I have never seen this many warning signs on anything that I have ever bought. I know that I'm supposed to suck away the soldering fumes, even if I use lead free solder, which I'm going to do with a 12 volt computer fan fitted with a carbon filter. But what the heck is in the flux that will damage my nervous system... π putting my mask back on... π·
Hi! I have a Masters in electrical engineering, I have more experience soldering than probably most people here.
Flux is not that dangerous as long as you don't get it IN your body. Your computer fan + carbon filter is perfect, because the flux fumes are highly irritating if you breathe them in or get them in your eyes. But flux is mostly just pine rosin mixed with solvents. (To be clear, rubbing alcohol will also damage your nervous system if you ingest or breathe a lot of it. Flux isn't particularly unique).
The risk of lead fumes is incredibly overstated. Lead doesn't even start to vaporize until well into the thousands of degrees, you will never be soldering anywhere near that temperature. You're at higher risk of getting small specks of lead stuck to your hands and then accidentally in your mouth, which is why I always recommend washing your hands immediately after soldering or just touching the equipment.
As you mention, use a small fan filter to draw away the fumes. If you can smell the flux vapors, you don't have enough ventilation (although most people won't care). Unless you do long sessions I rarely see people wearing masks or gloves but if you are confortable doing so then yes that's a good idea.
One thing is glasses. Especially when inexperienced, it can happen that you can fling around small solder blobs by accident. You don't want that in your eyes.
I would suggest not avoiding flux. It's basically easy mode compared to without. Even if you use flux core solder.
All people that use flux will die eventually. You have been warned!
Those brain cells just made life complicated.
the first symbol is letting you know the warnings only apply if youβre Iron Man
Most solder is lead-based. At over 900 degrees Fahrenheit, lead fumes are breathable. Lead poisoning is bad news.
Use the correct heat setting and make sure you work in a well-ventilated area or use a respirator.
Iβm not a professional solderer or anything but I had a training course by a bunch of people who do it to a very high level, like they spend all day pulling off and examining chips on boards, etc. They said that you donβt normally need flux, you just need to apply hear properly with the iron. During the whole course the only time they used flux was when they were re-soldering a chip.
I think they are trying to tell you not to eat it. I ate a few leaded solder balls before and I'm still here though, so there's that.
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