe:
Lead free needs higher temps to melt. The flux is also more aggressive, especially to soldering iron tips. You need dedicated tips because you don't want to cross contaminate tips with leaded solder. The joints themselves aren't shiny like lead, they are dull looking like they might not be good solder joints. I have some AIM SN100C with Glow core flux, 2.5% in .020". I also have a dedicated tip for my Metcal MX-500 that is only for lead free and I keep it in its package to make sure I don't accidentally use it with leaded solder. I have used it a couple of times to fix things that were commercial products and RoHS compliant. I don't care for using it myself. If you aren't fixing or making anything commercial that can be sent across the pond, stick with leaded. |
| fixit7:
Thanks. |
| wraper:
Depends, do you mean hand soldering or reflow? If hand soldering it highly depends on thermal mass of a solder joint. The bigger thermal mass, the bigger difficulty. Often you cannot do the job decently without preheating. Also it's highly dependent on alloy, flux and board finish. Although it may seem counter intuitive, ENIG boards are usually easier to solder than HASL. Also with lead free HASL YMMV, some boards solder fine, on some solder just does not want to flow. |
| bostonman:
--- Quote ---cross contaminate tips with leaded solder --- End quote --- Does it cause a problem if the same tip is used? Obviously lead will get into the non-leaded, but is this the only issue? |
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