Clothing

[netdudeuk]

I was thinking about getting a lab coat to keep the fumes/odours that escape from the fume extractor, solder, mess, etc. from my clothes.  Does anyone else take that approach and if so, do you choose ESD safe ?

[Psi]

i have never used a lab coat and never found any of my clothes smelling like fumes/solder.

Burning a small hole in synthetic clothing from the iron or from solder splashes is probably the only issue i can think of.

[retrolefty]

The only clothing rule I've come to appreciate over the years is to not solder while wearing short pants.

[helius]

silk and synthetic fabrics are triboelectric and shouldn't be worn at an ESD workstation.

[EEVblog]

I'd be more concerned about breathing in the fumes rather than getting on your clothes.
Can't say I've ever encountered the problem though.

[SeanB]

Plain cotton smock or lab coat would be the best, washed every so often and using some fabric softener. Other than that wear a denim apron when soldering, to keep the burning sensation off your skin.

[netdudeuk]

That's what I was thinking Sean.  I'm wanting to avoid a burning sensation in my jeans 

When I was a kid, I was soldering one weekend morning while still in my PJs.  I dropped a blob of solder onto one of my legs and it ran all the way down my leg onto the top of my bare foot, where it cooled.  I'm pretty sure that if I looked closely, I'd still find the scar from that.

[DIPLover]

hmm who doesn't like the smell of rosin core 80/20 solder in the morning?

[lapm]

Funny just came to thing of it... I have newer ever managed t drop molten solder on my skin... Have had couple instances i have stupidly poke my finger to hot iron... 

Could be that i have usually very god work area and light wen soldering stuff... and that usually means plenty of desk btween solder and my legs...

[SeanB]

Electronics solder is not a problem, the fun stuff is silver solder for piping, which is a lot hotter when molten. It splatters nicely on concrete, and burns.........

[calexanian]

Organic water clean flux from Kester has a unique smell that I would consider annoying. Some of the lead free solders can be a bit off putting too, but then again I am very sensitive to smell. Regular old RA flux or no clean are my go to solders and I have no problems. At both our assembly stations at work and my bench at home I just have a small fan (I use a 4 inch 12V dc computer fan with a wire wound pot for speed control) to blow the smoke away and have no problems. Lab coats do make you feel more official though. As said before though, make sure you get one suitable for ESD, otherwise just plain old cotton clothes are way better. 

On a side note at my last years physical I explained to my doctor all of the materials I encounter at work over the last 25 years and asked for suitable tests. Lead, heavy metals, etc. Apart form electronics I also spent some time before it got to expensive loading ammunition. I was sure it was going to come back as something somewhere and it turned out nothing out of the ordinary. Actually my mercury was lower than average because I don't eat fish.  My doctor explained that most of the materials and chemicals i encounter are not in a "Bio Available" state. In other words, even if they were to enter the body in small amounts, there are no receptors for them and they are expelled through normal process. Its when they are in a molecule that will combine with something else in the body is when bad things happen or are in sufficient quantity that enough biochemical reactions to take place to really get somewhere. In other words holding and using lead solder where the lead is bound in a rather stable alloy of tin, and whatever else is in it is much safer than lets say a solid lead bullet stuck in your body constantly shedding lead oxide which is reactive and poisonous.

Also things like solvent based flux removers and such are a weird animal. In small amounts your body will metabolize them much like any other hydrocarbon. Alcohol for example. When sufficient amounts are adsorbed or ingested they can cause a whole range of problems, but casual contact say in the act of cleaning a circuit board is not an emergency. Just wear nitrite gloves whenever possible and avoid breathing the fumes as they can cause airway constriction and asthma. Of course old ether flux removers should be avoided for obvious reasons.

[SeanB]

Most common source of lead is from fuel. Even so called lead free fuel is going to have lead residue in it, from old piping and tanks. The allowable range is such that the lead free fuel can actually have more lead in it than the old leaded fuel was required to have as a minimum.

[VK5RC]

Eye protection I would put quite a bit higher than clothing protection but nature has forced me to wear glasses. A positive.
The out-gassing esp from some dodgy plastic worries me more than solder fumes, I keep a good amount of fresh air circulating if I can.

[G7PSK]

 You need one of these if you are using a Chinese meter.

[GreyWoolfe]

The only clothing rule I've come to appreciate over the years is to not solder while wearing short pants.

There was a point in time a few years ago that I was fairly regularly burning myself either soldering or desoldering with a rat shack desoldering iron or on my mini butane torch.  SWMBO felt it necessary to get me a prescription for slivadyne.  After that I almost never burned myself and she was the first to use it.  Seriously, with a very high pain tolerance, I don't worry about soldering in shorts.  The burning of myself never bothered me any, it just bothered SWMBO enough to get the medicine.  I, too have never noticed any smell in my clothing from soldering.  I do use fume extraction to keep from breathing the stuff as Dave said.  Hey DIPLover, 63/37 RA here and I love the smell all the time

[German_EE]

I got used to wearing overalls whilst I was working in elevator shafts because they're dirty places with grease everywhere, but for bench work I've never worn anything special. The comments from calexanian regarding small exposure to various chemicals sounds about right, I've never worn protective equipment when using solvents for short periods and my last blood test only caused raised eyebrows because of the anti-migraine drugs that were in my system.

Eye protection (if you don't wear spectacles) is a good idea, the emergency room of an eye hospital is not a nice place to be.

[SeanB]

Even with glasses wear eye protection when using grinding tools or wire wheels.  Having an opthalmic surgeon holding your head with a needle aimed at your wide open and dilated eye is not fun. Especially if you have an aversion to needles stuck in you. I can inject you happily, but I find it hard to self inject. I can even make it almost totally painless. I had a good teacher in a senior RN who showed me how, and then demoed how to inflict pain doing the same injection. She reserved that for those who did not listen to her advice.

[German_EE]

Don't worry, when it comes to eye protection you're preaching to the converted. I don't use rotary wire brushes but there are a set of goggles next to the grinding wheel in my garage.

[netdudeuk]

When I was a kid I also managed to spray ferric chloride solution into my eyes.  That hurt quite a bit and I had to run up to the doctors having rinsed them out.  I got off very lightly with that one.

I also remember accidentally drinking meths when doing home chemistry stuff and getting zapped with the mains supply.

I guess it was quite dangerous being a geek back then.

[c4757p]

How in god's name does one accidentally drink meths?

[Dave Turner]

For me it was the long flex on my soldering iron. Stand on the flex then pick up the iron - I got some lovely burns on my palm, bedroom carpet and my foot (when in Dave mode). Hopefully I've designed out of that mistake.

[netdudeuk]

How in god's name does one accidentally drink meths?

Easy. Probably a little hasty with a pipette while filling he spirit burner.

[Vgkid]

When I have had to quickly solder wire/ connectors I have done it over my bare legs. Never burned myself yet.