Hmm that’s weird, maybe it’s just solder fumes in general that made me feel ill, but I haven’t had the same effect with leadless.
From my experience with this stuff – it is a pain in the butt. You see the first picture in this thread? That looks like crap and proves that this stuff is crap. They couldn’t even advertise their product to look like a winner, what makes you think you can do better? You do NOT want that kind of crappy connection on your components.
Background:
As a first timer when it comes to electronics, I was working with a 60w Iron on a fresh PCB. I succeeded with no issues on a CG PCB. People on this thread are recommending 15w or 30w for beginners working with PCB and small electronics-- if I could do it with a 60w with no prior experience and NOT fry the board, you can definitely pull it off with an iron that runs half the wattage.
Wire Glue Experience
I did not use wire glue as a way to overcome my fear of Soldering. I actually decided to try it out because I thought it would be a cleaner cut approach and a lot faster with fewer materials.
I was wrong.
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Wire glue has the consistency of molasses. If you have ever played with molasses you know it gets everywhere regardless of how you put it. There will be tiny little threads of wire glue everywhere if you are not careful. You will also know that after a small period of time, molasses will begin to fall prey to gravity and ‘flatten’ out. Wire glue does the same – say good bye to your perfectly sized drop.
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Another issue is the fact that it takes so long to dry, errors develop without your knowledge. Wire glue does not have the property of only sticking to metal – if you put a little too much on a small contact, you WILL end up shorting the connection. If a wire you placed in the glue sinks slightly and pushes glue outwards, it WILL short the connection. If you put it on an uneven surface – it WILL short the connection. If you eat some Count Chocula and try to determine the time train a will meet train b if train a is going 235km/h and… you get it.
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Connections need to lay flat, and cannot be positioned in any other way. The benefit to using no heat is that you don’t need to strip the wire as much, but the problem is that when you are gluing all the face buttons and such, you need to find enough space on the board to lay all the wires without them touching the glue else where. You will end up playing tetris with wires, and if you have particularly stiff or curly wire it may end up gluing itself down while you aren’t looking.
Conclusion:
I am not a moron; it is quite easy to overcome these obstacles by using as little glue as possible, but that’s not the point. The point is that far too much can go wrong too easily and the drawbacks outweigh any benefits. Being extra careful only wastes more time. Don’t work for a product, make the product work for you.
Solder adheres only to metal and is pretty idiot proof. It’s like glue that listens to you – all you need to do is tell it with heat.
The fumes are from the flux, not from the lead. It is quite possible for the flux fumes/smoke to carry a small amount of lead – but the amount that it can carry is negligible. You would die from smoke inhalation far before you even reach the possibility of dangerous levels of lead poisoning.
I generally just blow on the smoke – but because the smoke is so light it will be attracted by your inhaling constantly. A good trick is to exhale whenever you touch the solder – it’s a small gesture but your breath will carry the entire smoke path for a good amount of time.
I use lead solder. It’s easier to use and inspect.