well, my title kind of says it. i was just wondering how bad it is to breath this stuff in. i like making stuff, and when im using electricity i use saughter alot. so im wondering how bad it is and where it affects. thanks.

Solder is lead-based, and the fumes can cause asthma and chronic bronchitis, iirc. Flux may have some bad fumes too.

 

Can you use a mask or ventilate better when you solder?

what on Earth is "saughter" supposed to be?

what on Earth is "saughter" supposed to be?

It must be the smoke you create when you solder something.

At the least,

Buy or make a little fume exhaust hood (you can use cardboard and a muffin fan for a cheap one) and blow into a filter/outside.

Get a mask.

Wash your hands thoroughly afterwards.

I've corrected the spelling in the title to cut down on potential confusion. If that's not what was meant, let me know

 

solder: any of various alloys fused and applied to the joint between metal objects to unite them without heating the objects to the melting point.

There are also lead-free solders. Slightly more expensive, though (and you may need a different solder station).

I Soldered 8 hours a day everyday for many years, never had a problem.

in fact I can recognise certain brands of solder by smell alone (I even have Favorites), although the smell is largely from the rosin flux running through the core of the solder, some have multiple cores.

it never did me any harm!

it never did me any harm!

 

Except, of course, that you're clearly quite mad.

oh Hush you, I`m eccentric that`s all

oh Hush you, I`m eccentric that`s all

 

What, you eccentric?!?!

 

I have a soldering gun that looks almost exactly like that.

ha. i use a wood burner and a little wound up solder strip.

I Soldered 8 hours a day everyday for many years, never had a problem.

in fact I can recognise certain brands of solder by smell alone (I even have Favorites), although the smell is largely from the rosin flux running through the core of the solder, some have multiple cores.

it never did me any harm!

 

If you replace solder by words like smoke or tobacco in that quote you get exactly what lots of people used to say about smoking- till they got cancer.

 

There are legal limits to the amount of solder flux fumes permitted in workplaces in the UK and US (and I guess elsewhere too).

http://www.hse.gov.uk/coshh/table1.pdf

(listed under "rosin")

http://www.osha.gov/dts/chemicalsampling/data/CH_266137.html

 

It's not good for you and you ought to minimise the amount of fume you breathe in.

BTW, unless the soldering iron is really hot, the amount of lead in the fume is minimal.

On the plus side, solder is not addictive. With the possible exception of YT, of course.

On the plus side, solder is not addictive. With the possible exception of YT, of course.

 

Yeah, took us ages to get him off injecting liquid solder into his veins.

 

i've done a fair bit of soldering too. although, i don't have a proper soldering iron, just used a screwdriver and a butane torch. worked well enough.

I've soldered for years without any ventilation.

It's never bothered me.