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Author Topic: Lead Solder  (Read 1185 times)

K6BSU

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Re: Lead Solder
« Reply #15 on: June 18, 2021, 08:49:51 AM »

My front yard target-shooting range uses a large pile of dirt as a backstop.  By now it's pretty full of lead from .22 ammo.  My wife uses the dirt pile in her flower pots, so I guess the flowers come out infused with adequate lead in the leaves.  But we don't eat the flowers, so I guess it's safe.
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K7MEM

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Re: Lead Solder
« Reply #16 on: June 18, 2021, 10:05:01 AM »

I bought a spool of it, and I haven't yet been able to make a decent solder joint with it.  Liquid flux seems to help, but lead-free solder just doesn't want to "flow".

Back when microcomputers (6800, 8080, 6502) were popular, a friend of mine got a 6800 kit from his employer. It was part of one of the classes his employer was offering. He took it home and assembled/soldered everything together. But he didn't like that yucky look when you used solder with flux. So he soldered everything with flux free solder. When he was done, the computer didn't do anything, so he brought it over for me to look at. The whole computer board looked like one huge cold solder joint. It was probably the worst solder job I have ever seen. So I went about re-soldering the entire board with some good Kester solder, with flux. When I was done, the computer came to life and worked as it was suppose to.

This is the same guy that told me he found hidden memory space in that same microcomputer. He didn't understand how the memory addressing wrapped around in those small computers, and your were always addressing the same memory. It took a while to explain it.

-

When I was a teen (late 60's) and still in high school, I use to earn some extra cash working for a guy that made bullets. I would sit for hours over a pot of molten lead banging out 38 slugs, 6 to 8 at a time. He made ammunition for the local police, so he ran through a lot of lead.

In his backyard, he had 5 or 6 propane melting pots. His lead source was any used commercial product that contained lead. Remember when toothpaste came in lead tubes? There was piles of old toothpaste tubes next to the melting pots. Any residual toothpaste just boiled off.

At the time, the lead was not the danger. The real danger was with the casks of gun power sitting on the shelves and the fact that we were working in his basement. And none of those casks had a warning label. If anything ever happened, the whole house would have come down on us.
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Martin - K7MEM
http://www.k7mem.com

K0UA

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Re: Lead Solder
« Reply #17 on: June 18, 2021, 12:11:15 PM »

As you may or may not know the term "gunpowder" refers to black powder in the parlance of shooting enthusiasts. Smokeless "powder" or smokeless propellant is likely what you friend had stored in his house, as many of us do. It will burn but it doesn't explode. If smokeless propellant is tightly confined it will have a much greater effect and pressure spike, hence it is often kept in more open storage. Black powder or "gunpowder" is not so safe to store in large quantities in your house. But I am betting your friend had not a single ounce of "gunpowder" stored in his house.

As an example you can mound up a pile of smokeless propellant and strike a match and light it by hand and be safe to just watch it burn. The same amount of "gunpowder" would explode before you could likely get away from it. It is not safe in large quantities at all.

Black powder (gunpowder) is composed of charcoal, sulfur, and potassium nitrate (aka saltpeter).

Modern smokeless propellants are composed of different blends and compounds of generally nitrated cotton (gun-cotton) and glycerin and usually coated with graphite. But there many other things that can go into the mix, many of the mixes are proprietary.
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73  James K0UA

G3EDM

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Re: Lead Solder
« Reply #18 on: June 18, 2021, 12:20:02 PM »

Obviously I'm not trying to play down the risks of lead. In the long term, the decision to use lead as an anti-knocking additive for gasoline/petrol was clearly a terrible idea. Paints that contained lead were a problem in particular contexts, especially if there was a chance that young children could ingest them when chewing around. So I suppose that ultimately, those 13 pages of warnings that I received are much better than the opposite, i.e., ignoring the problem.

Moving on. Decades ago my parents' home in France was burgled (burglarized, for U.S. readers). Only one thing was stolen: the mercury inside a large barometer that my parents displayed proudly on the wall in the living room (it was a vertical object at least one meter tall, basically a glass tube filled with mercury).

You have to wonder what those thieves were thinking. The cops were flummoxed at the time!

73 de Martin, KB1WSY (for now)
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KM1H

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Re: Lead Solder
« Reply #19 on: June 18, 2021, 12:25:18 PM »

Quote
As you may or may not know the term "gunpowder" refers to black powder in the parlance of shooting enthusiasts. Smokeless "powder" or smokeless propellant is likely what you friend had stored in his house, as many of us do

Ive never heard it stated that way and Ive been shooting Black Powder over 40 years as well as regular gunpowder to reload 44 Magnum brass. Both are generic names and the details are up to the manufacturer.
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KM1H

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Re: Lead Solder
« Reply #20 on: June 18, 2021, 12:27:57 PM »

Quote
Moving on. Decades ago my parents' home in France was burgled (burglarized, for U.S. readers).

Burgled is still a common term in the US.....in France it may be bungled ::)
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G3EDM

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Re: Lead Solder
« Reply #21 on: June 18, 2021, 12:41:04 PM »

The first time I heard the term "burglarized" was with reference to Watergate so I rather assumed that was the U.S. terminology. I spent more than 20 years of my life living in America but will readily admit that I am still trying to figure out American English.

73 de Martin, KB1WSY (for now)
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KM1H

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Re: Lead Solder
« Reply #22 on: June 18, 2021, 12:53:05 PM »

Toss in regional accents which can get pretty thick PLUS all the immigrants believing they are speaking proper English. I grew up with German plus most everything else European in the schools and neighborhoods. The NYC area had them all.

My uncle Walter brought home a Brit war bride in 1945 after flying in B-17's out of the UK almost two years. I'll have to give Aunt Marion credit, she lost the accent pretty fast but maybe it was the 10 kids that helped. ;D
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K6BSU

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Re: Lead Solder
« Reply #23 on: June 19, 2021, 01:40:09 PM »

I use PYRODEX in my muzzle-loaders.  But I still have to clean the barrel after a few shots.  Still waiting for a propellant that doesn't make such a mess.
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G3RZP

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Re: Lead Solder
« Reply #24 on: June 22, 2021, 04:46:27 AM »

The language spoken in the US is really 'American', rather than English. So many words are spelt differently and have totally different meanings, especially slang terms. There are even some words used which are considered archaic in 'English' English.
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KM1H

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Re: Lead Solder
« Reply #25 on: June 22, 2021, 08:49:47 AM »

My only remaining black powder gun is a Thompson Center .54 rifle....not a smooth bore.
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VK6YR

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Re: Lead Solder
« Reply #26 on: June 26, 2021, 09:01:09 PM »

Back to soldering. Being an avid home brewer, of course I do a lot of soldering and working close up with small components. A few years ago I managed to give myself a doozie of a headache that lasted for about a week. I later realised that this was the result of breathing in the smoke from the solder flux. I now use a small fan off to one side of my work bench to remove the smoke before I can inhale it. As well, an open door or window helps to further disperse the fumes. Hopefully, this might be helpful to others to prevent potential serious health issues.
Geoff VK6YR
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KM1H

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Re: Lead Solder
« Reply #27 on: June 27, 2021, 09:29:17 AM »

I cast my own ball ammo for the .54 since lead was readily available in this area also.

For match shooting I loaded my own .44 Magnum ammo and when hunting in areas where bears and boars roamed (I wasnt hunting them) the loads were on the hot side but I never had to use them.

Carl
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VE7RF

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Re: Lead Solder
« Reply #28 on: July 18, 2021, 06:06:15 PM »

I keep finding these one lb rolls of kester 60/40 tin /lead  solder in my basement.  Turns out I have  8 x lbs... + I found 2 x 5 lb rolls.   Some of the 1 lb rolls are a lot smaller diam..and good on finicky pc boards.   The lead  free junk is a pita to work with.

Most stuff I buy lately has all these warnings, specific to the state of california, where anything and everything is ...'bad'  for you.
« Last Edit: July 18, 2021, 06:09:22 PM by VE7RF »
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VE7RF

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Re: Lead Solder
« Reply #29 on: July 18, 2021, 06:11:16 PM »

I cast my own ball ammo for the .54 since lead was readily available in this area also.

For match shooting I loaded my own .44 Magnum ammo and when hunting in areas where bears and boars roamed (I wasnt hunting them) the loads were on the hot side but I never had to use them.

Carl

Is it possible to cast hollow pointers ?  Or do u have to just buy em ?   They typ have the copper jacket around them.   They make a helluva mess.   Either way would take care of being burgled  lol.   An 870  would also work.

Bird shot these days is SS, been like that for a long time now.   Dunno about the bigger diam stuff, like  ssg.   3/8"  SS  ball bearings would bounce off concrete, steel etc.
« Last Edit: July 18, 2021, 06:20:24 PM by VE7RF »
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