[hackerspaces] Soldering and safety?

[Derek Hubbard]

If the point is to get the smoke away from you, a small desk fan does the trick quite well. That, or do what I've always done and just whistle while you solder.

-Derek Hubbard.

On May 15, 2013, at 3:29 PM, Felicitus <felicitus at felicitus.org> wrote:

> On 05/15/2013 05:14 PM, David Brightbill wrote:
>> I'm a safety-third kind of guy in my personal life but as a board member
>> of a space, I worry about liability etc.  Recently, during a soldering
>> class, the topic of soldering fume extractors came up.  What's the take
>> on these?  Should we buy or make some, or is this overkill for the
>> application?
> 
> tl;dr:
> Attach signs which say: "Wash your hands after soldering" prior to
> buying fume extractors.
> 
> Long Version:
> 
> Most of the fume you'll encounter while soldering is due to vaporizing
> the flux, not the solder itself (lead vaporizes at about 1700°C, there's
> no way you could ever vaporize solder with your regular soldering iron).
> So your agenda is:
> 
> 1) Instruct people to wash their hands
> 
> People at our hackerspace rarely do it, including myself. I try to do
> it, but it's easy to forget. And I forgot to put up such a sign so many
> times (added to my calendar now ;)).
> 
> But even if you don't wash your hands, it's very unlikely that you
> absorb an amount of lead that will cause health issues. I have no
> numbers and no research done on this; so if in doubt, do your own research.
> 
> 2) Invest into fume extractors
> 
> That's something you could do, but often isn't done, simply because it
> isn't super-effective unless you buy some of those heavy-duty fume
> extractors which sits right above the place you're about to solder
> (typically 5-10cm, and typically it's in the way) [1].
> 
> Those smaller ones which sit about 20-30cm away [2] still reduce fume
> "pollution", however, they aren't as effective as the heavy ones.
> 
> Neither of those will stop fume. It will be there. But fume isn't as
> dangerous as the public believes, and efficiency of those fume
> extractors is much less than you'd expect.
> 
> Suggestion: Buy one, and leave it up to your members to use it.
> 
> All of the above is based on my personal knowledge and experiences, so
> don't solder me down on this. I hope that helps!
> 
> Felicitus
> 
> 
> [1]
> http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00oCFtkHYgEsqy/Welding-Fume-Extractor.jpg
> [2] http://www.elexp.com/solder/456DLX.jpg
> 
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