On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 7:16 AM, Michael Watterson <mike@radioway.org> wrote=
:

>> Wow....I didn't know people *choose* to have the lead, but I guess
>> there was a reason why it was in there in the first place ;)
>
> Because it works better.
>
> If not for inclusion of PCBs in RoHS laws then almost no-one would use
> lead free solder. Pure tin is the worst.. Brittle, poor flow, more
> bad/dry joints, more prone to tin plague if any nearby gold, grows
> whiskers that short tracks.
>
> Lead doesn't just lower the melting point but improves the soldering in
> lots of ways.
>
> The "best" lead free are still not really as good as Tin/Lead. The
> minimum is Tin with some silver.

Thanks for the explanation, Michael.

> But even the Tin/Lead solder a little silver helps reduce leaching of
> silver on chip capacitors and a little copper can help too.

Yes, I still have narrow dimension "silver" solder spools as I always
found it much better for soldering SMD components (back when I had
steady enough hands and good enough eyesight to solder them by hand!).
:)

Cheers,

-m
--=20
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