Reply by Michael Terrell July 9, 20232023-07-09
On Saturday, June 17, 2023 at 11:54:43 PM UTC-4, whit3rd wrote:
> > The Oatey stuff is intended for plumbing, is basically zinc chloride (acid) > particles in a petroleum jelly suspension. If there's going to be running > water in contact with the joint, it washes away the acid, but... for > soldering DRY wires, or pipes that hold vacuum (physics lab stuff) > that acid doesn't get removed. Bad things happen. > > For potable water, it's generally recommended not to drink from > the newly-soldered plumbing for a couple of days, then to open > your taps and flush the pipes out before tasting the water. > > The petroleum jelly is benign.
They also made rosin cored solder, back in the '70s.
Reply by whit3rd June 18, 20232023-06-18
On Tuesday, August 18, 2020 at 10:17:13 AM UTC-7, Michael_A_Terrell wrote:

> Some people preferred the Alpha solder that Heathkit supplied with their > kits, because the like how the burning flux smelled. I was desperate > once and ad to buy some Oatey. They crap spitted and sputtered, as it > rolled off the joint you were trying to solder, leaving the work covered > in some plastic smelling flux.
The Oatey stuff is intended for plumbing, is basically zinc chloride (acid) particles in a petroleum jelly suspension. If there's going to be running water in contact with the joint, it washes away the acid, but... for soldering DRY wires, or pipes that hold vacuum (physics lab stuff) that acid doesn't get removed. Bad things happen. For potable water, it's generally recommended not to drink from the newly-soldered plumbing for a couple of days, then to open your taps and flush the pipes out before tasting the water. The petroleum jelly is benign.
Reply by Bob F April 30, 20232023-04-30
On 4/14/2023 7:03 AM, Charlie R wrote:
> Sat, 11 Mar 2023 15:40:11 -0800, Tim Podpora: > >> On Saturday, October 25, 2008 at 11:57:30 AM UTC-4, Peter Hucker wrote: >>> Has anyone ever actually been unlucky enough to get solder splattering >>> into their eye? I've had it hit my leg, hand, and face, but never in my >>> eye. How bad is it? >>> -- >>> http://www.petersparrots.com http://www.insanevideoclips.com >>> http://www.petersphotos.com Confuscious say: "War doesn't determine >>> who's right. War determines who's left." >> >> I am the unfortunate person in this situation. I have gotten solder >> splash in my eye, right in the center of my pupil in my right eye. Let >> me tell you, it is not fun. >> > [...] > > Damn, that is really scary. > > If you get any such accident, always go to doctor ASAP. >
I had a high school science teacher who told a story about one of his students was trying to measure the melting temp of a lead alloy and had a thermometer blow up spraying liquid lead over his face. He was lucky - he had glasses. This was of course telling up to wear our safety glasses.
Reply by Charlie R April 14, 20232023-04-14
Sat, 11 Mar 2023 15:40:11 -0800, Tim Podpora:

> On Saturday, October 25, 2008 at 11:57:30 AM UTC-4, Peter Hucker wrote: >> Has anyone ever actually been unlucky enough to get solder splattering >> into their eye? I've had it hit my leg, hand, and face, but never in my >> eye. How bad is it? >> -- >> http://www.petersparrots.com http://www.insanevideoclips.com >> http://www.petersphotos.com Confuscious say: "War doesn't determine >> who's right. War determines who's left." > > I am the unfortunate person in this situation. I have gotten solder > splash in my eye, right in the center of my pupil in my right eye. Let > me tell you, it is not fun. >
[...] Damn, that is really scary. If you get any such accident, always go to doctor ASAP.
Reply by chuck March 13, 20232023-03-13
> > But to all who read this, Follow safety rules and protect yourself if there are no rules in place. I almost got solder in my eye a second time but got lucky and blinked at the right time, so it hit my eyelid . I had forgotten to use my magnifying glass that day until that happened.
The double vision is a surface distortion effect. A faint shifted ghost also starts after staring at the screen too long and too bright, so everyone must relax eyes into the distance frequently 30 s every hour to relax the eyes and turn down brightness to minimum tolerated to endure use all day.
Reply by Tim Podpora March 11, 20232023-03-11
On Saturday, October 25, 2008 at 11:57:30 AM UTC-4, Peter Hucker wrote:
> Has anyone ever actually been unlucky enough to get solder splattering into their eye? I've had it hit my leg, hand, and face, but never in my eye. How bad is it? > -- > http://www.petersparrots.com http://www.insanevideoclips.com http://www.petersphotos.com > Confuscious say: "War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who's left."
I am the unfortunate person in this situation. I have gotten solder splash in my eye, right in the center of my pupil in my right eye. Let me tell you, it is not fun. At my job, i solder capacitors onto parts that are wrapped in copper foil. we have to solder the ends of them also. after about 3 months of soldering hundreds of parts per day, I finally got solder splashed into my eye. I saw it fly at my eye, and when it hit, it had a darkening effect where the light was shadowed out for a quick second. Happened in April or May of 2022. At first it stings, then it goes away after a few minutes. feels like someone poked you in the eye basically. It literally wasnt too bad at the time. I kept on working after it felt better and all was good. Went home and took a nap for an hour, then woke up and wiped my eyelid to clear up my eyes. Apparently, I still had the piece of solder in my eye. which scratched up my eye. That hurt 10x worse than the splash did. 3 days of a red eye followed, but then everything was fine. Fast forward to mid September and i get Covid. finally got rid of it early October. Had a cough the whole time, which were very hard coughs, harder than I've ever coughed before. 3 days after I was allowed to go back to work, I come home and take a nap for an hour. I woke up, and all of a sudden had double vision. I looked online and it looked like maybe i coughed so hard that i blew a blood vessel in my eye, so that's what i assumed it was. My right eye sees a distorted image. bad enough that when i look at peoples' faces, they look like Sloth from Goonies. Not his face, but the spacing of his eyes, where one is down and over from where it should be. Well days and weeks went by, and it got slightly better, so i assumed it in fact was a blood vessel. Then i started noticing a circle that showed up when i blinked. Then it hit me...that dot was exactly the same size as the solder that hit my eye. So it took about 6 months for the effect to happen. My guess is that it healed, and the distorted vision is because Im looking thru scar tissue. Every straight line is wavy when seen thru my right eye. I see 2 of everything, but its not usually 2 objects unless its far away, its like every object has 2 edges around it, similar to using those old red and blue 3D glasses but without the colors. I can still read, but it takes longer to comprehend usually. For the most part, my left eye kinda takes over or overpowers a bit so i do see things mostly clear because of that, but its still a struggle. I have also noticed that my right eye does have a small spot that is a bit more blurry than the rest of the dot, so it will be interesting to see how it goes when i need an eye test to renew my drivers license in 3 years. I unfortunately did not report the injury to my job, but will be asking what i can do on Monday. Our human resources guy left and the old hr person took over again, but they are behind so i was waiting a bit to talk to her. But i had another situation come up with my pay so i have to talk to her anyways, so i figured i kill 2 birds with one stone. I doubt there is anything that I can do, but I did tell one person when it happened so i do have a witness of when it happened, and i did tell people what happened when my vision got distorted since it slowed down my soldering at my job since the capacitors are supposed to be soldered onto the part straight, and i cant see a straight line unless i close my right eye. I do use a magnifying glass now to block my face from the solder, but I hate wearing safety glasses, which was why I didn't report my injury in the first place, I was dumb, and should have reported it. Lesson learned. Hopefully, My job will end up paying for lasek surgery or something to correct it, if it can be corrected. I have not been to a doctor yet either, as funds have been really tight and my health insurance choice got messed up when i selected it last summer at work, so my insurance won't cover anything until I spend $5000 out of my pocket. But yes, it definitely sucks. Wear eye protection or use a big magnifying glass when you solder. Also, I want to correct the wording on the previous posts. I wouldn't consider solder to "explode" but it splatters from air bubbles in the solder, or if the flux is too cold sometimes. Closest thing I can think of is, similar to a balloon covered in shaving cream popping, and the shaving cream flies in every direction. Solder will indeed do that. Also, we use Lead free solder at my job if that matters. But to all who read this, Follow safety rules and protect yourself if there are no rules in place. I almost got solder in my eye a second time but got lucky and blinked at the right time, so it hit my eyelid . I had forgotten to use my magnifying glass that day until that happened.
Reply by Michael_A_Terrell August 18, 20202020-08-18
Phil Hobbs wrote:
> On 2020-08-17 23:44, Michael_A_Terrell wrote: >> AK wrote: >>> >>> How are you managing to splatter solder that far? >>> >>> Solder melts, not explodes. >> >> >> Only a fool would believe that. >> >> I was re-soldering a lug on a tube socket of some Military surplus >> when I was about 16. The bad joint was full of rosin that tossed the >> solder about 18 inches and onto my bare thigh. It was summertime, and >> I didn't expect it. It was too hot for pants, so I received a nasty >> burn that took months to heal. It looked like someone had put out a >> cigar on my skin. The burn was bigger than a US nickle. >> >> I've had cheap rosin cored solder do similar, but not near as much >> molten solder. I switched to Ersin Multicore in 1970 and never looked >> back. > > Maybe we can get into a my-favourite-editor argument about solder. ;) > I'm a Kester 44 man all the way--I have a lot of well-aged junkbox > parts, and RA flux is the bomb.
They used Kester at Cincinnati Electronics. I got into an argument with the DCAS inspector. He insisted that Ersin didn't meet the contract requirements. I brought i an empty spool to show him that it was QQ571 certified. It is also RA solder. I have .031" and .015" with multiple flux cores. It wetted better than the Kester on old parts and rework. Some people preferred the Alpha solder that Heathkit supplied with their kits, because the like how the burning flux smelled. I was desperate once and ad to buy some Oatey. They crap spitted and sputtered, as it rolled off the joint you were trying to solder, leaving the work covered in some plastic smelling flux. I have almost ten pounds of Tin/Antimony solder. It did a beautiful job, when it was all I had on hand to put together the 2" and 3" copper plumbing for a TV transmitter. That job was a PITA. Some character had repaired leaks from bad solder by brazing over leaks at irreplaceable brass fittings that were almost 40 year sold. -- Never piss off an Engineer! They don't get mad. They don't get even. They go for over unity! ;-)
Reply by Phil Hobbs August 18, 20202020-08-18
On 2020-08-17 23:44, Michael_A_Terrell wrote:
> AK wrote: >> >> How are you managing to splatter solder that far? >> >> Solder melts, not explodes. > > >    Only a fool would believe that. > >    I was re-soldering a lug on a tube socket of some Military surplus > when I was about 16. The bad joint was full of rosin that tossed the > solder about 18 inches and onto my bare thigh. It was summertime, and I > didn't expect it. It was too hot for pants, so I received a nasty burn > that took months to heal. It looked like someone had put out a cigar on > my skin. The burn was bigger than a US nickle. > > I've had cheap rosin cored solder do similar, but not near as much > molten solder. I switched to Ersin Multicore in 1970 and never looked back.
Maybe we can get into a my-favourite-editor argument about solder. ;) I'm a Kester 44 man all the way--I have a lot of well-aged junkbox parts, and RA flux is the bomb. Cheers Phil Hobbs -- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 http://electrooptical.net http://hobbs-eo.com
Reply by Michael_A_Terrell August 18, 20202020-08-18
AK wrote:
> > How are you managing to splatter solder that far? > > Solder melts, not explodes.
Only a fool would believe that. I was re-soldering a lug on a tube socket of some Military surplus when I was about 16. The bad joint was full of rosin that tossed the solder about 18 inches and onto my bare thigh. It was summertime, and I didn't expect it. It was too hot for pants, so I received a nasty burn that took months to heal. It looked like someone had put out a cigar on my skin. The burn was bigger than a US nickle. I've had cheap rosin cored solder do similar, but not near as much molten solder. I switched to Ersin Multicore in 1970 and never looked back. -- Never piss off an Engineer! They don't get mad. They don't get even. They go for over unity! ;-)
Reply by Corvid June 13, 20202020-06-13
On 06/13/2020 06:08 PM, Jasen Betts wrote:
> On 2020-06-14, AK <scientist77017@gmail.com> wrote: >> On Saturday, October 25, 2008 at 10:57:30 AM UTC-5, Peter Hucker >> wrote: >>> Has anyone ever actually been unlucky enough to get solder >>> splattering into their eye? I've had it hit my leg, hand, and >>> face, but never in my eye. How bad is it? >>> >> How are you managing to splatter solder that far? > > Here's one way: > > Form a small ring in one lead of a a leaded part (like like a through > hole resistor, but this works best qith glass body diodes like > IN4148) Put a blob of solder over the ring > > Now, hold the other lead with one hand (or in a vise), clean the tip > of the soldering iron and use it to and wipe off the excess solder > from the ring. > > If you pluck the lead (like a guitar string) it wil spring back > flinging solder
I have a 132 oz. Blitz gas can that works similarly. I remove the outer cap and pull the springy retractable spout up until it clicks into place while flinging droplets into my face.