solder

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hi
Is solder toxic? Like if i touched solder that was on my mainboard and then touched my eyes would i like go blind or sumthing?

What's solder?

stuff that holds stuff like capictiors and reistors to the main board.

depends on what the solder is made of - a lot of it is lead it should say on the box if there is no box just wash your hands = if it did get in your eyes you should flush your eye and do not ingest it

my ocd is getting to me =(. For me to think my computer area is clean i have to wipe everything that was on my desk that i touched after touching the solder in my computer after replacing the CPU.

Anything used on electronics will be rosin core, not acid core. Touching acid core work and then your eyes can cause injury, because of the acid, not the metals. Lead solder is toxic, I don't know about the others. Your computer probably has lead solder. The amount of lead that rubbed off onto your finger was probably negligible. I have worked around a lot of solder, and I always wash my hands frequently when I am doing that kind of work, especially before eating. I haven't had any problems.

I think you might get ill if you ate a whole motherboard at one sitting.

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When I was young, I used to take apart old radios, etc. When de-soldering components, I just melted the solder and blew it off. Then I got it wrong - I managed to get solder spatter back into my eye. It was rather nice. I went around with this shiny silver dot, embedded in my conjunctiva. Very pretty. About a month later, I noticed it wasn't there any more.

solder is perfectly safe as long as you don't eat it, handle it when it is in a liquid state, and wash your hands after handling it

I've used solder on numerous occasions, and I am still alive and haven't got ill

I've been touching solder for years and I'm still dddsioooisgssiw

(just kidding)

I'm still fine.

If you decide to start eating it, there could be issues but it's not going to kill/harm you in small quantities. I used to play with lead too quite a lot when I was a kid - it was good fun.

Almost any solder contains lead and it is toxic. But it is safe to touch the solder on CPU and boards and even melt it for soldering. Just do not eat it and wash hands after soldering. BTW, motherboards and other electronic boards are often covered with colorless varnish. Sometimes I solder something with lead solder, it is just enough to use protective googles, keep workplace clean and wash hands after work.

Touching / eating is covered already... I worry about the rosin fumes as I'm working sometimes... somewhat irritating and it's hard to avoid getting a nose full... prolonged exposure can cause respiratory damage.

FWIW, most solder in consumer electronics is 63/37 tin/lead. Most of what "hobbyists" use is 60/40.

I always thought that rosin fumes have a good smell; fumes of acid fluxes are much more worse. But you may dissolve rosin in the concentrated ethyl of isopropyl alcohol and use it instead of rosin (you may even buy ready solution - "neutral" or "rosin" flux). Vodka is not suitable - it is too weak.

I tend to use 60/40 if I have to solder anything

the lead free stuff is just no good

I found some lead-free solder at work, that instead of having lead in it, it has silver. It's 90 tin, and 10 silver. The stuff is expensive though, about $6-8 for a small roll. The stuff works really well though, and flows very nice into the wire. It does require a bit more heat than the old 60/40 stuff though!

There is a remote chance that you could contract lead poisoning from solder if you are around the fumes constantly in a production environment. You probably wouldn't get much lead exposure by handling it occaisonally, however I would still be on the safe side and wash my hands after handling solder.

Also, with the Tin/Silver solder, because of the higher heat used, you increase your likelihood of damaging styrene based capacitors, as well as causing spec drift in carbon comp resistors if these componants are heated for too long.

your not alone - i can relate.

Im not sure how much help perspective will be (probably depends where your OCD fixations lie on the rational/irrational spectrum) - but if it helps, you probably inhale far more lead everyday just by going outside and walking around near vehicles, than by briefly touching solder. Lead exposure is completely unavoidable, so all you can do is identify a few areas where you can easily reduce your exposure (wear disposable gloves when handling circuit boards, filter your drinking water etc) then accept a compromise on whats left over.