I know about the rosin in solder being harmful and all that. just wondering though, do you need all that extra gear like masks and safety goggles? that seems like overkill for a small scale soldering job on the Wii. what do you guys think?
- most cheap solder has lead in it. - spend a little more and buy the lead-free solder. With the lead solder, as long as you are no breathing it in for a long period of time, you should be okay without a mask. With mask and/or googles on, you will have a challenge to see all the fine contact points/pings.
all solder has lead. solder is a combination of lead and tin because of both metals different properties
You can indeed get lead free solder, but it is supposed to be inferior to regular mixed metal solder. When the 3 red ring syndrome first started to show itself, one of the suggestions as to why things were failing was Microsoft's use of lead free solder on the motherboard....how true this was, I don't know....
Oh, and with regards to precautions, I wouldnt bother with a mask/goggles if you are only doing the odd bit of soldering, but if you have a cheap iron, it may suffer from a degree of leakage, so its always worth touching earth with tip before you proceed to solder. Ive seen on occasion tiny sparks when the iron tip is initially touched to circuit board...you dont really want these passing through anything sensitive....I cant remember these ever damaging anything in my time (I graduated in Electronic Engineering back in 1992), but its always better to be safe than sorry.
