Overwhelmed by solder debate and hardware store choices

[de5m0mike]

First off, I have to say I'm not totally convinced it really matters what type of solder I use, as long as it's lead free. I know that much is important. I will however admit to not being an expert, so I guess I'm going to go against my initial instincts and am deferring to you fine experts on this one.

So anyway, I have some of this that my dad gave me when I borrowed his torch.

https://www.forneyind.com/store/detail/ ... _18_1_lbs/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

It says it has 5% antimony in it, which I believe is not too good. I think I read that somewhere. So I ran out to the closest Ace hardware to pick up some better stuff and this is what I bought. It's the only one they had that even said "silver solder" and "lead free" on the pkg.

http://www.amazon.com/AM33945-Cookson-F ... B0012TAWS8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

My only problem with this stuff is it also doesn't really say what is in it. It just says "silver bearing solder". It does however say on the back to contact the manufacturer for a MSDS, but I went to their website and couldn't even fine the right product.

Anyone have any ides if either of these are okay? I really don't want to make another trip to the hardware but will if I have to. And if anyone wants to lecture me on why my choice of solder matters, I'd be open to hearing that as well.

[SIXFOOTER]

Don't know about the first one, but the 2nd one is ok to use

[de5m0mike]

That's what I wanted to hear! Anyone what to second that opinion?

[Allister]

I've been doing the same quest and was able to find this. The silver stuff just cost way too much. I still may get it because people say it works to darn well.

http://www.solderdirect.com/all-product ... older.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[heartcut]

Oatey Safe Flo is good. Your second candidate looks good, too.

[stevenun]

Wouldn't whatever is in the plumbing aisle at lowes be fine? I mean if it's safe for use soldering copper water pipes, why would anything be harmful in there?

[rad14701]

The issue at hand is that when distilling you are working with a mixture of various potentially toxic components and some of those cause far greater leaching threats that plain old tap water... The same goes for many materials some folks presume to be safe as still components, yet aren't... That's why we have such a small list of approved materials... We want people to be safe because they just might not know any better...

[corene1]

After reading Rads response about water versus alcohol vapor I looked up antimony as one of the solders you showed lead free but has antimony. I am no chemist but I think I would leave it be. Personally I use Harris stay brite and have had no problems. Give this a read.


Precautions

Edit:
Antimony and many of its compounds are toxic, and the effects of antimony poisoning are similar to arsenic poisoning. The toxicity of antimony is far lower than that of arsenic; this might be caused by the significant differences of uptake, metabolism and excretion between arsenic and antimony. The uptake of antimony(III) or antimony(V) in the gastrointestinal tract is at most 20%. Antimony(V) is not quantitatively reduced to antimony(III) in the cell (in fact antimony(III) is oxidised to antimony(V) instead[77]).

Since methylation of antimony does not occur, the excretion of antimony(V) in urine is the main way of elimination.[78] Like arsenic, the most serious effect of acute antimony poisoning is cardiotoxicity and the resulted myocarditis, however it can also manifest as Adams–Stokes syndrome which arsenic doesn't. Reported cases of intoxication by antimony equivalent to 90 mg antimony potassium tartrate dissolved from enamel has been reported to show only short term effects. An intoxication with 6 g of antimony potassium tartrate was reported to result in death after 3 days.[75]

Inhalation of antimony dust is harmful and in certain cases may be fatal; in small doses, antimony causes headaches, dizziness, and depression. Larger doses such as prolonged skin contact may cause dermatitis, or damage the kidneys and the liver, causing violent and frequent vomiting, leading to death in a few days.[79]

Antimony is incompatible with strong oxidizing agents, strong acids, halogen acids, chlorine, or fluorine. It should be kept away from heat.[80]

Antimony leaches from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles into liquids.[81] While levels observed for bottled water are below drinking water guidelines,[82] fruit juice concentrates (for which no guidelines are established) produced in the UK were found to contain up to 44.7 µg/L of antimony, well above the EU limits for tap water of 5 µg/L.[83][84] The guidelines are:
World Health Organization: 20 µg/L
Japan: 15 µg/L[85]
United States Environmental Protection Agency, Health Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Environment: 6 µg/L
German Federal Ministry of Environment: 5 µg/L[82]

[Janitor47]

Another lucky stumble! Was about to use solder with antimony. Thanks corene!

[Halfbaked]

I used Oatey 29024. I did lots of research before I bought it. Worked great. I used liquid flux but I don't remember which one. I remember the Oatey safety flo being good also. On liebig, on the water side I used the cheap stuff and on the part that could possible touch vapor 29024. Has not failed me yet.

[Janitor47]

And then I read this. The debate rages on

http://www.psinter.com/downloads/aim/Antimony_Study.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[Bob Loblaw]

I have seen two studies that say that Silver in solder is more toxic than Antimony, FWIW. The are linked in the how to solder thread (one was the one linked above)

[Janitor47]

I have seen two studies that say that Silver in solder is more toxic than Antimony, FWIW. The are linked in the how to solder thread (one was the one linked above)

Awesome handle, pardoner.

[Bob Loblaw]

Awesome handle, pardoner.

you should see my law blog

[Janitor47]

Ha! Yes!

[T-Pee]

Awesome handle, pardoner.

you should see my law blog

Law blog??

tp

[BigSwede]

I've tossed my own opinion out there on this a bit, and my preference is for silver, but I believe antimony solder is OK to use.

Why silver? Toxicity comparison, I think silver wins as being more benign. But what sold me is the performance of true silver bearing solder, 4 to 6 percent.

There are so-called silver bearing solders out there that are 95% tin, 4.8% antimony, and 0.2% silver... A cheat IMO.

Cost - a pound of antimony solder at the hardware store is $28 or so here in the USA. I just bought a pound of 4% silver off eBay for $50. I know many places sell it for $100+, but both eBay and at least 2 other places sell it commercially for fifty bucks.

Heck, most of solder is tin. And rolls of 100% tin solder are available if thats what someone wants!

[Bob Loblaw]

Awesome handle, pardoner.

you should see my law blog

Law blog??

tp

Sure, it's famous!