What You've Just Bought!

[Joe C]

In my younger days I was extremely adept at soldering, due to spending the first 12 years of my work career as an electronics tech (not a PC Tech). I can still solder when necessary but it's a real chore for me now since I can't see as well as I used to and my hands shake too much. I have a Weller soldering station that my wife gave me as a birthday gift about 45 years ago that still works great.

If you know what you're doing you don't need a fancy soldering station or expensive solder. Regular 60/40 rosin core solder and a $10 soldering iron can make perfectly fine solder joints.

I can not disagree with you that a soldering station is not a necessity, but for today's solder a $10. soldering iron won't quite get it any more Today your not supposed to use lead, which is what the 60/40 solder is, and of course lead solder would melt at a much lower temp and a cheap $10 iron would be fine. With newer solders today you'll need a better soldering iron.

 

[strollin]

You're right that leaded solder is on its way out, but it's still legal to buy and use for personal but not commercial use. It's not used due to health concerns but that doesn't mean it won't make good solder joints.

I'm sure I inhaled lots of lead fumes back when I used to solder 8 hours a day everyday while repairing stuff. So far, it doesn't seem to have had any effect. Another habit of mine back then was to hold the end of the solder in my mouth so I knew where it was when I needed it! It's a wonder I didn't get lead poisoning.

A $10 soldering iron can get plenty hot enough to melt modern solder, in fact, its tip temperature is usually higher than the ideal temp. One of the advantages of a soldering station is to control the tip temperature so that it is not higher than desired to help prevent lifted PCB traces and heat damage to parts.

In 1974 I worked at Radio Shack and a customer returned a kit stating that it was defective because it didn't work after he put it together. I opened the thing up and saw that many of the traces were burned and lifted. I asked the guy what type of soldering iron he had used and he told me that he had used his Weller soldering gun. I told him in the future he should use a 25-30 watt soldering pencil since those soldering guns put out 400 watts. His wife turned to me and said "Don't tell my husband about soldering, he's an engineer!" At any rate, I went thru the thing (I think it was a strobe light kit) and repaired the traces and resoldered many of the connections and it worked fine. We used it as a demo unit in the store.

 

[PP Mguire]

You're right that leaded solder is on its way out, but it's still legal to buy and use for personal but not commercial use. It's not used due to health concerns but that doesn't mean it won't make good solder joints.

I'm sure I inhaled lots of lead fumes back when I used to solder 8 hours a day everyday while repairing stuff. So far, it doesn't seem to have had any effect. Another habit of mine back then was to hold the end of the solder in my mouth so I knew where it was when I needed it! It's a wonder I didn't get lead poisoning.

A $10 soldering iron can get plenty hot enough to melt modern solder, in fact, its tip temperature is usually higher than the ideal temp. One of the advantages of a soldering station is to control the tip temperature so that it is not higher than desired to help prevent lifted PCB traces and heat damage to parts.

In 1974 I worked at Radio Shack and a customer returned a kit stating that it was defective because it didn't work after he put it together. I opened the thing up and saw that many of the traces were burned and lifted. I asked the guy what type of soldering iron he had used and he told me that he had used his Weller soldering gun. I told him in the future he should use a 25-30 watt soldering pencil since those soldering guns put out 400 watts. His wife turned to me and said "Don't tell my husband about soldering, he's an engineer!" At any rate, I went thru the thing (I think it was a strobe light kit) and repaired the traces and resoldered many of the connections and it worked fine. We used it as a demo unit in the store.

Lol yea, an engineer that just burned up an engineer's tool from using it improperly. It's amazing I haven't ever been fired.

 

[Joe C]

You're right that leaded solder is on its way out, but it's still legal to buy and use for personal but not commercial use. It's not used due to health concerns but that doesn't mean it won't make good solder joints.

I'm sure I inhaled lots of lead fumes back when I used to solder 8 hours a day everyday while repairing stuff. So far, it doesn't seem to have had any effect. Another habit of mine back then was to hold the end of the solder in my mouth so I knew where it was when I needed it! It's a wonder I didn't get lead poisoning.

A $10 soldering iron can get plenty hot enough to melt modern solder, in fact, its tip temperature is usually higher than the ideal temp. One of the advantages of a soldering station is to control the tip temperature so that it is not higher than desired to help prevent lifted PCB traces and heat damage to parts.

In 1974 I worked at Radio Shack and a customer returned a kit stating that it was defective because it didn't work after he put it together. I opened the thing up and saw that many of the traces were burned and lifted. I asked the guy what type of soldering iron he had used and he told me that he had used his Weller soldering gun. I told him in the future he should use a 25-30 watt soldering pencil since those soldering guns put out 400 watts. His wife turned to me and said "Don't tell my husband about soldering, he's an engineer!" At any rate, I went thru the thing (I think it was a strobe light kit) and repaired the traces and resoldered many of the connections and it worked fine. We used it as a demo unit in the store.

Yes... I agree that lead was the best. When I did hvac work I installed many water heaters, and back in those days lead solder flowed into copper water fittings like nothing else! I am not disputing the better qualities of lead as a solder. It's just not recommended to use today. For audio, silver solder is the best alloy to use for the highest quality joints( for strength and least amount of resistance). I also have health concerns today for the brazing materials I used for copper on high pressure applications, like installing A/C compressors. And I've done that more times than I can count. Phosgene gas was an issue for me too, heated refrigerants turn into phosgene gas, you'll know it because it'll take the breath right out of your body...all you can do is pull your head and body out of that condenser and back off for several minutes. Phosgene gas is also known as mustard gas that was used in WW1.
https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/phosgene/basics/facts.asp
Not only that, but I smoked cigarettes back in those days too.

Inhaling fumes from brazing was very bad for me too. And you know what residential air conditioners look like out side. Sticking your head in there to braze and not breathing in those fumes was impossible. Strolling knows that employee health concerns back then was not considered
https://haz-map.com/weldbraz.htm
How do you really know that all those fumes from back in those days is not affecting you in some way today?

 

[strollin]

I had always heard that mixing ammonia and bleach together created mustard gas. When Joe said phosgene gas was known as mustard gas, I looked it up. Turns out neither is mustard gas which is something different but all three are pretty potent.

 

[Joe C]

I had always heard that mixing ammonia and bleach together created mustard gas. When Joe said phosgene gas was known as mustard gas, I looked it up. Turns out neither is mustard gas which is something different but all three are pretty potent.

I have no idea where you get your info from but...

Toxic gases harm you by interfering with your body’s neurological or chemical processes rather than interfering directly with your oxygen uptake. A common example is chlorine gas, a chemical weapon and also a byproduct of mixing cleaning products that contain ammonia and bleach. A less-common example – but very relevant for anyone working in HVAC – is phosgene gas.


Responsible for upwards of 85 percent of all deaths caused by chemical warfare in World War One, phosgene gas also happens to be a byproduct generated when brazing certain metals, and can also become present when testing for leaks using an antiquated method on refrigeration systems that run chloromethanes, R12 and R22.

https://www.hvacschool.org/2017/08/...isks-that-hvac-mechanics-and-installers-face/
Although R-22 and R-12 are no longer used today (near as I can tell but my current A/C still uses R22) Yes. These refrigerants are deadly when heated with a torch. R-22 and R-12 which was very popular up until the 2000's is made of diclorodifluoromethane, which is a chlorine type of gas. Both of these gases will produce Phosgene. Phosgene was the mustard gas used in WW1. Look that up.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=phosgene+gas+in+WW1
R-12 was banned when I was still doing hvac work in 2005 (I can not recall the exact ban date but you could still get it and use it), R-22 was still available and was not banned (as an ozone danger) until 2010 (I think). Of course you can still get these gases but they are so expensive today it is cheaper to get a new A/C system. R-410A is what you going to see today in both automotive and residential applications. Just before I retired we were starting to use R-410A. I liked R-410A because the higher pressures (over 400psi) made it much easier to locate refrigerant leaks.

​

 

[strollin]

I didn't say that phosgene wasn't a deadly gas used in WW1, it was and, from what I read, it was the gas that caused the most deaths. What I said was that phosgene was a DIFFERENT gas from mustard gas which is also a DIFFERENT gas from ammonia/bleach gas (chloramine).

From Wikipedia:

Chemical weapons in World War I​

The use of toxic chemicals as weapons dates back thousands of years, but the first large scale use of chemical weapons was during World War I.[1][2] They were primarily used to demoralize, injure, and kill entrenched defenders, against whom the indiscriminate and generally very slow-moving or static nature of gas clouds would be most effective. The types of weapons employed ranged from disabling chemicals, such as tear gas, to lethal agents like phosgene, chlorine, and mustard gas.

 

[Joe C]

O.K. you win! Phosgene gas is not the same thing as mustard gas, lesson learned....lets move on.
update on my speaker project:
I got the boxes glued together, except for the front which is also known as the Baffle. I can't glue the baffle in until I install the binding posts and I can't install the binding posts until paint the back of the boxes, I need to seal the back of boxes before I can paint it (flat black). I can't seal the MDF until I sand down the boxes and I can't sand down the boxes until it is warm enough outside. This morning it is 26f ....but it's supposed warm up to the 50's by next week! Perhaps I can get more progress done. So far I got the cross overs in and wired up, and laid out and drilled all the holes to mount the speakers and rear port tubes. The front and back will be a flat black and the sides will be a teak wood vinyl overlay.

The binding posts were all black except for a very fine line on the screw to tighten them to the speaker cable so I painted two of the four binding posts red to make it easier to identify......

 

[kmanmx]

I would like to make some speakers if I ever had the DIY skill to do so. I don't even own the tools to make them let alone a garage or yard area where I can do wood cutting and crap like that.

 

[strollin]

I was working on a project yesterday and needed to cut up a 4x8 sheet of 3/4" plywood. I got out my trusty Craftsman circular saw and started in. The first cut was the length of the sheet. Made it thru that cut but when I went to make the 2nd cut, the saw wouldn't turn on, completely dead. I checked to make sure I still had power and such but confirmed the saw was dead. Although it was unfortunate that it died while I was in the middle of a project, I wasn't too upset since that saw had given me 44 years of service.

I ended up buying a Ryobi saw to replace it. Ryobi 7 1/4" Circular Saw It made fast work of the rest of the cuts and has a really nice feature that the old saw didn't which is a laser guide, much nicer to be able to make long, straight cuts!