“I was just talking to some HAMs about this over the last weekend. While lead core solder does exist, it’s increasingly difficult to find. Rosin core solder is decent for repairs, but for longevity, I don’t trust it.
Two sepearate issues. Lead *bearing* solder is traditional. It has a rosin core as a flux, which lead-free solder *also* has. Flux is a requirement to properly “wet” the solder joint and to deoxidize same, both by floating oxides off the joint-in-progress and from the oxides that accum on the component leads during storage, handling etc; Flux is an absolute requirement for the capillary action that produces a “good looking” filleted or “wetted” solder joint. It is not the *core* of lead-bearing solder that is lead. Unless you are talking about *solid* lead solder which is only used in plumbing...and is now illegal to use in many/most states for all the obvious reasons.
“I’ve got an old Kenwood transceiver with lead soldered everything, and it’s still going strong. Meanwhile, I’ve replaced caps on two Yaesu radios in the last 5 years.”
There was a period in which Chinese caps were being produced that sucked. Computers, and especially LED screens died by the millions with these. DELL had a HUGE problem with bad Chinese caps, but that problem affected essentially everything. This is/was a bad cap problem, not a solder problem. That we replace almost anything electronic after a single-digit no of years sort of masked this issue, but it was industry-wide.
“Just like with handling firearms, you don’t go off having a meal or putting your fingers in your mouth after soldering. I hate how our government has grown to such nanny-state proportions that even something as simple and effective as lead has to be regulated out of everything from bullets to transformers. Stupid.except Fed”
True!
Thank you for the education, that’s all good to know.
I’m not an expert in solder by any stretch and only got into soldering electronics 10 years ago when I started with radio. I’ve replaced a good number of caps in those years since they seem to be the most common component to die in electronics. I’m definitely a neophyte, but I love my hardware; and I’m not afraid to try to fix it when it’s not working.
As we learned from Hayek in the Road to Surfdom, the government by planners does not work because you can plan and mandate all you want but the outcome will be flawed as planners can’t account for reality.
Central planning works with finite goals and mandates and cannot take into account the reality of the market, the reality of God’s universe and the reality and variety of humanity.